When do you upgarde locomotives

[DePol Haulage]

Do you normally upgrade your trains as soon as new engines come out or do you wait until its mtc costs become too high?
I normally upgrade when mtc costs get to around 20% (divide mtc cost by train's income for the year) unless of course I can see much bigger benefit from getting better engine much sooner.
Overall I would like to see much richer reporting on train's efficiency and running costs. Also would like to be able to set 'alarms' (via advisors?) if any goven train does not meet operational targets.
I guess the problem is that this game is an arcade game and not a simulation like RRT or RRT2

[TheGlobalizer]

I only upgrade to certain trains. A lot of the trains are marginal improvements, but some (1-Do-Do-1, Medoc, Mikado) are vast improvements in speed.

Sometimes I'll upgrade if the train is unprofitable, but usually there's a bigger problem than maintenance costs.

[taouin]

i found that after 30 years is a good time

[CaptainPatch]

Do you normally upgrade your trains as soon as new engines come out or do you wait until its mtc costs become too high?
I normally upgrade when mtc costs get to around 20% (divide mtc cost by train's income for the year) unless of course I can see much bigger benefit from getting better engine much sooner.
Overall I would like to see much richer reporting on train's efficiency and running costs. Also would like to be able to set 'alarms' (via advisors?) if any goven train does not meet operational targets.
I guess the problem is that this game is an arcade game and not a simulation like RRT or RRT2

Depends on the type of loco. And what kind of backlog of loads are building up at stations. If the stations hit their max (6 passengers, I think, and 12 of commodities) then any surplus build up is simply wasted. Ideally, trains will arrive at the station just in time to completely fill up. So, to avoid the wastage, you either have to add more trains or make the trains hauling the loads faster. I prefer to have my loaded passenger trains run at about 50 mph or higher (I _think_ time delays reduce the value of the loads), and freight trains run at 30 mph. If I see station loads building up, I will upgrade an engine to increase it's pulling capacity before I add another train to the route. [Obvious: The more trains you have running on a given set of track, the more time is wasted as they get tangled in gridlock.]

[Harlock]

I agree on the point of upgrading existing trains before adding another to the same route. Everything is much more difficult when you add more trains.

[boomer ang]

Usually despiting if a train runs freight or passengers it is always worthwhile to upgrade locos,except 1 or 2 locos that are explicitely for
passengers.

Even if the total speed remains almost the same they have maitenance costs halved therefore it is convenient to upgrade frequently,let's say every new locos,above all if you have, like me, every game not more than 7/8 trains deployed.

Boomer