Reading a train

Select a train, on the map or in a list, and its panel opens. This page explains the figures that are not obvious. Changing a train's route or orders is on the choosing stops page.

Where it is and where it goes

Position says where the train is now, and Leaves says when it sets off next, in game time.

Route lists the stops it calls at, in order. A train with two stops shuttles between them. With more, it runs the route out and back, or as a loop if your track closes the circle. The service pattern section says how that is decided.

Aboard is what the train is carrying now, with the town each load is going to.

Load and grade

Load reads like 40 of 276 t: tons aboard now, and the most this train can pull on this route. The second number is not fixed. Several things set it, and the lowest one wins.

The locomotive. A stronger engine pulls more.
The steepest climb on the route. A grade of 0.4% is a rise of 4 metres in every kilometre. The train is held to what it can haul up the worst climb on its route, wherever that is, because a load cannot be set down halfway up. The panel says where the climb is, for example the 0.4% at Newark-New York. A route that avoids the hill lifts the limit.
The rail. Steel and heavier rail carry more than iron, and the limit follows the weakest rail anywhere on the route. Improving a line with steel rail raises it.
Technologies. Some research raises a locomotive's pulling power.
The Load to order. See below.

A heavier train is also a slower one. A train runs at full speed up to a weight that depends on its locomotive, then slows steadily as the load nears the limit, down to about two fifths of its speed at the limit. What matters is how close the load is to that limit, which depends on the number of cars, what they weigh, the locomotive, the climb and the rail. A short train of any freight is quick, and a train filled to its limit is slow.

Load to

The Fills to row shows the order you set on the order sheet.

Capacity fills the train to its limit and accepts the slower run.
Full speed never loads past the weight the engine pulls at full speed. The train leaves lighter and faster.

Pick Capacity for freight nobody is waiting on. Pick Full speed for freight that loses value when it is late, such as mail, passengers and food.

Holds

Holds says whether the train waits at a stop for a full load. Leaves on time means it does not. A train that waits can wait a long time at a small town. The hold is set stop by stop on the order sheet, and the holds and load limits section covers it.

The Operations figures

Some of these cover the last 30 game days and some cover the train's whole life. Each row says which.

Deliveries is how many deliveries the train made in the last 30 days.
Stops worked is how many stops the train has made in its life, counting stops where it moved nothing.
Distance run is the kilometres it has covered in its life, loaded or empty.
Haulage paid is what the train cost to run in the last 30 days: crew and fuel. It grows with every kilometre.
Time held is how much of the last 30 days the train spent held at a stop waiting for a full load. A high figure means the hold is costing you trips. The panel warns you when it is a quarter or more.
Paid, of full rate is explained next.

What a train is paid

Paid, of full rate compares what the train's deliveries were paid with what the same deliveries would have paid at the full rate. A figure of 100% means nothing was lost. A figure of 56% means the train was paid a little over half of the full rate. Two things can take it down:

A full market. A town takes only so much of one kind of freight at a good price. When it is already supplied, the rest sells for less. The panel names the town, for example Newark is full: it pays 78% of full rate. The fix is to send that freight somewhere else, or to send a different kind.
A late arrival. Mail, passengers and food lose value if the trip takes much longer than a fast train would need, and waiting at a stop counts. The panel says arrived late and by how much. The fix is a faster service.

The figure covers the last 30 game days, and money counts more than the number of loads: one big load sold cheap pulls it down further than three small ones sold well. With no deliveries in that time it does not show.

The how you make money page lists everything else that changes what a delivery pays.