Late game trains (vanilla)

[pickpacket]

After the Asia Star there aren't any new engines for the electrical railway. But converting everything to monorail or maglev is hardly worth the effort for longer lines. Do you know of any NewGRF that makes the electrical just a little more competitive in the later part of the game?

In general I'd love a NewGRF with some more trains. However those I've looked at add a huge amount of trains. It just becomes a little too much.

[odisseus]

There is an add-on that provides "universal" rail track. It makes it much easier to upgrade whole networks to monorail and later to maglev.

[kamnet]

You can also put your trains in a depot, then zoom out and use the rail conversion tool across the whole map (or, at least, large swaths of the map).

Unfortunately, AFAIK, there's not any set that only adds a few later electrical trains. Most NewGRF train sets are created to either provide lots more trains, or to try to replicate trains from specific networks/companies/regions/countries. And even most of those sets don't really have anything more recent since they replicate real trains, and there haven't been any future electric trains delivered whenever those sets were created.

With that said, you might want to try out Iron Horse, which is a fictional set (kind of like the original game vehicles) which does have more trains, but also offers a "simplified" roster in the parameters which should give you fewer options, but still satisfying.

[Argus]

In general, there are few later fictional vehicles, most ending shortly after 2050 and nothing more after that.
Apart from a set of fictional planes, opengfx Mars and Wasteland and a couple of hoverbuses, there aren't even any sci-fi vehicles. And I wouldn't even say it's because the newgrf writers lack imagination. Rather, there is not much motivation, because it is not certain how much interest there would be in such extra long sets... At least I think so.

[odisseus]

I once saw an add-on that provided "SH '50'" and "SH '60'", which were just clones of SH '40' with higher maximum speed and power. But somehow I cannot find it anymore.

As for the period after 2050, there are at least two different sets of vacuum tube trains, which offer speeds up to 4000 km/h.

[pickpacket]

By "late game" I mean the period from 2000 to 2050 I pretty much never play beyond that, just because there isn't really anything new after that And it feels weird that coal continues to be competitive in the far future.

The AsiaStar is designed in 1992. I feel like there must be room for some improvement in electrical trains in the 58 years that follow.

[Argus]

I understand that, but there are game scenarios that just, I don't understand why, start up to 2020 and sometimes even longer. You won't even get anything done and you can quit because nothing will develop.

[pickpacket]

I guess some players like not having to update trains or starting with sloooow trains (I'm looking at you, Kirby!)