Question about Station Placement

[Etra]

So I bought the game off Steam for $5 and it really sunk it's teeth into me. I was looking on the internet for help, and came across this forum.

My question is, what happens when I make a station large enough to envelop a production structure with a consumption structure?

Specifically, the map has it where my Large Station will touch a Grain producing Farm and a Grain consuming Bakery. Will my station automatically feed the grain from the farm to the bakery? The game is ambiguous about this point and I haven't been able to figure it out for myself. Because I bought the game off Steam, I do not have the manual to consult from.

Any guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: I have a second question:

I'm playing the game and periodically, I will check on my older trains to make sure they're doing the most efficient hauls they can do. Let me lay out the whole scenario -

- the city used to say "Supply" of 4 Passenger

- the train will be running a 4 passenger cart load to wherever they want tourists

- now, however, the city will be saying they only have a "Supply" of 1 passenger

Does this mean the city's available passengers has decreased from 4 to 1, or does it mean that there are 5 supply of passengers, 4 of whom are tied up in the train and the city has 1 passenger left over?

If anyone has an answer, I would appreciate it.

[GuineaPig]

In order to turn the grain into food, you have to ship it to another station. You can't even use waypoints to have a train leave the station, and then return. So, attaching another small station to the grain or bakery and then shipping it that short distance would work, but it's far from optimal.

Supply/demand are separate, from what I know of the game's mechanics (although supplying a station will help build up the town, and provide you with more passengers and mail). So I believe the answer to your second question is the latter.

[jeffryfisher]

What happens when I make a station large enough to envelop a production structure with a consumption structure? Specifically, the map has it where my Large Station will touch a Grain producing Farm and a Grain consuming Bakery. Will my station automatically feed the grain from the farm to the bakery?

Nothing special in RRT2. Unlike RRT3, supply and demand will not find each other by themselves. A RR company must carry commodities from one station to another. Even if one large station encompasses both the source and the sink, another station must be involved.

I recommend putting the 2nd station (probably a tiny depot) at the bakery. This keeps your grain away from any distillery, cattle ranch etc that may "steal" the grain and fail to produce the food that your train expects to get out of the bakery.

The game is ambiguous about this point and I haven't been able to figure it out for myself. Because I bought the game off Steam, I do not have the manual to consult from.

Did you look at all of the files in the RT2 folder? If you see any TXT and/or HTM files, then you might have the manuals and not even know it.

I'm playing the game and periodically, I will check on my older trains to make sure they're doing the most efficient hauls they can do. Let me lay out the whole scenario -

- the city used to say "Supply" of 4 Passenger

- the train will be running a 4 passenger cart load to wherever they want tourists

- now, however, the city will be saying they only have a "Supply" of 1 passenger

Does this mean the city's available passengers has decreased from 4 to 1, or does it mean that there are 5 supply of passengers, 4 of whom are tied up in the train and the city has 1 passenger left over?

When you see cars "available" at a station, then those loads are really available at their source buildings within the station's fetch radius. If you looked into a second station serving all of the same houses, then that other station would report the same passengers available until a train picks them up from one station or the other (or they evaporate from waiting too long). This is how two RR companies can compete on service: One builds a station to overlap its opponent, and then it vacuums cargo until the opponent starves to death.

Once a train picks up passengers (or cargo), then those loads have literally "left the station". The station will show what's left behind and what's been generated since. The train can deliver the loads or store them (using a red flag stop) at another station that does not demand them. There are numerous tactics that take advantage of storage. For example, a slow but steady hill-climbing engine can lift passengers up from a coastal city and leave them for a speedy non-climber to come whisk away to an opposite coast.

[Etra]

So jeffryfisher, that's how it comes to be that I'll have a station on a resource that generates Grain, for example. And I'll have a train that services that Grain resource.

And yet when I click on the station to see how it's going, the Grain "supply" will be lit up, indicating that resource is "present", but there won't be any Grain icons stacked up, because all of the grain being produced is immediately being put into use.

Or in other words: Grain is being produced, indicated by the Grain label being in white text instead of gray. But there is no Grain available, indicated by there being no Grain icons. There is no Grain available because my trains are taking it all.

Thank you! This game is getting better the longer I play it :)