Problems with routings and loads
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:25 pm
Hello,
I have a a few questions, and forgive me if its been answered or is obvious. I'm somewhat new to SMR, so please bear with me. In any case, this is really two questions, but both somewhat related.
1) When routing, I've read several post that the best strategy is to dedicate ONE track with ONE train per resource/city, and minimize crossovers. That's good advice, but I guess the conflict I see is that (and I guess what one's ultimate goal of the game is) it doesn't make for a very realistic game. What I mean is that there would be a LOT of trains and a LOT of track ran all over, almost in a spaghetti kind of way.
It seems like SMR did try to control the AI routing of trains sharing common track (using judiciously placed crossovers and sidings) by choosing the appropriate priority levels, and it seems to initially work OK. However, after you're into the scenario for a while, you then start to have head to head conflicts, especially with high priority passenger traffic, mostly in cities with multiple stop and go/through traffic. I tried to apply enough routing options, but what you think should work, doesn't in the game.
I guess the question is that, is their a limit to the number of trains (and laid track) that can be in operation at one time, given the suggested "one train per track" scenario?
2) Related to the first question, I am a bit confused on freight loading and how its distributed. In the manual, the example only talks about having a raw material resource (i.e. cows) in one city. transferring it to another city for processing (i.e. cows to food), and sending it (i.e. food) on to another city. I tried to load 8 loads of "food" from the processing city, and setup the destination (2nd city) accept 4 loads. I also wanted a 3rd city further down on the same line take 4 more loads.
Now (I guess in the real world) you would think that if I put 8 car loads of food on a consist, and only demand (want to deliver) 4 loads on the 1st of two cities, that 1st city would only accept 4 loads, and then have 4 remaining loads for the next city.
However, that is not the case, because no matter what I do, the number of loads I ship out of the processing city is consumed by the 1st city, and leaves nothing for the 2nd city.
My question here is what am I (or am I) doing wrong? Is shipping resources to more than one city at a time not possible?
And that also relates to the first question. To feed multiple cities, do I have to run dedicated rail and trains from each processing city to each individual (demand) destination?
This just doesn't seem right, or realistic. Obviously in the real world, there is a master scheduling system that determines what trains are where at a specific time. If there is a point where two meet on the same single line, the timing would be such that the lower priority train would move to a siding, allowing the other one to pass it in the opposite direction. It seems that SMR does try to do this to a point, but it doesn't take long for the system to barf, leaving trains double backing on them selves, and a host of other odd actions.
Thanks again for you patience. These may be dumb questions, but it's making my gray hair grayer.
Bill
I have a a few questions, and forgive me if its been answered or is obvious. I'm somewhat new to SMR, so please bear with me. In any case, this is really two questions, but both somewhat related.
1) When routing, I've read several post that the best strategy is to dedicate ONE track with ONE train per resource/city, and minimize crossovers. That's good advice, but I guess the conflict I see is that (and I guess what one's ultimate goal of the game is) it doesn't make for a very realistic game. What I mean is that there would be a LOT of trains and a LOT of track ran all over, almost in a spaghetti kind of way.
It seems like SMR did try to control the AI routing of trains sharing common track (using judiciously placed crossovers and sidings) by choosing the appropriate priority levels, and it seems to initially work OK. However, after you're into the scenario for a while, you then start to have head to head conflicts, especially with high priority passenger traffic, mostly in cities with multiple stop and go/through traffic. I tried to apply enough routing options, but what you think should work, doesn't in the game.
I guess the question is that, is their a limit to the number of trains (and laid track) that can be in operation at one time, given the suggested "one train per track" scenario?
2) Related to the first question, I am a bit confused on freight loading and how its distributed. In the manual, the example only talks about having a raw material resource (i.e. cows) in one city. transferring it to another city for processing (i.e. cows to food), and sending it (i.e. food) on to another city. I tried to load 8 loads of "food" from the processing city, and setup the destination (2nd city) accept 4 loads. I also wanted a 3rd city further down on the same line take 4 more loads.
Now (I guess in the real world) you would think that if I put 8 car loads of food on a consist, and only demand (want to deliver) 4 loads on the 1st of two cities, that 1st city would only accept 4 loads, and then have 4 remaining loads for the next city.
However, that is not the case, because no matter what I do, the number of loads I ship out of the processing city is consumed by the 1st city, and leaves nothing for the 2nd city.
My question here is what am I (or am I) doing wrong? Is shipping resources to more than one city at a time not possible?
And that also relates to the first question. To feed multiple cities, do I have to run dedicated rail and trains from each processing city to each individual (demand) destination?
This just doesn't seem right, or realistic. Obviously in the real world, there is a master scheduling system that determines what trains are where at a specific time. If there is a point where two meet on the same single line, the timing would be such that the lower priority train would move to a siding, allowing the other one to pass it in the opposite direction. It seems that SMR does try to do this to a point, but it doesn't take long for the system to barf, leaving trains double backing on them selves, and a host of other odd actions.
Thanks again for you patience. These may be dumb questions, but it's making my gray hair grayer.
Bill