Some thoughts and tests on cargo trains

[Loncaros]

I've toyed around a bit today with how well the different cargo trains perform.

I used the NW Scenario 1901-1930 so I have a solid 30 years and a fixed deadline I won't miss while playing guitar hero as the game clock ticks down.

First I started out with a large coal mine right next to a power plant. I started with a grasshopper which managed to haul only 72 shipments of coal to the plant.

The Norris already took 120 in and made way more profit than the Grass. The Norris made a revenue of $ 1,822,000 while demanding $301,500 maintenance = Total profit over 30 years being $1,480,500 (+ engine cost)

The Mogul carried 137 coal, this being an odd number the mogul was already enough to drain the large mine dry all by itself.
Revenue 2,286, maint+engine 570 and ergo profit 1,716

I've also tried the Consolidation to see what would happen
The Consolidation somehow got 144 coal out of that thing in the same time, I don't see why it produced another 7 coal. But even that extra revenue was not enough to offset the far higher maintenance cost, profit was only 1,544.

It appears the Mogul is the train to go if you have a large coal mine right next to a consumer. However, if that consumer is a Terminal, the Norris might actually beat the Mogul again (I only used a Depot) as the limiting factor here clearly is the speed at which the mine produces coal and if the Norris spends less time unloading, less mine productivity will go to waste.

Next I've tried to use a grasshopper and a norris next to each other on double tracks, 3 cars of coal each to simulate a single small coal mine. To see which engine would perform better since a Mogul carrying 3 cars is without a doubt a waste. Unfortunately the large mine was drained by those two little guys within a few years so that test didn't work out =P The Norris did come out way ahead though. It also loaded faster on day 1.


Next I did a really long way shipment of grain (30 miles distance) using every train available in that scenario up to the Mikado.

Grasshopper $453,000 $232,000 $201,000
Mogul $1,155,000 $570,000 $585,000
Conso $ 1,441,000 $649,000 $712,000
Mikado $ 1,557,000 $825,000 731,500

Grasshopper failed horribly, horribly on the long route, only finishing 3 hauls for 24 carriages.
Mogul did a solid 72
Conso a nice 88
Mikado a 96

The Mikado is ahead by a very small margin. The use of that particular train appears to be rather questionable at this point, as the Consolidation costs far less initially and has slightly lower maintenance cost, yet it almost pulled as much weight as the Mikado. I honestly cannot imagine a scenario where the Mikado would outperform an existing Consolidation to make it worthwhile to purchase the upgrade in 1910 for it. I'm gonna try some absolutly insane 60 mile route now...

[pherschel]

Interesting.

The larger locos may make the cost up when you can retire two slower ones doing 2 parts of a make and ship route.

I will often continue to use moguls late in the game if it's just a feed factory route.

[Loncaros]

The only time I've ever seen that was when I had two small resource stations served by one train. That will do better than having two Norris collect from each seperatly. But once both grow to medium you'll lose resources.

[darthdroid]

I've toyed around a bit today with how well the different cargo trains perform.

I used the NW Scenario 1901-1930 so I have a solid 30 years and a fixed deadline I won't miss while playing guitar hero as the game clock ticks down.

First I started out with a large coal mine right next to a power plant. I started with a grasshopper which managed to haul only 72 shipments of coal to the plant.

The Norris already took 120 in and made way more profit than the Grass. The Norris made a revenue of $ 1,822,000 while demanding $301,500 maintenance = Total profit over 30 years being $1,480,500 (+ engine cost)

The Mogul carried 137 coal, this being an odd number the mogul was already enough to drain the large mine dry all by itself.
Revenue 2,286, maint+engine 570 and ergo profit 1,716

I've also tried the Consolidation to see what would happen
The Consolidation somehow got 144 coal out of that thing in the same time, I don't see why it produced another 7 coal. But even that extra revenue was not enough to offset the far higher maintenance cost, profit was only 1,544.

It appears the Mogul is the train to go if you have a large coal mine right next to a consumer. However, if that consumer is a Terminal, the Norris might actually beat the Mogul again (I only used a Depot) as the limiting factor here clearly is the speed at which the mine produces coal and if the Norris spends less time unloading, less mine productivity will go to waste.

Next I've tried to use a grasshopper and a norris next to each other on double tracks, 3 cars of coal each to simulate a single small coal mine. To see which engine would perform better since a Mogul carrying 3 cars is without a doubt a waste. Unfortunately the large mine was drained by those two little guys within a few years so that test didn't work out =P The Norris did come out way ahead though. It also loaded faster on day 1.


Next I did a really long way shipment of grain (30 miles distance) using every train available in that scenario up to the Mikado.

Grasshopper $453,000 $232,000 $201,000
Mogul $1,155,000 $570,000 $585,000
Conso $ 1,441,000 $649,000 $712,000
Mikado $ 1,557,000 $825,000 731,500

Grasshopper failed horribly, horribly on the long route, only finishing 3 hauls for 24 carriages.
Mogul did a solid 72
Conso a nice 88
Mikado a 96

The Mikado is ahead by a very small margin. The use of that particular train appears to be rather questionable at this point, as the Consolidation costs far less initially and has slightly lower maintenance cost, yet it almost pulled as much weight as the Mikado. I honestly cannot imagine a scenario where the Mikado would outperform an existing Consolidation to make it worthwhile to purchase the upgrade in 1910 for it. I'm gonna try some absolutly insane 60 mile route now...

The norris is my favorite engine overall. If you decide to continue your tests. See how the various engines affect each other (while competing for the same single resource-like 1 coal mine) and take special note of a norris vs a mogul.