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Topic Title: Is there any practical point to freight trains? Topic Summary: Created On: Sep-17-2009 08:36 PM Status: Post and Reply |
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#1615658
Sep-17-2009 08:36 PM
| First off, I'm using Simulator Z in the NAM released around June or July.. and I never build any freight train systems for my industrial zones. My industry develops fine and the freight trucks on the road seem to suffice. Is there any point to using freight trains instead of good old roads carrying freight trucks? I seem to be plagued with persistent "medium" pollution in my high tech zones due to lots of trucks.. will a freight train solve that? |
#1615664
Sep-17-2009 08:44 PM
| I would guess that Freight trains would solve pollution, they're much more efficient freight-movers in real life. I find that using freight trains to transport goods out of my city helps with congestion on the roads, and it also makes it more realistic. I don't constantly have trucks on the road, and occasionally freight trains will go to port, where they'll be shipped out to sea. |
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#1615718
Sep-17-2009 10:23 PM
Course there is. Trains reduce traffic in roads, saving you money and from annoying advisors. And about the pollution I would guess it has to do with the massive amount of trucks. Add some trains and fund some ordanices and your pollution should go down.  |
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#1615722
Sep-17-2009 10:27 PM
| You just need to run the tracks out of the city to export the freight. Any industrial adjacent to the tracks will load freight directly onto trains, without a station. |
"If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.". ...Pierre Gallois |
#1615808
Sep-18-2009 04:50 AM
You just need to run the tracks out of the city to export the freight. Any industrial adjacent to the tracks will load freight directly onto trains, without a station. Mm, very interesting, thanks for this advise, didn't know that.. |
| Thinking about writing a CJ in the near future |
#1627754
Oct-12-2009 03:14 PM
| Hi, I'm new and I have a related question. I also use July Nam, My Industrial Complex is next to a rail line, but it expands further away. So I put a freight station there aswell, and it seems to work nicely (traffic flow says that freight trucks deliver freight to the freight station, where occasionally a freight train will pop up. So far so good. Now I realise that basically that just connecting the railway to any linked tile is enough to raise industry demand for some reason, even if there is no city there. However, I find this awfully unrealistic, so what I want to do is make the freight train go to a seaport. Now while I know this works when the seaport is in the same city, I was wondering if it can be done if the seaport is in another city. I've established a rail connection and the freight train uses it to leave the first city, but it never "arrives" in the city with the seaport (probably because freight trains are just intended to "leave" the city). So now my question is, is there are mod, or any kind of setting in NAM that allows freight trains to travel across citys?
Best regards |
#1627879
Oct-12-2009 05:26 PM
| No on all counts.. freight isn't simulated other than getting it "out of town" where is gives 20 CAP relief for industry for esch leaving |
#1627971
Oct-12-2009 07:34 PM
| Best practice for me is to run a train track (no stations needed as discussed above) along the side of all Farms and Industrial zone blocks. However if you dont have a couple freight stations, you wont any fright train missions or rewards. And you need 4 or more freight stations to get ALL the missions and rewards offered by them.
If you want workers to take the trains to work on the farms and in industrial zones, you still need to drop some passenger train stations around those areas, otherwise only car workers will come, if the distance is close enough from the homes. |
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#1628033
Oct-12-2009 09:00 PM
| As memtioned by SC4Boy, all freight from trains, or the seaport are exported out of the city into "never-neverland", never to be seen again. Trains don't drop off freight at the default seaport. |
"If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.". ...Pierre Gallois |
#1628037
Oct-12-2009 09:04 PM
As memtioned by SC4Boy, all freight from trains, or the seaport are exported out of the city into "never-neverland", never to be seen again. Trains don't drop off freight at the default seaport. There is as mod which makes the freight train stations function bi-directionally. I use it. I'll post its name when I find it. But using the mod allows trains to let off freight at freight train stations near Seaports to take the freight out of the city. |
| My recent favorite Simtropolis people: masochist, NetPCDoc, un1, haljackey, RobAstor, RippleJet, SWAT-MEDIC, CaptCity, Tarkus, Cogeo, Livin in Sim |
#1628073
Oct-12-2009 10:04 PM
As memtioned by SC4Boy, all freight from trains, or the seaport are exported out of the city into "never-neverland", never to be seen again. Trains don't drop off freight at the default seaport. There is as mod which makes the freight train stations function bi-directionally. I use it. I'll post its name when I find it. But using the mod allows trains to let off freight at freight train stations near Seaports to take the freight out of the city. It may appear that the freight is going to the seaport, but it is just eyecandy. |
"If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.". ...Pierre Gallois |
#1628078
Oct-12-2009 10:12 PM
As memtioned by SC4Boy, all freight from trains, or the seaport are exported out of the city into "never-neverland", never to be seen again. Trains don't drop off freight at the default seaport. There is as mod which makes the freight train stations function bi-directionally. I use it. I'll post its name when I find it. But using the mod allows trains to let off freight at freight train stations near Seaports to take the freight out of the city. It may appear that the freight is going to the seaport, but it is just eyecandy. I'm pretty sure that the mod he is mentioning allows freight to change back from train to truck at freight stations, which also iirc, is how PEG's seaports pull off the trick as well. |
#1628135
Oct-12-2009 11:22 PM
| Yes I think I've run across the Seaport and Freight Yard Mods while searching, but as it appears, having freight being "commuted" to other city tails is indeed impossible :/ |
#1628161
Oct-12-2009 11:59 PM
I'm pretty sure that the mod he is mentioning allows freight to change back from train to truck at freight stations, which also iirc, is how PEG's seaports pull off the trick as well. I used one, at least similar, but I saw no evidence that the freight was going to the seaport. |
"If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.". ...Pierre Gallois |
#1628175
Oct-13-2009 12:59 AM
| I like driving the freight trains, thats about it, its a great way to export farm food, etc out of the city instad of using the roads |
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#1628305
Oct-13-2009 10:39 AM
| Since you mentioned farms, it's really good to have railways in agricultural district, because farms don't at all like road traffic near them. Trains solve this issue. |
#1628622
Oct-13-2009 10:09 PM
| You'd think they would, and usually they do. Sometimes you can put a railway in your city and it doesn't get used at all, which I suppose is where more efficient city planning comes in into it. What I want to know is why I have a port right across the road from my industrial area which isn't being used to transport anything. |
#1631906
Oct-19-2009 06:34 AM
| The mod in question is simply called the Freight Station Mod, which is by erazor and is at the site page www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm. I use the mod myself. What I do to maximize the seaport is I have a road between the freight station and the port. The "trucks" simply cross the road from the station to the port. Placing the station next to the port will not work because two transit-enabled lots next to each other do not interact with each other. You need to have at least one tile separate the freight station and the seaport. Since the freight transfer is by truck, a road is the appropriate thing to place in that space. |
#1634468
Oct-24-2009 02:31 AM
| Freight trains take truck traffic off of the road and shorten freight trips for industries away from the map edge. |
#1635569
Oct-26-2009 10:06 AM
You'd think they would, and usually they do. Sometimes you can put a railway in your city and it doesn't get used at all, which I suppose is where more efficient city planning comes in into it. What I want to know is why I have a port right across the road from my industrial area which isn't being used to transport anything. You need the Traffic Control Pack, to block trucks from leaving the city on roads. |
#1635601
Oct-26-2009 11:32 AM
You'd think they would, and usually they do. Sometimes you can put a railway in your city and it doesn't get used at all, which I suppose is where more efficient city planning comes in into it. What I want to know is why I have a port right across the road from my industrial area which isn't being used to transport anything. You need the Traffic Control Pack, to block trucks from leaving the city on roads. I wish they would have included the Traffic Control Pack features in the NAM. Currently, I destroyed all road connections while I forced my farms to use Freight Train. But now I suppose ill have to go look for this traffic control pack in order to block trucks on my road connections to keep them using trains. |
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#1639676
Nov-03-2009 07:43 AM
| The only goal of freight trips in SC4 is to get out of the city tile as quickly as possible, whether it's to an adjacent city or not. This has already been said in this thread, but it bears repeating, because there's a reason for it. In the real world, cities utilize very little of their own production. The vast majority of what is produced at any factory is shipped out of town to other cities, other states/provinces/whatever, and to other countries. People sometimes complain that the way SC4 does things is "unrealistic" when in fact it's about as realistic as it gets. Cities in the real world use only a small fraction of what they produce. SC4 imitates this. As to the original question, as has already been stated, the primary point of freight rail is to get freight trucks off the road, which lowers pollution, and to shorten freight trips, since trains move faster than trucks. |
#1639840
Nov-03-2009 02:19 PM
| Getting freight trucks off the road also reduces traffic - making car trips to jobs faster and making residents happier. |
#1639924
Nov-03-2009 04:29 PM
| In the beginning when I first started playing SC4, I thought that there was no point in using freight trains, but over time I realized that this cuts down on freight trucks clogging up my roads, that is my I zones are far enough away from my R & C zones and after querying the traffic, the trucks take a direct route out of town. With freight trains, it cuts down the use of polluting trucks and it seems that my Industrial is making more simoleons. I haven't pinpointed just how much, but it's a smooth operation. Someone may have already mentioned this in the thread but I didn't read everyone elses response but I wanted to share my experience as well. Good luck and I hope everything works out.  |
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