Need help with railways

[pkwild]

Can someone point me in the direction of a tutorial on how to build railways for passenger & freight traffic that connects between regions?  Also would like just a general railway tutorial showing how to use the puzzle pieces, etc.

Thanks.

Pamela

[Rady]

Hi Pamela,

I haven't heard of a railway tutorial so far ... 


As for connecting rail lines between regions, you just need to drag the rail line over the edge, it will then connect automatically. Basic rule for passenger lines is that they must provide a better mean of transportation than going with car (in terms of travel time) (same goes for freight lines, of course). So it's essential to connect your zones to the rail stations using mass transit like busses, tram, ... This is especially important within the commercial / industrial zones. Sims can reach the rail station from home with their car, but once thei arrived at their destination, of course they don't have a car available, so you need to provide something else for them to reach their working place. And sims don't want to walk far ...

Freight lines will help improve industrial developement. You will need a freioght station to get the goods on the rail. Only industrial buildings adjacent to a rail line can directly move their products onto the rail (they somehow manage to throw their products on the trains passing by ...)


As for the puzzle pieces, well - what would yu expect to learn from that tutorial? Just play around and see what you can construct. Puzzle pieces are relevant for building

• elevated (heavy) rail (as opposed to el-rail, which is kinda elevated light rail)
• rail-under-road (very noce feature!! makes you rail go underneath a road, which is very fine for crossing com/res areas)
• special rail pieces like FAR curves, wedges, that most of all  help make your rail lines look more realistic

[pkwild]

Thanks for the feedback.  I actually found a very useful "tutorial" here:  http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4114.0

I actually got a passenger train to carry passengers!!  Yeah!!  Not very many, but at least I know it works.

What about the freight yards?  Do you know how they work, or are they just for looks?