Choosing the right vehicle (and track) for the right time

Railroad

Freight type 80 km/h 100 km/h 120 km/h 140 km/h 180 km/h 200 km/h 300 km/h Passengers 1865 1883 1932 1960 1981 1981 1981 Oil 1850 1911 1911 1950 1950 1950 - Goods, Wood 1850 1900 1900 1940 1940 - - Iron ore, Coal 1850 1910 1910 1975 1975 - -

On the road again

Trains require rails and road vehicles require, well, roads. Of course, choosing the right vehicle isalways subject to the line you want to serve it at - you might require more tractive effort, or faster velocities. Choosing the right track for your vehicles however can be just as difficult. Here's a quick overview over the vehicles and what kind of track makes sense:We know two different tiers with and without overhead wires. The normal tier allows velocities up to 120 km/h and is also the one found in railway stations. The second tier allows velocities up to 300 km/h. So let's start on a little adventure.From 1850 until 1907, no train will go beyond 50 km/h. Chances are that even those will rarely be achieved and if they are, not for long. Therefore, if you plan to use trains in this period, you can plan accordingly: Curves can be quite tight for these trains without any real impact.With the introduction of the, we get a new speed record at 100 km/h in 1907. It's quite an expensive locomotive, however. Much cheaper is theonly seven years later. It may make sense to plan tracks ahead, i.e. build with 100km/h or 120km/h in proximities to cities to avoid major demolitions later.The first train to require overhead wires is the, available from 1921. Thecomes out just six year laters and is already 100 km/h again - and $90.000/year cheaper than the. However, in 1935 with the introduction of the, high speed rails become interesting too - as that is a steam locomotive, we don't necessarily need overhead wires. And last but not least, with thewe have a train that would require high speed tracks in 1936.However, the difference here is only 5 km/h - which is not exactly a lot (assuming the maps are 16 by 16 km, the worst train line you could build would be 32km and even then, the savings would be less than a minute). Especially with the low capacity of the, this becomes rather meaningless.More interesting is the introduction of thein 1946, when you can finally have longer trains (and cargo) going at higher speeds - but still limited to 125 km/h. Note that all waggons until 1932 cannot go faster than 120 km/h when thebecomes available. For cargo, this is even later.If you are in for real speed, the first locomotive that can handle it is thein 1965 with a woozing 200 km/h. That's more than 40 years since the introduction of the. It comes at a price though, being over twice as expensive as an(which will still be available). I would argue that this would be the earliest date to seriously consider the high speed tracks.There's a catch, however: Theis the only locomotive with a serious boost from these tracks until 1981, when theis released. The other locomotives of that era are all limited to 140 km/h or less. Keep in mind that most wagons at that time don't support this velocity at all: Goods are limited to 180 km/h, passengers at 140 km/h and open wagons are even worse at 120 km/h. Unless you fancy fast oil transports - the only freight which can reach 200 km/h and does so in 1950 already - it doesn't make sense to build any real "high speed" lines for cargo - or anything at all.Even later, the only cargo locomotive available after 2050 (when thedisappears) would be theat 160 km/h.If you plan to run a TFV on these tracks later on, you can try to get to the limit of 300 km/h with overhead wires. For cargo lines, the only real reasonable speed limit would be 160 km/h, but arguably only from 2000 onwards - until then, 140 km/h is a good start. Every other passenger train will never reach more than 200 km/h - so extensive track laying isn't worth it. Most of the time, your passenger trains too will be limited to 160 km/h or less.So, long talk short story, a table when each freight type reaches a certain velocity:Roads seem easy, especially at the beginning, but they're not. There are two eras of roads, the "old" and the "new" era. The switch happens at 1925 when the old roads become unavailable and the new ones become available - most noticeably in the country roads, which will be tarmac instead of dirt.One thing to note: Although it isn't displayed, roads too have a penalty for sharp curves. This isn't really visible until later in the game and depends on the radius, the road size and its epoch (built before/after 1925).In the city, the old streets can handle 20, 40 (30), 60 (50) and km/h respectively for small, medium and large roads, whereas the old country roads have limits of 40, 60 (50), 80 (70). In brackets are the upgrade numbers which I'm not entirely sure what they are for - I'm assuming that those are the "small" numbers, as you can have slightly smaller roads when there's a building in the way.Until the introduction ofand its 25 km/h in 1859, you can use whatever road you please. As small city roads have a limit of 20 km/h, no horse will catch up to that. The, however, will. Medium sized city roads are the way to go here, with a limit of 30/40 km/h they are more than sufficient.1912 however, theis introduced and reaches 50 km/h. To accommodate for that, you would need large city streets and medium country roads. We're now talking 30, 50 (40), 70 (60) for city streets and 60, 80 (70), 100 (90) forIn 1925, the streets you can build and upgrade change. Tarmac slowly replaces the brick streets in cities (but not the dirt streets of the country, of course. The government has to save money wherever it can.)In 1930, theagain sets a new record with 95 km/h. Here, only the new country large country roads can fulfil this truck's desire to speed. It is here that you should think about where you wish to build the highways: Simply upgrading existing roads is not always a good idea, as the many curves can slow down the Blitz down to 50 km/h (or more) on large country roads. It's a wiser idea to save the money and invest in medium country roads instead; 80 km/h will be enough for scenarios where you won't even reach that.In 1940, thereaches 55 km/h - more than the normal dirt roads allow too and likely more than your average city does.That's all there is to roads, really: Beginning with 1930, you can think of building the largest roads to really use the available vehicles optimally. Of course, it all depends on how the road is laid: Intersections will slow vehicles down, as will curves. Bus lanes and tram tracks can make a difference in certain situations, too.Speaking of trams: These limits apply to them too, of course.I should maybe go into more depth and take this into an own guide at some point, I suppose.