Marsden

I double track one block at a time but I can't remember ever laying the line like this. I don't suppose this works in an "all track must connect" scenario.

As an addenda, before you do this buy as much of your company's stock as you can afford, then buy back all of the stock until you own it all. You might have only 3,000 shares and no starting money but then get the 1,600k and you're all set to go. All this was done on pause, of course. Then have fun buying up as much stock as you can from the other three companies and you should be fine. One time I had 3,000 shares of my railroad and with the 1,600k and any extra profits I had my stock split 30 to 1!

Hi, hope I'm not butting in on a private conversation on a public forum, but I understand the welfare situation pretty well as I work for a gov't agency that hands out over 50 million checks every month. Sadly, what happens is a person that works and tries very hard to support themselves doesn't qualify for any help because they make too much, but a person that doesn't (can't or won't) work qualifies for help and can get it. Then they tax that working person to pay for it. It's becoming not worth it to work, and less people are, which causes unrest with those that do. Additionally, the determination of certain classes of people to defraud everything they can out of the government is bad. Gwizz is right on about the people moving into the housing destroying it right after it's given to them. Meanwhile, other people in need are waiting for years. I know my a highter up person in my agency stated that for every dollar spent on investigation of fraud they could save eight, but they aren't able to budget that dollar because of the huge amount of work with new claims every day. Everyone has a reason why they need help, no one can help themselves and if they do they're taxed to oblivion. It's very disturbing. I'm fearful of the next president because it looks like no matter who it might be, they are going to tax the weak economy into failure because they are the party that the welfare receiving support. Sorry to be so pessimistic but this is a depressing topic for me. I don't want to deny help to someone, but I also don't want to support their laziness because they feel like the world owes them everything.

Thanks, Gwizz, I knew it worked some way.

Sorry, but like I said, I can't do that. I know it's supposed to happen but I've never been able to have my trains pass through, one of them always waits.

I just hate it when the lumber camp I am depending on or something disappears even though I'm depending on and it disappears. This is one of the reasons I try to buy as many of the industries as possible, but in some scenarios you can't buy the industry, then good luck, because it doesn't matter if you're servicing them or not.

I'm sorry, I can't remember the town names, but there is usually a town just north on the far west side of the map that has 1 or 2 Aluminum mills, and then just a bit further north there's usually about 4 bauxite mines in range of a big station. I go for cheaper engines usually and try to haul lots of aluminum. There's usually a canery on the line to the south, I send half there and half to a tool shop that is usually down the line heading for the coast. I don't get much for the goods, but they help defer the fuel costs, but the place I make my money is buying the mills and canery and what ever else I'm servicing. A well supplied Al Mill can turn a 100k profit easy. Add in the wool farms and the Textile mills and there you go.

One advantage could be to devalue the railroad to make a future merger less expensive. If the railroad that you want has a lot of cash, you can assume ownership and have it buy back it's own stock to use up it's funds, then let it go for a little bit and when the artificially high stock price drops in a few months you can buy it up much cheaper. If you really want to get the value down, you can retire all of their trains. Just make sure you keep it on pause while you do this or your own railroad will go to heck while you are away. You can safely switch back and forth on pause.

:O It's not strictly an overpass in the rules, but the trains are supposed to pass through each other, but maybe that's why I could never get that to work, I don't have 3

It can be tricky. I try to keep the trains that start out north to service Liverpool and the rest I start with the town on the south (Plymouth ??? I can't remember) coast and then to Oxford. Don't forget Liverpool makes troops so you can set a train to pick up a car of troops and go to a way point and turn around and deliver the same troops and it counts. A good source for the food is the cattle farms in the center and the slaughterhouse near Birmingham. Try to get your ammunition from the ports rather that hauling chemicals and aluminium to the plants, if you can stop to 2 ports that should satisfy what you need. It's actually been about a month or so since I looked at this particular scenario, so sorry if this is sparse on details. I remember some frustration at not being able to get the one fast loco that starts in the southeast out of that corner because it takes 3 years to get enough track to repair the bombed parts to get it free. Also, don't bother with London, you really don't need it and it requires too much repairs. BTW, always fix the track right by Liverpool right away. And always have your track set to double, it doesn't take any more resources and you can slightly increase capacity in some areas.

Sorry, barney. I can't seem to get that to work myself. You're supposed to lay the track at an angle, not perpendicular, to allow both trains to run through the same cell without stopping.

;D It's not too late, I think I've played both campaigns through about 5 or 6 times each, although not in a row. I can't explain it, but there's something about the campaigns I enjoy more than the stand alones even though the campaign is really just a series of stand alones really. No amount of failure or success actually affects the next map, that's why I say they're stand alones. Now, if you needed to meet your goals by a certain date and then went to the next scenario with only the amount of your severance bonus from the last scenario, that would be a campaign.

The blue one is the Mallard, and it's fuel is expesive. I'm just the opposite and drop the steamers asap. But that's one of the nice things about the game, you can pick what you want. Do you like that expensive steamer that comes out in 1999(?) ? I found that never to be profitable.

How would one get the gold for the India map, "Crumpets or Crossaints". You need to be the only surviving railroad, but I can't figure out how to beat either of them, especially the Indian national, the chairman starts with 40% holdings! Also, does any one notice the huge difference in the Alps between Brenner pass and When Walls Come Down? I just noticed last time I played this, I usually built through Slovenia to avoid the Alps to get to Venice, but if you just go south of Munich through Austria and follow the "path" through the mountains, you wont have a grade in the red! I still didn't use it actually, as I just wanted the connection to get the gold.

It's not just the human mind in this case, although that is a good point, but historically the US did fear invasion of Alaska by Japan and moving the same car of troops back and forth probably wouldn't add to security like actually bringing additional troops from the contiguous states to reinforce Alaska. But, I'm reading too much into it, probably.

Here's another one I've found. In the first map of the second century campaign you need to ship 12 cars of troops to Fairbanks, AK. It doesn't matter where the troops come from apparently because I set a train to pick up the 1 car of troops Fairbanks generates, sent it to a waypoint outside of town and then let it return to town unloading the troops and getting credit for a cars worth being delivered. Through this method you really don't need to worry about how nice the track to Vancouver is, just hook it up. Also, if there is a barracks at White Horse you can deliver them as well for the credit. On last thing, the very first year of the map is the last year of availablility of the Camelback and I suggest stockpiling a few as they are excellent on grades and cheap to run.

Wow. Thank you I will check them out. As I said I don't make my own, but I'd be happy to try some of those maps.

I just got the gold medal on the 7th map in the classic campaign for the first time ever. I always had the silver because the gold requirement of being the only railroad. I bought stocks much more aggressively and concentrated on dividends and not expanding too much a lot more than I normally do until I had over 50% control of all the railroads. Then I assumed chairmanship of the one with the most cash and merged with the other AI railroad. After a short while I notice mine had built up about 2M in cash and I couldn't afford to buy it but I owned about 99% stock so I assumed chairmanship back to my original and forced it to spend all it's money by personally selling some stock and having the railroad buy it right up (on pause of course), then I retired all of the trains. Then went back to the bigger company and was able to afford the merger. I think it's kind of cheaty, but when certain conditions are called for... And I was still operating withing the rules of the game but it sound like a strange thing to do, strangle your own railroad.

Is that a user created patch? I didn't think a video game company would bother to patch anything that's been out a while. I never make my own maps, the amount in the game (Platnum) are enough for me, I rather play it as is. I tried the sandbox mode once and I liked it but I felt like I didn't have anything to do.

Another thing I've found is that if you lay your track on cell at a time it works out to be a little cheaper, but you don't get the auto terraforming like you do when you strech it out.

Hello, I'm new here but have been playing RT2 for a long time. I never upgraded to RT3. I'd like to discuss anything about the game you are interested in. For example, Does anybody else find the big steam locomotive (DB something) available in 1998 to be worthless? It costs too much to run and maintain to make a profit, or am I just using it poorly. ??? The AI sure love them. And this leads me to something else that happened just recently, I bought up the stock to an AI company without actually running a company of my own, then I assumed the chairmanship to run it and even though the AI had 4 of those huge steamers running back and forth on a short railway they had NO water towers and NO roundhouses! Although they did have a sanding tower at EVERY station! How did they keep their trains watered and oiled? Thanks, look forward to hearing from you.

That's how I understand it, too. If there is no border crossing or port the custom house is not needed.

I was just working on this one recently. It took me a good 6 trials and losses to get a winner, but when I did win I went straight to gold. I couldn't believe it when I finally figured it out, but don't get stuck with the attitude that the first thing I do is start a company. I just bought stock and kept buying it, carefully of course until I had turned my 120k starting funds into a net worth of about 4M. Then before the economy crashed, which it usually does in this one, I sold the stock. I ended up with a little over 3M in cash by 2049 and started up a new company with 100% my own funds, then just took care of business. In most of my tries the AI totally neglected the Plains Federation, Canada, and the Ozark Union, so there should always be a place to build. I'm sure there are other ways but this worked great. ;)

Thanks! I often wondered about those improvements. I have a further question about the telephone poles; Are they worth it? I haven't notice a difference worth their expense. The custom house is much cheaper and I notice the difference in reduction when the train is "in customs" EDIT: BTW I am happy to still see somewhere to talk about this great game! I sometimes put it aside for months but I always come back to it, this is still a great game.