Why does everybody use trains?

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » 12 Feb 2007 03:57

Why does almost everyone use trains, even in 2000 and beyond? Why not use maglev? What are the advantages of trains over maglev? It seems to me maglev would be better because it's faster and more efficent.

CMircea · Post by **CMircea** » 12 Feb 2007 06:18

And not realistic. Imagine a maglev transporting grain, t would fly off when accelerating. We're in 2007 and trains are everywhere, maglevs are in Japan, but aren't too efficient, because they consume a lot of electricity.

sc79 · Post by **sc79** » 12 Feb 2007 07:06

Because US Train Set doesnt have momorail or maglev

Personally, because trains have more variety, look better, and dont involve a mass upgrade of the existing network.

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 12 Feb 2007 08:00

I only use Maglev to transport passengers between the largest cities. Using it for everything would be unrealistic.

RainierWatcher · Post by **RainierWatcher** » 12 Feb 2007 08:15

Desolator wrote:And not realistic. Imagine a maglev transporting grain, t would fly off when accelerating.

Wouldn't it be possible to NewGRF a covered grain hopper, same for coal, iron ore etc, I can understand not livestock.

Oh and I always upgrade my networks to Monorail and Maglev.

phil88 · Post by **phil88** » 12 Feb 2007 08:27

Stephen wrote:Why does almost everyone use trains, even in 2000 and beyond? Why not use maglev? What are the advantages of trains over maglev? It seems to me maglev would be better because it's faster and more efficent.

I only ever upgrade the lines that would actually benefit from the extra speed. If I'm already delivering 98% of freight from a particular industry, sod it, it's good how it is. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

If however, it's 50+ trains all delivering oil to the same refinery, then I'll maglev it so that trains can leave quicker, allowing trains to enter quicker, allowing less build up of goods and a generally faster service.

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » 12 Feb 2007 08:35

eh, I guess that's a good point. But, how realistic is it that you have international airports for planes just going to other cities? and how realistic is it that the world is represented by 512^2 squares, and has at most 50 cities in it? Also: I don't know much about TTD dev, but couldn't you make a train engine that travels at like 4 times the speed of an electric or deisel train?

whatever...I guess it's all about opinions.

Brianetta · Post by **Brianetta** » 12 Feb 2007 10:46

I don't use Maglev very much because the tracks are hideous.

As for realism, it's rare in the extreme that a railway line faces replacement with maglev. In fact, I can't recall a single instance of that happening anywhere, while the Birmingham Airport maglev (a slow but reliable thing) was replaced with a bus once its life was over. It was so reliable that the manufacturer went out of business due to there being no need for spare parts, rebuilds, replacements, etc. By the time spare parts were needed for real, they were gone.

Taking high speed maglev, proposals such as the UK UltraSpeed project involve construction of completely new rights of way in addition to regular rail services. UltraSpeed is being proposed more as an alternative to domestic jet flight than railway services, freeing up runway slots for international flights. Many of the proposed stations are at airports, including my local one.

So, replacing rail just isn't the point. It's something new, with its own niche.

metalangel · Post by **metalangel** » 12 Feb 2007 17:48

I can't relate to maglev the way I can to trains. My games are typically from the very beginning possible (1920ish) so by the time I reach 2007 I tend to have had enough - playing a weird future-o-game is not why I play TT (and, in fact, is why I didn't like TTD as much)

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 12 Feb 2007 17:54

Unless I've got excellent cargo ratings already, or a service line is extremely short, I replace all my railroad tracks w/ Monorails, and then Maglevs (and eventually, I replace even the short lines, just for consistency).

For one, it gives me a big new project to work on. It provides that extra incentive to redesign some of my stations/junctions. It gives me an opportunity to think of my previously unjoined network as a whole. It improves my cargo ratings (and lets me reduce the number of trains...I hate having 12 trains servicing a single farm when I could have 6.) And finally, it's fun watching my trains go FAST!

Not to mention that I think the RAIL tiles are ugly too.

As for realism, I think most of us pick and choose what we want to be realistic in this game. For example, the huge four-way junctions many people build that are the size of a large city are incredibly unrealistic, as are 40 different lines of rail checkerboarding the landscape, yet many people enjoy building them. I can't begrudge them that, even though I never build those because they're "unrealistic".

However, I build maglevs everywhere, for passengers, cargo, everything, which many others wouldn't do because of the lack of realism. I do it because it's fun to see trains go fast, even if it's not realistic.

Ailure · Post by **Ailure** » 13 Feb 2007 04:37

I like the way UKRS does maglev... well expect for the fixed length of trains. Sure you can chain severeal together, but 3 passenger maglev trains together looks kinda... :S

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » 13 Feb 2007 07:45

yeah, I guess you're right...the electric trains go pretty fast...but really all you should use for shuttling passengers is busses and planes, right? trains are just for freight and the otherwise.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » 13 Feb 2007 09:20

Stephen wrote:yeah, I guess you're right...the electric trains go pretty fast...but really all you should use for shuttling passengers is busses and planes, right? trains are just for freight and the otherwise.

Including passengers...if you want long distance passenger services then you need to use trains..it'll waste money using buses because they will hardly make anything when they get there and aeroplanes should really only be used if you are transporting passengers from one side of the map to the other. Trains are the superior form of tranporting items.

I agree with Brianetta, the tracks are hideous..and maglev trains do not start and stop at every red signal..they should be on a track..all on their own, realistically so..

Ailure · Post by **Ailure** » 13 Feb 2007 10:21

I wish road vehicles were better in average for openTTD. Problem is that they're too expensive to run, it's usually cheaper to make a small train. And while I like using trains, I like having some variety with my vehicles. :/

Sometimes I use ships or planes for transporting unusual stuff, such as goods planes. Might not be as profitable as trains, but it's fun for variation.

doktorhonig · Post by **doktorhonig** » 13 Feb 2007 10:31

With passenger destinations road vehicles could become more important. If there are 100 passengers in a small city, that want to go to 5 different cities, they would not be enough for 5 trains.

SM9T8 · Post by **SM9T8** » 14 Feb 2007 17:34

I start games in 1920, so by the time i get maglev, i have a network so large, so complicated, with so many trains, trying to update it would be a hideous task, and not to mention, completely boring.

I only every builg mag lev lines between airports that are struggiling with their passenger numbers.

Eddie · Post by **Eddie** » 14 Feb 2007 17:57

Emohawk wrote:I start games in 1920, so by the time i get maglev, i have a network so large, so complicated, with so many trains, trying to update it would be a hideous task, and not to mention, completely boring.

Not necessarily so, grab the convert track type tool and open up any window. Choose to replace all the Steam, Diesel, Electric and Monorail trains to Maglev and send them for a service, once done all your trains will be stuck in the depots. Now go to one corner on the map and click > hold on that corner, drag the cursor to the open window and then in zoomed out view, just scroll with the keyboard arrows to the other corner where you can then release the mouse button and have all your track converted. Your trains will now leave the depots onto the Maglev track and you can then do another track conversion in the similar way to convert your depots.

By having the cursor in an open window, lets say the finance window, when scrolling helps take load of your PC by not letting it select the whole map until the last moment when your on the other side.

This is the method I use to convert all my rail into electrified rail.

SM9T8 · Post by **SM9T8** » 14 Feb 2007 19:38

In one of my games its 1982, i have 142 trains, and my network runs across one of the map dimensions (which is 1024) and half of the other dimension (which is 2048), and within this area i have many lines.

The cost to electrify what track i hadn't already upgraded was over half a million, so i expect the cost just to upgrade the entire network for rail to maglev would be in the millions, let allown replace all my trains some of which cost a million each now!

Eddie · Post by **Eddie** » 14 Feb 2007 21:18

And in 1982 and with a map that big, you should have no problem affording that kind of cash.

dranga · Post by **dranga** » 14 Feb 2007 22:12

I think I just do trains because it's a bit more nostalgic... I rarely even use road vehicles, or boats, or plans.. I just have fun poking at the trains. It's sort of like a giant virtual model railroad.. since I don't have the patience or space to make one of them, I just have fun doing it here.

Eventually I often upgrade to maglev, just to see things move faster, though I usually skip monorails...

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Why does everybody use trains?

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