Iron Horse

General Purpose / Express Engines

• Passengers, mail and valuables
• High-priority freight cargos like food and engineering supplies, which can be carried in high-speed mail cars and express cars
• General freight, but if a dedicated freight engine is available with similar power, the freight engine will generally be lower cost, and higher performance

Freight Engines

Recommended for all general freight except cargos like food and engineering supplies, which can be carried in high-speed mail cars and express cars, which freight engines can't haul at maximum speed.

Railcars / Multiple-Unit Trains

• These run at the speed of freight trains, and are suited to
  • short routes
  • routes which are heavily used by freight trains, which limit the maximum speed of other trains on the route
• Railcars can generally haul one additional unpowered coach, mail car or other wagon, on level routes
• Railcars can be combined as needed

High-Speed Trains

• high-speed diesel passenger engines with dedicated high-speed coaches
• can attach other types of cars to haul mail or freight cargos but will travel at less than maximum engine speed

Very High-Speed Trains

• TGV-style electric passenger trains with very high speeds
• power is distributed throughout the train
  • engines are relatively low power
  • every set of coaches attached to the engine adds more power
• tilt bonus for higher speed through curves
• attaching other types of cars is not recommended, the train will be very underpowered and will travel at much less than maximum engine speed

Narrow Gauge Trains

• low power trains with low buy and run costs, and relatively low speeds
• effective for short routes
• can be moderately effective on longer routes
• one general purpose engine per generation, combine them as needed for more power
• narrow gauge railcars available later in the game
  • same speed as general purpose engine
  • can generally haul one additional unpowered coach, mail car or other wagon, on level routes
  • narrow gauge railcars can be combined as needed

Metro Trains

• pax, mail, valuables, food and similar town cargos
• for very busy routes in and around large cities
  • metro trains have very high capacity and relatively high run costs
  • to be profitable, metro needs to be used on routes with short distances between stations, and very high loadings
• can be used in stations as small as 1 tile
• metro trains can be combined as needed