Shared train patterns

[Arnstein]

I just wondered if we could have shared "train patterns" (don't know if this is the correct term in English, maybe "Train configuration" is better), just like we have shared orders. What I mean is that you could decide on a number of each type of wagon (and maybe the order) for a set of trains. This relates to the fact that I often make large sets of trains, sharing the same orders, that I want to change all in one go. (This is not a GRF request.) For instance, I may have 40 trains serving an inter-city network. In the beginning each train has five passenger coaches and two mail coaches, but as the cities develop, I like to change each train to have ten passenger coaches and maybe three mail coaches. When banks start to appear, I may also want to have armoured wagons in the train. In situations like this, its a lot of work to change the wagons of all 40 of them...

This could also be very useful when using fixed length train sets (like some of those in the DBSet). This way you could easily ajust the train length when you change between different MU Sets. Or just if you have forgot to use the vehicle removal setting on the replace vehicles, and realize that hundreds of trains are too long for their platforms...

I guess this could be implemented as an extra option related to the shared orders, saying something like "Shared train pattern", and if you then change the wagons (or the engine) of a train, all trains with shared orders are changed into the same pattern, the next time they are serviced. In order to know what is the current pattern for the set of trains, there needs to be some setting on the last changed train in the set, to say that this is the pattern we want (so we don't change this back to one of the others). Maybe this would need som extra savegame information, I don't know.

Maybe this could even apply for other types of vehicles in order to change certain vehicles based on shared orders. This can however be accomplished with groups and replace vehicles.

[Benny]

You can send them all to a depot, delete all but one train, change the train as you want it and then hold Ctrl while pressing "clone train" until you have the correct amount of trains.

[Arnstein]

You can send them all to a depot, delete all but one train, change the train as you want it and then hold Ctrl while pressing "clone train" until you have the correct amount of trains.

Yes, that is a way to do it, but it also create a lot of disturbances in the traffic to send so many trains to depots at the same time. With very large networks it could take years in the game to come back into normal rhythm. I may be picky about this, but I usually work on tuning large networks to optimize ratings and efficiency, and this would be a very drastic in that aspect. It would be much smoother to have trains changed as they are periodically serviced.

[Bilbo]

You can send them all to a depot, delete all but one train, change the train as you want it and then hold Ctrl while pressing "clone train" until you have the correct amount of trains.

Won't work if these trains have many different orders. For example, I often use trains in routes B->A, C->A, D->A, all of them delivering coal and having same configuration. Deleting "all but one" would be in fact "delete all but three" and you have to remember how many of what and where to create. Not so simple as it seems.

[Coxx]

I just wondered if we could have shared "train patterns" ...

When you play an US-trainset around the 50´s you may want to change the steamers for some new diesels. And usually you need more than one to replace the old steamer. Also autoreplacement not always take in account the total length of the train.
And sometimes you might want to have special liveries for certain trains.

A (sort of a) virtual depot where you could define how the new trains should look like would be a great help here.

[Arnstein]

When you play an US-trainset around the 50´s you may want to change the steamers for some new diesels. And usually you need more than one to replace the old steamer. Also autoreplacement not always take in account the total length of the train.
And sometimes you might want to have special liveries for certain trains.

A (sort of a) virtual depot where you could define how the new trains should look like would be a great help here.

Excellent! I think we have some nice ideas going here. I didn't think of the case with more than one engines, but that is definitely something I would like as well.

The idea with a "virtual depot" is good. This way you could make train schemas, and then make trains that follows a certain schema. Then, when you change the schema, the trains change accordingly the next time they go to the depot.

Maybe it can be something similar to this:
- From the trains menu you can select "Train schemas", and get a dialog where you can build trains (much like you do in a normal depot). Then you can give the train a name (e.g. "Full-length coal train").
- Now, when you go to a real depot and choose to build new vehicles, you get the usual list of engines and wagons, but also with the awailable train schemas you have created. In other words, you can either build your own train, or choose the predifined "Full-length coal train". Of course the train then have to "remember" that it is a "Full-length coal train", and keep up to date with this.
- If you choose to build a train from a schema with engines or wagons that are no longer available you should get an error that tells you to update the schema.

This is how I could picture this. Well, I guess that would be the easy part, and then the implementation will be slightly harder. Unfortunately I have no idea how to do this, so I have to hope for some other to embrace this idea