[OTTD]Level Crossing's Screenshots

[FlameSing]

Nice idea I like that depot.

[Korenn]

I'm back with more!

The wood network has been expanded. In addition, the wood from the sawmill is now transported by train to Roscoe Freight Terminal, where it is transferred to trucks for the final journey into Roscoe itself.

7 Roscoe Freight Terminal.PNG

That's a great freight station! I'll have to keep that in mind for my next game. How would you design it if there were, say, 5 different types of trains visiting there?

[ISA]

That's a great freight station!

I double that...

[Level Crossing]

Thanks!

I was inspired by Gord's Screenshot thread when making the terminals. If I had more tracks, I would just make it bigger. (I have a mail terminal near there now, I just have not posted screenshots of it yet).

[Level Crossing]

Back with more!

Goods terminal workers go on strike! They refuse to work unless they receive pay raises and better benefits. The company enters negotiations with the workers union.

For now, the cargo terminal sits empty. However, other business is humming as usual.

8 Freight Terminal Empty.PNG (384.62 KiB) Viewed 1316 times

Recently, passengers have been complaining about poor on-time performance of the South Mainline Express. This was because the wood trains, which became more frequent, were clogging up the line and overloading the signal system. As a result, after many unrealized promises of improvement, the company finally conceded to its customers and added two more tracks to the mainline.

Here is Waterford, the place where two of the three wood lines diverge from the mainline. Mail trains also pass this station (more info about that later).

8 Waterford.PNG (119.71 KiB) Viewed 5439 times

This is the former chokepoint of the mainline, with long goods, fast passenger, and frequent wood trains clogging a two-track level junction. Combined with protests from environmentalists, who disliked the platform for the long goods trains near them, the delays caused the company to rebuild the entire junction virtually from scratch (What the environmentalists do not seem to realize is that the trucks needed to transport goods to the trains pollute more than the trains themselves )!

In this screenshot, you can see mail trains switching from the freight line to the passenger line (freight line only exists east of here), a goods train departing the loading station, and a passenger train to Roscoe. A wood train is also visible.

8 Mail, Goods and Passenger.PNG (279.31 KiB) Viewed 1316 times

Before the expansion of the South Mainline, mail trains used the central mainline to avoid increasing congestion even more. Now that capacity has doubled, it is better for the mail trains to run via the South Mainline. To allow this, a connection was built from the mail terminal to the goods terminal line and another was constructed from the South to the Central Mainline.

[oberhümer]

What? Negotiations?
...Anyhow, good looks there.

[Level Crossing]

Yes, the company has since reached an agreement. Remarkably, the union acted peacefully, not at all like in that picture.

[oberhümer]

I believe you've mixed something up... or did I miss some hidden meaning?

[Level Crossing]

Well, it used to be empty... but now trains are running again.

Is that what you believe I mixed up?

[oberhümer]

Never mind; it related to the picture.

[Level Crossing]

A new streetcar system has debuted in Roscoe! To connect passengers in the outer districts of Roscoe to the city center and railway stations, 4 new lines have been built.

First is the busy terminal at Roscoe Thoreau Street. Visible is the departure board, with the various streetcar destinations visible. You can also where the streetcars go after leaving Thoreau Street:

the line to the right leads to Seacoast 8th Street. This line, an anomaly to the traditional scheme of naming streets after authors, has its stops named the way they are because Seacoast is a very upper-class neighborhood. Thus, the residents there lobbied to, and were allowed to, name their streets in numerical order. Also, said residents asked to have a streetcar that made no stops except in their neighborhood. They were given this privilege, provided that they subsidized the route if it turned out to be unprofitable. They agreed, but this turned out to not be necessary because the route is making money. However, an unusually large span between stations remains.

the line to the bottom goes to On-Track Street, so named because the street passes near the company's headquarters. Interestingly, there is a closer station to the HQ itself than On-Track Street.

the line to the top left goes to Roscoe Emerson Street.

the line that goes into the tunnel goes nonstop to Emerson Street, then continues making stops every few blocks, as usual, to Railroad Highway.

9 Roscoe Streetcars at Thoreau Street.PNG (130.19 KiB) Viewed 5211 times

The station at Emerson Street. The trams in the tunnel go to either Thoreau Street or Railroad Highway.

9 Roscoe Streetcars at Emerson Street.PNG (127.93 KiB) Viewed 5211 times

The station at Railroad Highway. Trams here go to Thoreau Street via Emerson Street.

9 Roscoe Streetcars at Railroad Highway.PNG (86.46 KiB) Viewed 5211 times

[Pottsy]

Where do you download the 'live travel information?
PS: Great screenshots.

PSS: my own screenies will be active again soon

[Level Crossing]

It's in Chill's Patchpack. I forgot the exact name of the patch.

[kamnet]

Where do you download the 'live travel information?

It's in Chill's Patchpack. I forgot the exact name of the patch.

It is Departure Boards by hthhs

[Level Crossing]

More screenshots!

The Lake Park Express became overcrowded and delayed frequently, with connections to over-capacity buses at Lake Park. Multiple things have been done to improve this.

First, the line has been extended, with three extra stops past Lake Park, one of which was previously not served by buses. This allows a more even distribution of passengers.

Secondly, the line has been rerouted to Roscoe Emerson Street. This is because the interlocking at Thoreau Street was at capacity, and trains would frequently depart up to twenty minutes late. Combined with very short times at each station, this created problems (this was previously solved by having each train sit for forty minutes at Lake Park. This was not possible since the extension).

By changing terminals in Roscoe, the line has lost one intermediate station (Trenton, still served by Central Mainline trains) and gained three (one new one and two formerly served by buses).

To prevent overcrowding, the frequency was also doubled from two to four trains per hour. Because of timing issues at Emerson Street, it was not possible to run trains every 15 minutes. Instead, there is a 20-minute interval, then a 10-minute interval, then a 20-minute interval again.

Lake Park. The old, unused line diverges to the bottom of the screen (it is kept for routing flexibility reasons). The current route runs left-to-top.

11 Lake Park.PNG (164.92 KiB) Viewed 4924 times

The terminal at Emerson Street, now with Lake Park Express trains. An Exeter Commuter is leaving the station.

11 Emerson Street.PNG (196.5 KiB) Viewed 4924 times

[Level Crossing]

...continued from above...

On-Track has embarked upon an ambitious signal and track reconstruction project on the North Mainline. As a result, express trains have to detour via the local track in one direction, inevitably getting stuck behind the slow commuter trains. This leads to Amtrak-style lengthy delays.

[Pilot]

Nice LC. Are AMTRAK that bad? We call 3 minutes late - late. Mainly Northern because of the old rubbish failing.

[Level Crossing]

By Amtrak standards (at least on long-distance trains), a few hours (2 or 3) late is considered good. On time is a miracle.

Delays of up to 24 hours (on a 3-day run) occur at least a dozen times a year.

Quite depressing.

[Pilot]

Thats bad. I see why no one uses the train in the US.

[kamnet]

Thats bad. I see why no one uses the train in the US.

Since the boom of the automobile passenger service has been more of a side-thought by operators, who focused on freight, especially more so as the government kept handing down new laws which interfered with their operation of passenger services, instituting price caps, standards for cars, etc. It became entirely unprofitable, but the companies could not drop passenger service in most cases. Eventually the government took over all control of passenger services (via AMTRAK), but the rail companies kept ownership and control of nearly all the rail lines, and it is their freight traffic that is given priority. The US, state and local governments have not put very much money into purchasing their own right-of-way and rail line (and almost no land to buy in the areas expanded service is needed the most).

Overall, passenger rail isn't any cheaper than other forms of transportation, and it's own unique delays and issues make it no more an attractive alternative into busy areas than airplanes with constant delays, or travel by vehicle with traffic jams (unless you're willing to travel overnight w/o sleep). But, there's still deals to be had. For example, usually when a huge blizzard on the US east coast bogs down both road and air travel, trains are usually still running.