Moving Engines

[akuenzi]

It's always a source of amusement to me to take over a competing railway, and then 'borrow' a couple of their trains to run routes on my tracks, where they carry all of the expense, and I get all the revenue. Isn't that generous of them? :) Of course, when I resign chairmanship of their company, they might repurpose those engines, but usually I can have them for a little while.

The question I have on this has to do with the movement of engines to different tracks. Is it possible to repurpose a competitor's engines to my tracks, even if they aren't connected? I once tried this in a game -- I opened up a couple engines, deleted their stations, and put in new stations and consists on completely different tracks. Not only weren't their tracks connected to mine, but I was also trying to move them to a different continent... obviously a pile-load of work if it were to happen in real life. When I 'unpaused' the game, I didn't see their engines running on my tracks, so it either doesn't work, or I did it incorrectly.

Maybe the only way to do it is to purchase a new engine in their company and put it on my tracks. It might keep their pesky board from repurposing it, too. Any thoughts?

[Gwizz]

I can't ship a loco to another Company's rail without having connecting track. (I would like to have ferries be a part of the game) I tried to program a ferry but couldn't make it work without more access to the source code.

I did make a ferry move cars over a river using one port in the middle of the river so that a station on each side could include that port within the stations radius circle. The port exchanged one passenger car for another. So if one train dropped a car, another train at the station across the river could pick up that car and haul it off.

I don't remember a captured train changing its stations that I set it to.

But, if there is extra cargo left at a station , mine or the AIs, the AI will buy a new locomotive to haul that cargo.

I often run AI locos on my track in areas where I can't afford to buy service.

I never give the AI any services, (Sand, water & oil) Unless I plan to later merge that AI.

[akuenzi]

I don't mind giving the AI a few services if they are running 100% on my rail if it helps them survive just a little bit longer to put more revenue in my pocket. I also try to not use ALL of their resources just to run their trains on my tracks... just enough to keep them at the status-quo. It's so nice of them to help me out like this!

[RSimpkinuk57]

Either of you ever had an AI train break down blocking YOUR track?

Do you know the trick of how to place a port in a river that is too narrow? Paint some cells as sea (you need 4x4), place the port, then paint the cells back to what they were before.... regards, Richard

[jeffryfisher]

Do you know the trick of how to place a port in a river that is too narrow? Paint some cells as sea (you need 4x4), place the port, then paint the cells back to what they were before

It's a dangerous trick: Like placing any building, placing a port can foul the econ generation for a city (or whole region). It's an unfortunate bug in the game that we can only work around by not placing anything. On my map, I once had inland (riverine) ports at St Louis and Portland, but I took them out after the cities failed to form.

[outofmage]

Either of you ever had an AI train break down blocking YOUR track?

The trains managed by computer (it can be either your company or computers') are impossible to break down unless you cheat.

[jeffryfisher]

The trains managed by computer (it can be either your company or computers') are impossible to break down unless you cheat.

That is a patently false statement. I have often seen AI company trains broken down on AI company track.

There has been a report that after a certain number of years of existance, an AI company will replace all of its locos every year (a bug in train-age calculation). Although very expensive, always having brand new engines might make break-downs too rare to see in some mature saved games.

[outofmage]

That is a patently false statement. I have often seen AI company trains broken down on AI company track.

Please give me a screen shot or game saving. In my experience, they NEVER break down, crash or be robbed.

Edit: I tried by myself. I watch a computer running its company for 10 years and it did break down once. I didn't noticed before.

[loco_motive]

To the OP: Sadly your thread was highjacked, a pet peave of mine, but yes, that pretty well sums it up. As stated, you need connecting track or new purchase. Connecting track is the backbone of the zero trains technique employed in some of the campaign scenarios as mentioned in the related fewest trains threads of yore. After you have the trains on your track, bulldosing the connection keeps them dedicated although, like you, my technique was to let them keep critical stations and some track so they could stay solvent. I have never seen an AI company buy a train to service any other AI or human company's station though, not that you asked.

There should be a new thread about crashes and ports or whatever. But, since its already a successful and expanded highjack, yes, AI trains can be crashed and broken down (and robbed) with cheat codes so an example would be unconvincing. But also yes, these things can happen on their own. They get topped up with sand, water & fuel, possibly monthly, so they're in better shape than yours. Edit the Heartland scenario to start in 1942 with only the Streamliner and Big Boy allowed and a 1-time event setting train safety at 99% riskier and you will see crashes and breakdowns galore among the AI companies within the first 2 years. You can verify disappeared trains (crashes) by looking at the balance sheet: Cost of disappeared trains (an unlisted asset) = Liabilities + Surplus - Listed Assets.

[akuenzi]

To the OP: Sadly your thread was highjacked, a pet peave of mine, but yes, that pretty well sums it up.

Oh, that's all right. We're all friends here, so I don't mind that the subject was changed. :) I've probably done it to others.

[GuineaPig]

There has been a report that after a certain number of years of existance, an AI company will replace all of its locos every year (a bug in train-age calculation). Although very expensive, always having brand new engines might make break-downs too rare to see in some mature saved games.

This happens after 25 years of operation. Breaks pretty much every company.