[RFD] Trams [Now with vote]

Steve · Post by **Steve** » 26 Feb 2005 14:06

I presume we'll have them, but how are we going to handle them?
In Loco, one player couldn't use another players tram tracks, so it could prevent blockages. It ended up with the first player to set up a tram route, pretty much had control of all the trams in that city.

We could allow anyone to use another companies trams or make the town build them. I'm probaly more for the first, or we're giving too much away to towns.

Any of solutions?

[Added a poll, C.]

jfs · Post by **jfs** » 26 Feb 2005 14:57

Let tram-track be publicly owned, but constructed by players.
Anyone can runs trams on any track. When running trams, you pay a fee to the LA for "access rights" to the track. (It might vary per LA.)

You can forcibly stop one of your trams, and it happens to block the way of another company's tram for too long time, you will be fined and your tram will be forcibly removed. (Moved to a depot or something.)

But now I think about it, it's also possible to block a road with just a pair of cheap buses or something, so either we should also handle that, or we shouldn't handle either. Because the forced removal and fining might be used as a kind of cheat also. I think.

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 26 Feb 2005 21:08

In terms of deciding how to manage routes, the trick is remembering that trams run on tracks, not roads. Just that sometimes the track might be built without ballast into the road

Zuu · Post by **Zuu** » 27 Feb 2005 17:46

In oposite to TTD and Loco a lane and a track in TE will have the same width. So why not just say that some sort of railway tracks may be allwed to be built on roads[1].

[1]All sorts of road or just a few?

Trains that travel on tracks that goes in the same direction as the underlying road should follow the traffic rules for the road.

Then some climate packs can forbid all but one sort of railway to be placed on roads (but still allow 1 level rail/road crossigs), and call that sort of railway track "tram-track".

jfs · Post by **jfs** » 27 Feb 2005 18:13

I have an idea, I don't know how well will work, and it's probably outside the scope of this discussion, but I'll try to explain it anyway:

There is only one kind of "track". Everything runs on "track", but "track" in itself is useless. Because a track in my idea is just an abstract description of a way something can travel along; all vehicles will need certain "track-features" to be present on the track to be able to travel it. For example, a road vehicle will need the "road" feature to be present on the track, a standard-gauge train will need the "standard-gauge railway" feature to be present, and an electrified vehicle migth require the "overhead wires" feature to be present. Of course, some features might exclude other features from being present on a section of track, eg. you can't have railway of two different gauges on the same track.

That's basically it. I don't know if it's feasible to implement things this way, though.

Hyronymus · Post by **Hyronymus** » 27 Feb 2005 19:18

That makes perfect sense to me, jfs. What kept you from posting it before

?

Arathorn · Post by **Arathorn** » 27 Feb 2005 20:55

Sounds good, but I think it's certainly possible to have rail track with different gauges. I don't know any real world examples, but you can easily imagine it.

Hyronymus · Post by **Hyronymus** » 27 Feb 2005 21:04

It exists:

http://mswurst.50megs.com/Erie/GE_test_track.jpg
http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/rishula/07.jpg

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 05 Mar 2005 00:31

As those examples show, there are plenty of examples of track with four rails, the two in the middle being slightly off-centre to allow for 4 different gauges. Whether we want to look at such things is another question entirely.

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 06 Mar 2005 00:10

After some discussions in the meeting, we've established that trams run on light rails which may be laid on roads, but don't have to be (that was dismissed). Which leaves an important question.

Can trams run on normal rails as well as light rails?

As a guide, some systems (e.g. the DLR) run on dedicated tracks, whereas other systems (e.g. Croydon) use normal tracks on existing lines for part of their routes.

Vote added to first post.

Hellfire · Post by **Hellfire** » 07 Mar 2005 10:12

Some time ago, I saw a tram running on normal rail track near Amsterdam. ==> I voted yes. It could be really cool for making cheap inter-city tram connections.

Hyronymus · Post by **Hyronymus** » 07 Mar 2005 10:34

You might want to check these links to convince yourself if you're still in doubt:

http://data.hollandcards.nl/cards/8/2/8/1/001828.jpg
http://stationsweb.brinkster.net/houten ... m/afb9.jpg (slow site)

jfs · Post by **jfs** » 08 Mar 2005 19:45

So far there's 100% for yes, with 7 votes, so it seems decided already.
If we use my "track-features" approach, it shouldn't be much of a hassle to implement either, I think. (if ((track_features & (lightrail | rail)) && (track_features & overhead_wires)) or similar.)

Topic locked, decision processed (11112006).

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[RFD] Trams [Now with vote]

Do trams run on normal rails as well as light tram tracks?

[RFD] Trams [Now with vote]

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