speed vs load

[Burlington_Northern_3140]

An 8 car train also travels between two points faster than a two car train because it takes up more space on the tracks. consider the short train idea which has a train placed on a piece of track shorter than its train. It just flips its train and keeps on delivering cars contantly. If it were 1 car, it would have to travel a short distance and then deliver its load.

[Citation48]

Thanks for all the posts. I get it. I have more important things to do than change cars around. I need to spend my time doing more important things. I do understand the eight car turn around is faster. I also understand that empty cars do not weigh anything and do not cost me any speed. I will just start getting eight cars in the beginning on passanger and frieght. I also understand that the faster and further you haul passangers the more money you make. I again want to thank everyone for this help because I have really impoved my ability because of this forum. Is the standard for a passanger 8 car train 5 passanger cars and 3 mail??????

Citation48

[darthdroid]

Thanks for all the posts. I get it. I have more important things to do than change cars around. I need to spend my time doing more important things. I do understand the eight car turn around is faster. I also understand that empty cars do not weigh anything and do not cost me any speed. I will just start getting eight cars in the beginning on passanger and frieght. I also understand that the faster and further you haul passangers the more money you make. I again want to thank everyone for this help because I have really impoved my ability because of this forum. Is the standard for a passanger 8 car train 5 passanger cars and 3 mail??????

Citation48

Yes Citation, that's what I start with, then (assuming long route) I immediately upgrade the terminal I start the train from (the one that is NOT the start city in case of competition) to speed up the loading of the first run. Then I go from there. Likewise, if I later add food to this train, it's then 3P, 2M, 3F... Hope that helps.

[Citation48]

Yes I understand and I agree. Thanks for the info because I haven't been mixing pass. and frieght but using seperate trains and I imagine it is causing jam ups in cities and more maint. by having so many trains. I have noticed the AI has a lot less trains than I do but almost the same money .. some of them anyway. I ahve always started at the station I had to build because it was a terminal hoping with the money I make by getting to Trenton for instance I can upgrade the NY station before it gets back on the first trip or at least the second. I still don't fully understand the maint. part of this game. For instance are you charged maint as the train travels or only when it unloads or both???? I ahve read about it in the Wiki and going to read again. I have really learned a lot from it. Thanks again.

[darthdroid]

Yes I understand and I agree. Thanks for the info because I haven't been mixing pass. and frieght but using seperate trains and I imagine it is causing jam ups in cities and more maint. by having so many trains. I have noticed the AI has a lot less trains than I do but almost the same money .. some of them anyway. I ahve always started at the station I had to build because it was a terminal hoping with the money I make by getting to Trenton for instance I can upgrade the NY station before it gets back on the first trip or at least the second. I still don't fully understand the maint. part of this game. For instance are you charged maint as the train travels or only when it unloads or both???? I ahve read about it in the Wiki and going to read again. I have really learned a lot from it. Thanks again.

You are just charged maintenance regardless every x seconds, I don't know what it is, but I'd say like every 8 seconds or something. Unfortunately, there is still maintenance when train is frozen during lag!!

[darthdroid]

Yes I understand and I agree. Thanks for the info because I haven't been mixing pass. and frieght but using seperate trains and I imagine it is causing jam ups in cities and more maint. by having so many trains. I have noticed the AI has a lot less trains than I do but almost the same money .. some of them anyway. I ahve always started at the station I had to build because it was a terminal hoping with the money I make by getting to Trenton for instance I can upgrade the NY station before it gets back on the first trip or at least the second. I still don't fully understand the maint. part of this game. For instance are you charged maint as the train travels or only when it unloads or both???? I ahve read about it in the Wiki and going to read again. I have really learned a lot from it. Thanks again.

Also, I just wanted to add:

If you watch one of your trains, you can see the costs and benefits. The maintenance is the red number you'll see go up over the engine every 10-15 seconds maybe? Just like when it enters station, you see all the green numbers go up over the engine (revenues). And if you own the industry, you see another green number go up over the factory at the city when drop offs are made (by anyone's train). You can only see YOUR money (revenues and costs) you cannot see other players'.
You'll notice that the red number (maintenance) matches what that engine's train says it's maintenance is. Say if it's the dxgoods freight engine, I think that one is $3,250 maybe? You'll see a $3,250 go up over the engine every 10 seconds or whatever it is. This happens no matter what, it is a fixed cost. If that engine is running/existing it has maintenance at fixed time increments. Now red knight has pointed out that maintenance increases over time. I'm not sure if the dollar amount goes up, or if it just has maintenance more frequently or what. But it appears that you should change out engines every 15-20 years to avoid high maintenance. (change them out as in, click the "change this train's engine" button and choose the same engine to reset the age of the engine from x years to 0).

Also, you can see what I mean by doing the following experiment: Make a railway from a city to an industry it does NOT demand. Make a train and have it ship that good to the city that doesn't want the good. The game will tell you "such and such city doesn't want cows/whatever, are you sure you want to do this route?" or something to that effect, say "yes". Then watch the train, you'll only see maintenance, it never drops the good off as it cannot, but it will go back and forth and you'll see it's profit will be negative and increasingly so. Also note that every time that red number goes up (maintenance) it take it away from your available cash (at top of screen) as in this is an instant cost incurred right away.

Hope that helps clarify what's happening for you, if not ask follow up questions.

[Star Ranger4]

The time period remains the same, the dollar amount goes up. A good rule of thumb is if your paying more per maintenence cycle than the maintenance of a newer engine, its time to replace or upgrade.