Distance between industries?

[jfriedrich]

Hi all,

One thing I'm struggling with on my route at the moment is industry locations. I want to have a multitude of industries but I don't want to have them to close together. Is there some general guideline that is used?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Regards,
Jordan

 

[davesnow]

Nope. I've seen a dozen industries squeezed up close together, one property line butted up against the next, and I've seen one isolated 20-30 miles from the nearest town.

 

[amrail2000]

Dave has said it best. There is no rule of thumb for the location of industries. I have seen industries have nothing but a piece of track in the middle of no where. Then as Dave has said, I have seen so many bunched up together. Now if you want to give your self some operating interest, base your industries around a mile or apart and have the switch leads facing against the train for a few of them. Also you can have one siding handling multiple loads. If you need any further help feel free to let me know.
Run Eight
SAXT1

 

[jfriedrich]

Nope. I've seen a dozen industries squeezed up close together, one property line butted up against the next, and I've seen one isolated 20-30 miles from the nearest town.

A dozen that close seems it could be real busy and taxing on any computers graphics.

Now if you want to give your self some operating interest, base your industries around a mile or apart and have the switch leads facing against the train for a few of them. Also you can have one siding handling multiple loads. If you need any further help feel free to let me know.
Run Eight
SAXT1

I like the a mile +/- apart idea, measuring can be achieved with the built in ruler correct? When you say have the switch leads face each other what does that exactly mean? Another question that popped up in my mind was that on which side of the tracks are industries generally placed, one side vs the other or a mixed variety of placements in relation to the main? (Based on a general observation of Canadian Pacific's Galt Sub which runs East West through London Ontario, alot of the industries serviced by it are on the north side of the track.). I appreciate the offer if more help is required.

Thanks Again,
Regards,
Jordan

 

[davesnow]

A dozen that close seems it could be real busy and taxing on any computers graphics.

I was referring to real life, not Trainz life!

Best of luck,

Dave

 

[stagecoach]

I have just done an industrial estate which most of it is on just 4 baseboards. It uses all the industries that trainz has plus some that are made up with multiple industry track. Last count was 36 industries all with rail connections. Some are placed just after another and a strict timetable is required for shared track. My route has Industry = 36, Monorail stations = 5, Mainline stations = 3, Tram stops = 5, Ship docks = 4 and Helicopter landing pads = 2. There is no rule as to which side of the track as it depends on what land was available for the industry to be built on.

 

[jfriedrich]

Thanks guys for the replies, and help. With this guidance I should be able to progress a bit further, I'm sure I'll have more questions and will post them when i do.

Thanks again,
Regards,
Jordan

 

[obirek]

Real railways are not built to look nice, but to serve a purpose - move goods and carry passengers around. So, the first thing you should find out is what is the purpose of the railway you are going to built. What commodities are to be produced and consumed. In what quantities and over what distances goods are to be transported. By how long trains. Answers to such questions should determine the distribution of the industries, as well as general layout of your route.

If you like your route to be interactive and playable, limit available choices and stick to achievable processes. Sometimes less is more. Too many industries will require a complex rail road system and they will clutter your map. AI drivers are not very good in servicing elaborated networks. Know their limitations and plan accordingly.

An example - currently I build an imaginary route, looking like set somewhere in Pennsylvania and servicing a small car industry. I have two lines, one double-track 14 miles long, another single-track 12 miles long, intersecting in the middle. Along these lines I have five distinctive industries - a coal tipple, a power station, a steel mill (consisting of three industry tracks: coal/iron ore bunker, strip mill and plate mill), a car factory and an inland, river harbor. So, in this case it comes to about 5 miles per one industry. Two passenger trains and two goods trains in minimal configuration.

Try to experiment a bit and this way you will find out what works for you. Good luck!

 

[JCitron]

Real railways are not built to look nice, but to serve a purpose - move goods and carry passengers around. So, the first thing you should find out is what is the purpose of the railway you are going to built. What commodities are to be produced and consumed. In what quantities and over what distances goods are to be transported. By how long trains. Answers to such questions should determine the distribution of the industries, as well as general layout of your route.

If you like your route to be interactive and playable, limit available choices and stick to achievable processes. Sometimes less is more. Too many industries will require a complex rail road system and they will clutter your map. AI drivers are not very good in servicing elaborated networks. Know their limitations and plan accordingly.

An example - currently I build an imaginary route, looking like set somewhere in Pennsylvania and servicing a small car industry. I have two lines, one double-track 14 miles long, another single-track 12 miles long, intersecting in the middle. Along these lines I have five distinctive industries - a coal tipple, a power station, a steel mill (consisting of three industry tracks: coal/iron ore bunker, strip mill and plate mill), a car factory and an inland, river harbor. So, in this case it comes to about 5 miles per one industry. Two passenger trains and two goods trains in minimal configuration.

Try to experiment a bit and this way you will find out what works for you. Good luck!

The alternative is to give the AI drivers the simple tasks like driving from point a to point b while the you, the human driver, does the complex stuff. This is what I do and it makes quite a challenge staying out of AI driver's way.

John

 

[nugget2225]

Hi all,

One thing I'm struggling with on my route at the moment is industry locations. I want to have a multitude of industries but I don't want to have them to close together. Is there some general guideline that is used?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Regards,
Jordan

there is no real easy way to answer this question accept to say as you are building a route do what feels right to you, nothing wrong with having them bunched together or far apart, just use your imagination, thats what the trainz world is partly about, whats in your brain is endless

 

[JCitron]

Here's something to think about too.

http://binged.it/15fmWkj

This is a bird's eye view of a greater Atlanta, GA of an industrial park. There are plenty of side industries off of an industrial branch. There are even a few that aren't even shown by the track diagram. You have to scroll around to see the intricate trackwork.

As has been said by many others, this can be as complicated or easy as you can make it, and there's nothing wrong with bunching industries close together, which I think is very prototypical for today. I noticed in my area that Pan Am and CSX have stretches of track where there are industries lined up so they can switch them all at once rather than drive on for miles between customers. This makes sense from an operational standpoint if you think about it.

John

 

[jfriedrich]

Thanks again guys for the suggestions/help. Economically having them close together makes sense as well. I know with MIN's possibilities are endless, but is there a list of already set up industries somewhere with what they consume/produce? Would they be considered LARS or PROTOLARS?

I do want my route to be playable but active enough to keep oneself busy with tasks/sessions so that me/you aren't done to quickly.

Are .dwg files able to be imported into trainz? I was just thinking to draw up a track plan in autocad and work from that.

Regards,
Jordan

 

[JohnnyC1]

Here's something to think about too.

http://binged.it/15fmWkj

This is a bird's eye view of a greater Atlanta, GA of an industrial park. There are plenty of side industries off of an industrial branch. There are even a few that aren't even shown by the track diagram. You have to scroll around to see the intricate trackwork.

As has been said by many others, this can be as complicated or easy as you can make it, and there's nothing wrong with bunching industries close together, which I think is very prototypical for today. I noticed in my area that Pan Am and CSX have stretches of track where there are industries lined up so they can switch them all at once rather than drive on for miles between customers. This makes sense from an operational standpoint if you think about it.

John

I noticed in the yard there are quite a few 86ft Boxcars, is there a Automobile Assembly plant or Automobile sub-assembly plant nearby?

John

 

[mjolnir]

I know Ford has an assembly plant in Atlanta, but 86 ft boxcars also sometimes used for appliance loading.

ns

 

[obirek]

You can locate many industries, or to be precise, industry tracks, in one place, as long as they are connected and serviced by a single rail yard. Usually I connect the yard with industries using tracks long enough to fit the longest train and curves no tighter than 400 meters. Yards contain between 4 and 15 tracks. For more tracks you would need to use some automatic consist processing system, like ones utilized on shunting yards. You can have 3 types of tracks: for arriving and departing trains, plus tracks doubling as temporary commodities storage. You can also add industry tracks parallel to the yard, that can act as commodity depots, if ultimate industries have limited storage capacity. The possibilities are endless.

 

[stagecoach]

All these industries do not have to be linked to each other with regards the products. Send trains away to some other location and have products brought in likewise. I place a blank baseboard or two well away from the main route (not attached) and use this as a distant location for all the products to load or unload. Use a portal between these boards and your main route. you can then have plenty of scope for operations.

 

[wreeder]

 

[jfriedrich]

Thank you very much for the chart it will help greatly.

regards,
jordan

 

[H222]

I have just done an industrial estate which most of it is on just 4 baseboards. It uses all the industries that trainz has plus some that are made up with multiple industry track. Last count was 36 industries all with rail connections. Some are placed just after another and a strict timetable is required for shared track. My route has Industry = 36, Monorail stations = 5, Mainline stations = 3, Tram stops = 5, Ship docks = 4 and Helicopter landing pads = 2. There is no rule as to which side of the track as it depends on what land was available for the industry to be built on.

Are there any screenies or a download link? I'd love a quick Squiz

That chart may not be all that helpful, it'll help with the basis of industries but most of the industries it refers to are very old and don't look all that great anymore

Jamie

 

[stagecoach]

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All together ive used
1 Greenvale dairy MIN x 2
2 Stockyard Hogs
3 Stockyard Sheep
4 Cattle feedlot
5 Forestry
6 Lumber mill
7 MeadWestavco paper MIN
8 Clay pits MIN
9 Brickworks
10 Depot 1of building materials
11 depot 2 of building materials
12 Coal mine
13 Power station
14 Oil field
15 Oil refinery
16 Oil refinery LNG
17 Steel works MIN x 2
18 Hulett ore unloader
19 Station container ship
20 Container station
21 Bread factory
22 Con agra flour mill MIN
23 Brockbeer brewery
24 Beverage shop
25 Factory general goods
26 Warehouse large
27 Ford factory yard
28 Seaport
29 Meat packing plant
30 Goods shed
31 Oil rig
32 Oil and LNG loader
Plus 3 other MIN's
These are just the industries, there is also monorail, tram and train stations = 12