Long time player new to the forum

[mynamewontfi]

Hi All

I am new to the forum but have played OPENTTD for as long as i can remember, i would like some views and opinions to my game it is the first one that i can say i have really enjoyed for a while. i have made the settings easy so it almost sandbox mode but i have spent loads of time making sure all my trains are grouped to make upgrades easier.
generally the way that i play is to build under pause until my company is skint then let it play on for a few years. I am happy with the coal network that i have built although it gets quite jammed up in the late 1990s. i am hoping to do the same for the line that feeds Wrinnwell city factory but i would like to make Bunham east more streamlined first

Any advice would be great my view on this is that maybe the lines are to compact? if anybody would like to make changes and post them back with their improvements i would really appreciate it

[Alberth]

Ah, my favorite game, reorganizing networks

I hacked Bunham somewhat:

Screenshot_20180930_123727.png (912.91 KiB) Viewed 171 times

The basic idea was that it's one station, so why not merge traffic?
Each set of platforms got a few entry lines, and most entry lines allow choice between 2 sets of platforms.

At the north are the entries (like the old situation), and at the south trains have to be sorted out to their destinations. This proved complicated due to lack of room, so I moved the closest set of platforms 3 tiles. I am not very happy with the large amount of outgoing track next to the nearest set of platforms, but was needed to get rid of the big pile of trains that wanted to leave again after I let all the trains loose on the new tracks.
Also, sorry for the river at the north. I tried to preserve, but made one false move and it was broken. In that state, I could as well destroy a bit more, and add an exit sorter.

Some recommendations:
- Avoid 2 x 45 degree turns directly after each other (it is vey efficient in killing train speed), except when the train is not moving fast (like after leaving a station)
- You can see trains struggling to climb, avoid going up. Instead of 2 bridges after each other, add a long bridge, or add some hill in-between (I forgot that in the north I see now). Instead of going over it, let the existing track go over it when it has to climb anyway (ie extend the hill with a short bridge)

Further work on Bunham:
- Trains having to climb while entering the station is not good for flow, consider doing that earlier.
- Station is mostly empty, perhaps remove one set of platforms?
- Add depots (I removed them but forgot to add them again). You could consider adding them along the lines instead of near the station, to reduce traffic near the station.

For reference (version 1.8.0):

[mynamewontfi]

This is great! i wish i had your vision because i had added and added to Bunham East, i think i blinded my self with what i needed to do. And why i never thought to move the station back to create more room for the exit
my original idea when i started this game was to landscape as much as needed to avoid the use of bridges over rivers etc so im not to bothered about the broken river, however, as the game has progressed i have enjoyed building around objects and towns, especially as i play with very easy settings it adds a challenge that i can cheat if i wish

i am now planning on refining my other routes, the iron ore and steel factory needs a bit of work and i will landscape around there heavily and i think i may also start a passenger route in 1999 when monorail is available so i can keep my cargo and passenger routes separate.

Thank you for your advice and to boot i have discovered version 1.8.0

[Alberth]

I had the advantage of not knowing about the history of Dunham, so I had a fresh look at the station. With my own networks, that mostly only works when I haven't played with the game for a week or longer, or when I find the problem that it has can't be fixed with a small-scale change. In your case, I couldn't easily figure out the train flow, so I just started ripping out everything

I always try to minimize landscape changes, as it makes building tracks so much a nicer challenge. Since the landscape is always different, each junction I make is unique.



One other thing you may want to try one day is a transport back-bone network.

Your current network is a number of separate lines. Eg coal from one direction is 1 line. It has its own set of platforms for pick-up and delivery. It's a number of stations (for each line), connected by rail track. You have several such lines, all independent (ie not connected with each other). It causes that you need a lot of tracks, which sometimes runs in parallel, and sometimes becomes an intangible mess, lke near Bunham.

You can also switch that around. You have a central transport back-bone (tracks going around through the land but not going to any station), and you connect stations to it. ie, the back-bone comes first! Trains go from station to back-bone, drive on the back-bone for a while, and then arrive at the junction of the destination station which they take to arrive at their destination.

In the ultimate form, everything gets transported over that backbone. All cargo types, full trains, empty trains, long trains, short trains. That back-bone is going to get very busy very soon, lots of fun (I think). For extra fun, turn the freight multiplier up (much bigger difference between loaded and empty freight trains), and switch on breakdowns
It may sound counter-intuitive, but breakdowns actually makes it easier. The line is full earlier, so you have to build more tracks sooner.

Of course, you never quite reach the ultimate form, sometimes it makes sense to see a station as end-point of a piece of the back-bone, sometimes it's just a local line and going through the back-bone is not logical or it creates too much traffic, so you have to split it onto its own line.