Half a Chimaera

[vasi]

Has anybody else noticed that buying a Chimaera and selling the back half gives you an engine like a Leviathan, but with much lower costs?

Cost: 2/3 of a Lev1
Running cost: 1/2 of a Lev1
Top speed: Much faster, though it'll never get there
Power: exactly the same

The only downside is it's 45t heavier, but that won't make a huge difference for trains that are short-distance. For long distance trains, well my smallest one has 13 wood trucks and a Lev1. Even when it's empty, it weighs 313 tons, so an extra 45 is only 15%. When full, there's only a 6% difference.

vasi

[csuke]

more engines = more power = quicker acceleleration = realising that higher top speed

[vasi]

more engines = more power = quicker acceleleration = realising that higher top speed

Well yeah, obviously it would be faster with a full two-headed Chimaera. But the point of a one-head Lev4 setup isn't speed, but cheapness. I'm running about two dozen routes which wouldn't be at all profitable with any normal maglev train--but using one-headed Lev4's, they're fine, it's a net saving of something like $300,000/yr in total.

vasi

[Wolf01]

more engines = more power = quicker acceleleration = realising that higher top speed

Well yeah, obviously it would be faster with a full two-headed Chimaera. But the point of a one-head Lev4 setup isn't speed, but cheapness. I'm running about two dozen routes which wouldn't be at all profitable with any normal maglev train--but using one-headed Lev4's, they're fine, it's a net saving of something like $300,000/yr in total.

vasi

in 2560 (i think i'm playing in this year) i don't need cheapness, i have half a billion € of income at month, so i don't know how to spend the money... in my opinion if you want cheap trains when chimaera is available you have some problems with your gaming style
try improving old routes and, since 0.3.2.1 is possible to buy raw material industries, then use this method, when you have enough money to buy one, place it near the station to "help" the other industry to produce materials

[vasi]

Well sure, I'm getting $70 million a year, but adding another $500,000 can't hurt

All the industries on the map have pretty much all their capacity transported, so there's not much else to do than try incremental improvements like this. Personally I don't like to fund industries, it feels too much like cheating. That's just me though!

[worldofklaus]

I understand that you like the cheapness factor about this method, but I can't really find a reason to calculate so exactly how heavy your engines are. Does that really make a difference?

And also, the comment you made before about short/long distances doesn't really make sense: if a train has much power, it accelerates much quicker which will increase the effectiveness on shorter routes, but on a long route a weak train and a strong train should be pretty much equal because they only have to accelerate once...