Running a Fully Loaded Train Down the Mountain Pass in Railroads Online! 

I once (1970s) had a landlord in Norfolk, Va who was a retired Fireman / Breakman / rail maintenance engineer - he drove a track sweeper for the last ten years of his career - for Norfolk and Western RR. When I found out he was modeling a section of the N&W rails in West Virginia I spent more time at his house than I did in the house I was renting from him. The main cargo N&W hauled was coal mined out of the West Virginia mountains, back to the sea ports in Norfolk. The section of track he was modeling was a ten mile section of 3.5% grade. Even for an EMD diesel engine this (according to Mr. Jones) is a very steep incline, especially with a 40+ car train loaded with coal and granite. The unique part of this section of track was that N&W used low geared/high torque "assist" engines housed at each end of the section that would hook up to the trains at the bottom to help get up the hills ... *and break down the other side.* Mr. Jones explained that it was less expensive for the company to get over mountains using assist engines than it was to snake around them adding tens of miles of track and costly "right-of-way" and property tax, or to tunnel through mountains made mostly of granite and igneous rock. *The Point:* Your solution for getting to the smelter is not as "computer game crazy" as you may think.

Also the two engines you will have to worry about with curves are the mogul and 2-8-0 due to their longer wheel base

You can tell when kAN finds a game that he really enjoys just by the tone on his voice alone

kAN, your shunting style exactly matches that which created the crazy 8s incident. I cannot wait for the day when we get to watch Betsy zoom out of a yard sans driver and vanish into the forest :P

Honestly had a shitty night, thanks for brightening it yet again Kan

The game had an update! You now have to feed logs into the firewood depot! Just an FYI before you run out!

Kan, you should look up Bailey Yard in Nebraska which has the worlds largest railyard. They use a hill (called the Hump Yard) next to a switch yard to sort trains. They push them up it and let gravity take them to their train with the switches directing them

you can build stone groundwork up to he height of the platform, and put the rail like right next ot the platform, so unloading drops stuff directly on the platform for 100% chance to drop it good:) You can drop on either side of a platform. You can build a rail between the iron and chord wood platforms that's raised over the small pile of iorn near the iron loading docks... But really you want 2 rails there - one for the iron to go back and forth and 1 for the chrod wood - different cars, different tracks...

Haha! I knew there would be another episode today! Being in the U.K. I just have to wait until the middle of the night! Which makes it roughly 6pm in Canada! 😂😂

damn kan, you're ruthless, chatting about replacing betsy with a "bigger stronger engine" in her own cab after you derail the poor girl so many times. :P

33:01 You know you could shunt stuff around slightly less at the smelter corewood drop off if you released the 3 back ones first, drop the front 3 load, grab the back 3 again, drop the back 3 and you're on your way out. I think it only saves you having to go back to the main line once, but that is still more efficient on time.

If you want to have longer cordwood trains at the smelter and avoid the whole song and dance with shunting, I've seen people bring the railbed up to platform height and run it between the front of cordwood and back of ore platforms. it also seems that you could change it up to have bridge sections behind of the ore platform so that it looks a little more realistic for unloading, but I have not seen anyone do that, so I don't know how it would look or act in practice.

This game seems to have a lot of potential! Looking forward on how it will be in the future.

If you figure out how much cordwood is used per wagon of ore, you could add cordwood to the ore train as it makes the trip. Since you'd go via the main cargoyard anyway, you can have a track full of cordwood and assemble the train accordingly as the ore passes through.

"Ya did gud Betsy! Ya did gud!" = wholesomeness * 100. I don't know how you do it but the "wholesomeness" values are off the charts... Especially that last part! It left a nice feeling as a close to the episode. 👍👍

Just made my first log delivery! Thank you kAN for introducing me to this game!

i dont usually comment very often, but i just wanted to say i am Loving this series so far, and i am always excited to see a new episode out!

You should do an episode of Eurika full speed down the 3% hill. It would be lightning fast

dude you're making this game look too fun, I cant wait to get my hands on it myself!

The reverser (cutoff) is not exactly like a gear system. It controls the valves for the cylinder (and internal piston) to control both which direction the train moves, but also how much steam(power) is used. Typically you start at full (100%) cutoff and once the train gets moving you start (high torque) to reduce the cutoff level to save steam and shorten the power stroke (you gradually reduce it to 25% to get full speed and maximum efficiency). At zero cutoff the both the steam intake and vent valve (the spool valve) are closed and the air in the cylinders will just repeatedly compress and release as the piston moves forward and backward, causing a slight damping effect. To coast in a real steam train you would leave the reverser in its position and bring the steam regulator to zero (and also dampen the fire to not over-pressure the boiler on a long descent). I am not sure how accurately this game models all of that as I have not had much time to play this game, and I find the current track tools rather fiddly.

Seeing rolling stock in the sidings is so perfect, especially in this clearing surrounded by trees

I really enjoy this game on your channel. I’ve seen others play it but your attention to detail makes your world feel so much more alive.

I thought you knew this already but when going down hill if you need more brake than normal, put the train in reverse and throttle up gently. Can give some incredible stopping power on the flats.

kAN, don't forget to connect the loading areas of your firewood stations. as of today you'll have to actually fill them up. Since I read the changelog I'm totally terrified that I'm going to run out of firewood and run into a logistical impasse :P

Don’t they have full switch boards even back then to control a whole track? That would be a neat feature to have a yard person to control all lines for people. Like call in the them to state your route and what needs flipped.

Man this is a really cool game. I discovered it just over an hour ago when RU-vid recommended your previous video to me. As soon as I finished I realized you just released a new episode

A game so simple how this is so satisfying to watch?

You can make stoppers with the track. At the end of the track, double back a short section, it will make an X and stop the wheels.

7:27 it's almost exactly how they do it lmao I used to work on a general motor lot just loading cars onto trains and whenever they would bring in more railcars for us to load they would legit slam them together

Bro that area near the shutting yard at that curve part would be perfect for like a round house or something

kAN, you might be able to curve the track over to that second drop off point, however to keep the radius down, you may be only able to drop of 1 or 2 cars at a time instead of 3, but the overall time savings may be worth it.

To make a stopper just use the stone groundwork. Bring it up to a more or less height of the car (the red flatbed section), then put a short piece of the groundwork perpendicular to the track, at its very end. I've tried this, and if you slam it accidentally at low enough speed, cars/train won't derail.

You are an absolute beast kan

Greatings from Germany, ITS DUCKING 1 IN THE MORNING great vid tho

Your amazing kan i was just thinking about when another railroad ep would come out👌🏻

We need more of this!!!

36:10 flicking the switch from inside to outside 37:05 "I literally flicked this switch" coming from the inside side of the switch. Great fun. Always fun seeing other people making such mistakes. I've obviously never made any such mistakes in my life. Nope. Not ever...

I actually just finished watching your playlist when you uploaded. Perfect timing.

Love seeing how you tackle these problems.

I can’t believe how much I love this series. Keep up the good work.

What I want is a merge switch it's like a regular switch but its spring loaded so you can merge without having to flip the lever every time

Will your buddy come play too in the next episode? It's really fun when two people play a game together

Hey kAN, loving your content at the moment. I've been running the Class 70 for a while (And they just added the brake to it, thank goodness) and I have set a hard limit on my railways of a 25 degree angle on my track when going round corners. The class 70 clears it fine so long as you aren't going full throttle. And since that's the biggest locomotive you can get right now, I'm sure all other locomotives would clear it just fine.

Just found channel not too long ago and I like it! Love the series!

IMO, best option given your setup, would be to pull a mixed load, 3 cars of cordwood and 3 of iron Pull up, unload the iron, forward, shunt, back in to unload the wood and go. That would be a lot more driving to assemble a load, but hopefully later they'll allow you to stockpile things at the depot for doing exactly this kind of thing.

Cant wait to see 2 or 3 of you guys driving different trains having fun together

To let you know Kan, I run a Betsy with 7 cordwood down a maxed out 10° hill to my smelter and it handles it fine! It's a tad sketch, but it makes it!

had a bad day today, saw this video and it help me in my day. thank you kan!

In a real steam locomotive, you definitely don't want to run out of water because it can cause the boiler to explode. In addition to being the working fluid for the pistons, water also provides cooling for the firebox and boiler tubes. If the water gets too low, the heat goes up, in the now un-cooled parts and the steam increases in pressure while the metal weakens from the high heat and then ka-boom.

Love the train videos keep it up 👏

Best game ever seen for now really relaxing! Hope u reach more likes for this your video are soo good!

Woooooooo baby that's what I've been waiting for

the carts derail on sharp turns before the Big engines starts to derail if it’s too tight i have some 30/35 degree turns and they work fine with every cart and engine you just have to get a lot slower

I think the Lorax would have some words for Kan who loves clear cutting trees around his factories

i am just saying in real life the switches are made with springs in them so that the train wheel can push the moving peice of track aside so that it doesn't derail.

your railroad’s coming together nicely, mate! :)

Narrowguage is a mountain railroad. 4% for narrowguage is about max irl. I pulled 9 empty cars up 7% with the porter. Then I bought the 2-8-0 and it could barely pull 4 cars. Going down 7% with 9 loaded cars, I had to engage 3 hand brakes. I also noticed once I started delivering cord wood, I could not get free cord wood any more. Best to keep one fully loaded cordwood car with you at all times. PS, you can also throw it into reverse and apply regulator to stop quicker going down hill.

Amazing series keep up the work

For iron shipments you can make a long train out of iron cars and then make the last 3 cordwood cars so that you can pass through normally and then back the end of your train into the cordwood deposit.

Going back and watching the old videos of RRO is amusing. kAN: I have feeling cordwood's not gonna get replenished that often ... hehe.

with the way kAN shunts, one of these days Betsy is gonna run away and be found two eps later in a valley lol

Thanks for leaving the mistakes (derailment) in the video. I learn a lot from watching you play.

10:25 Thats what i came here to see Out of control train🤣🤣

The only efficiency trick I can think of to make more money would be to link up more engines. Idk how the game physics likes multiple engines pulling their own sets of carts, but you might be able to have each engine pull 6 carts and link them together whilst having the rear train going full auto. When you need to switch tracks or stop just put full break on one engine and one cart. This could double profits at the cost of just a tad of a hassle with wrangling the rear train. With the cord wood you could also use two sets of 3 cart trains. You could even hook the handcart at the back to make shunting easier.

You HAVE to do more multiplayer of this game because it is soooo coooool

Don’t you love when you just finish the last video, then the new one comes out????

You know you could've just back Betsy back up the hill so you don't have to worry about the switch. Upside of trains is that they tend to not care which direction they're headed

Hey kAN, how about when you finish linkin’ stuff up, you bring in everyone to play. I’m talking you, Moonbo, Squiddy, ScrapMan, everyone. Fill the server with all you’ve played with Total chaos? Definitely, but if you keep it together enough… mad gainz

Love the videos keep it up mate

If you want to pull long trains in that type of terrain, get the Climax. Geared locomotives we’re meant to handle a 5% grade in real life, better than any other type of locomotives on standard track types. Also the generator is only an electric generator for the lights on the Climax. Same on the Heisler. Compressor is an air compressor for the break system, neither the generator nor the compressor contribute to the locomotives pulling power. Save your money, get the Climax (because Heisler is too bug ridden). And build a switch back. They used switchback tracks in the mountains of Appalachia with geared locomotives all the time.

This series is amazing

Cant wait to see Kan conecting the rest of the industries

The way I fixed the corewood platform problem is by putting a turntable with it's center at the non-stair end of the iron drop off platform. Then just curve the corewood platform track to connect with the turntable and extend it as far as needed. If you don't care about clipping some of the outer ring into the iron delivery platform, it can fix the 3 car limit problem.

Keep up the good work kan

"We need more trains, we don't have enough trains yet." This is the motto of every model railroader since the beginning of the hobby.

they need to add some type of truck that you can use to get around

I was watching mumbo jumbo but when i das the notification i clicked on it right away cuz i rather watch this

Derail a train on straight track...Achievement got !!

Cool video man!

It’s another episode of our favorite soap opera

I bought this game because of you xD The one thing i have not seen you do that I have had to is bring wood to the firewood station to be made into firewood. Maybe its a higher lvl thing?

I felt the need to say that this is totally a game I'd love to play (if i had a wotking PC) So... I love this series. Imagine the potential of having a full server though... The chaos...

Your smelter route gives me some serious Milwaukee Road pacific extension vibes (you should look up the route and its history, its very interesting) and Camas Prairie Railroad vibes (another very interesting railroad, most notably having the tallest remaining viaduct in the US, the Lawyers Canyon Viaduct). Also, massive fills on railroad lines are not totally outlandish as evidenced by the Lackawanna Cutoff.

@7:38 "OK, a little, a little bit aggressive..." ROFL

Instead of shunting the cars for cordwood, you should build a switch that goes right behind the iron stop. It would greatly reduce the time and work needed to unload cordwood

We Need to send this man some trains

My Cordwood unloading solution would be to have a splitter well before both unloading areas. The main line goes out and around directly to the pick up location while the inside track hits both the Ore and the Cordwood drop off locations. It looks like you should be able to make the turn gradual enough for the long engines but you would probably only be able to unload 2 cars at a time maximum. If there's not a good enough way to link them back up then I guess you would need to use the crossover piece in order to loop it back around and rejoin. I really need to just buy this game and play it for myself...

I'm always hoping to see a friend with you in these

Yea, and just use inverse tan of the rise/run to find the angle, e.g, 100xx forward 1xx down = 0.01, than take the inverse tan of that(units for the distance do not matter, as long as they are the same)

Im late again 😭 i just started watching u recently now i cant stop🤷🏼‍♂️

Any of the switches where you go one direction coming in and the other direction coming back can be replaced by the + shaped crossings, so you would never need to get out and do the switches every time. Just run parallel tracks everywhere and you can make one continuous loop that needs no switches

I like these videos. 👍👍

Nice!

At 34:15, you bump the three empties that you just deposited on the other track. It's fine at these low speeds, since damage isn't implemented, but be sure to clear your switches in case you foul a switch for a higher-speed train!

slow and steady wins the race

I would actually assume that you could make a curve to the cornwood unloading place maybe it means you could only unload 2 carts at a time but you won't have to shunt any carts. Also use the compressor it adds airbrake which you can see in the menu so you will brake stronger.

It's amazing until your friends come to help and send Betsy on a ghost ride and she takes the run all the way down to the smelter :-P

I love your videoes! Btw you can have your stats open while unloading, so you can see your money increase.

I love ur Series

so cool