Choosing a train's stops

A train's orders are a list of stops, in the order it calls at them. You set the list on the order sheet, which opens when you press + New train or open an existing train's orders. There are two ways to fill it in: the Add a stop list, and the map. They follow the same rules, but they do not always say a refusal in the same words, and this page gives both.

The Add a stop list

Press Add a stop. A list opens under the button, with a search box labelled Find a station. Press a row to add that station as the next stop. Stops are always added to the end of the route. Press Esc or press outside the list to close it without choosing.

Each row shows the station's name and a line of detail:

• How far. 142 km by track is the length of the shortest chain of built track from the previous stop. in a straight line means no track joins them, so the distance is a straight line instead.
• Whose it is. your station marks yours while the route is still empty. A station owned by another railroad shows that railroad's name and the fee it posts for each ton handled. Stopping there is allowed, and you pay that fee on the freight handled.

For the first stop, any station that anybody has built is offered, and yours come first. After that, the list offers stations that built track joins to the previous stop, nearest first. Track from any railroad counts, yours or a rival's. If a leg runs over a rival's track, the sheet adds a line under the stops saying which legs those are, at the owner's posted rate.

A town with no station does not appear in the list at all, because no train can do business there.

Why a station is greyed out

A greyed row cannot be picked, and it says why on the row.

no track to here yet. No railroad's track joins the previous stop to this station, so a train cannot get there. The distance on the row is a straight line. Build the missing corridor, or choose a stop that is joined.

no wire to here yet. The locomotive on the sheet is electric, and an electric locomotive only runs under wire. Track joins the two stops, but it is not wired. The wire has to be on the track your train would run over. On a line you run, open the town, find the corridor, and press built · improve to see what the engineer can do to it. Or choose a locomotive that is not electric.

The previous stop is never offered as the next one.

The map and the order button use longer sentences for the same refusals.

• For a station that no track joins to the previous stop, the map says No road's track connects the previous stop's name to this one's.
• For an electric locomotive and a leg with no wire, it says the locomotive draws from the wire, that no catenary you may run on connects the two towns, and that you should electrify the line first.
• For a town with no station, it says nobody has a station there, so no train can do business there. Such a town is never in the list, so you meet this on the map. You can also meet it under the order button of an existing train's sheet, if a rival abandons a station your train calls at.

What greys the order button

The order button stays greyed until the order can work, and a line under it says why. It shows the first problem it finds, in this order: no locomotive, fewer than two stops, then any stop with no station, then the legs one at a time from the first. For each leg it asks about track first, then, for an electric locomotive, about wire. Last comes not enough cash for the locomotive. So a missing leg is only named once the earlier problems are out of the way.

Picking on the map

On a desktop you can click stations on the map while the sheet is open. Each click adds a stop, with the same rules as the list.

On a phone the sheet covers most of the map, and your towns can end up underneath it. So the sheet has a second button next to Add a stop: Pick on the map.

Press it and the sheet folds down to a strip along the bottom of the screen. The map reframes on the stations a route can run between. The strip shows the route so far, for example Route: Newark → New York, or Tap a station on the map to start the route if it is empty.

Tap the stations in the order the train should call. A tap on a station that cannot go next does not add it, and the strip says why. If your fingertip covers two stations at once, a short list names them and you pick the one you meant.

Press Back to the order when you are done, and the sheet comes back with your stops in it. The Back button on your phone does the same, and so does Esc on a keyboard. Nothing you chose is lost. The order you were filling in stays as it was.

Removing and reordering stops

Every stop on the route has a × button. It removes that stop.

There is no way to drag a stop to a new place. Stops are called in the order they are listed. To change the order, remove the stop that is out of place and every stop after it, then add them again in the order you want.

Removing a stop also removes what you set for it, which is the hold and the load limit described below. A town can be on the list more than once, which is how a train turns round at a hub.

A route needs at least two stops. A line under the order button says Add at least two stops until it has them.

Holds and load limits

Each stop has its own orders, and they belong to the stop and not to the town.

The button on the row says no hold by default. Press it and it reads wait for full: the train waits at that stop until it has a full load. Only do that where the station produces freight, or the train will wait a long time.

The Leaves with slider on the row sets the most tons the train may leave with from that stop. Pushed all the way right it means no limit. A limit leaves room in the wagons for the stops after it. It never sets cars out. Freight already aboard rides on.

The two work together. With a hold on and a limit set, the button reads wait for N t instead, and the train waits at that stop until N tons are aboard, not until it is full.

Service pattern

Under the stops, Auto is the default. It runs the stops down and back up, or a loop if your track closes the circle. Out and back calls every middle stop twice, once each way. Loop goes back to the first stop and calls each stop once. With two stops, both patterns run the same shuttle.

The line headed Calls, in order always previews Auto as out and back. The game decides at the moment of the order and again when the train is delivered, so an Auto train can end up running a loop that the preview did not show.

A Loop needs track that closes the circle from the last stop back to the first. The sheet does not warn you about that before you press the order button. If no track closes it, the order is refused when you press.