Re: Shipping resources via rail

I should have contacted you sooner and possibly saved you work you did not want, although from the gist of your note you enjoyed the challenge

I also got it done and there are some interesting things I observed and don't know if you it saw them too.  I had originally sent 40 tons of coal to Giovanni Woods and 20 tons to Traviata Knoll.  The trade port and railway connections were set up for Giovanni Woods and Yorkshire Cliffs and so once I took your advice and kept the sending city open it worked. 

Here is the funny/interesting thing and I don't know if you saw it.  When the coal was sent to Giovanni a grey arrow with arch accompanying ran from Yorkshire to Giovanni.  First a truck left the trade depot at Yorkshire and delivered  10 tons of coal to the trade port. Once that was done a train arrived from Giovanni and picked up the coal.  At that point the arrow and arc were shutdown and the coal was delivered.  Once the coal was delivered the arrow and arc reappeared and the process above was repeated.  This process repeated four times accounting for 40 tons.  Eventually the tonnage showed up in Giovanni's trade port storage yard.  I had not set a trade port and railway connection in Traviata Knoll.  I kept getting a message that the coal shipment was stalled at Traviata's border.  Once I set up a trade port and railway freight connection in Traviata the coal was delivered.

I thought it was pretty cool watching the little truck take 10 tons from the trade depot to the trade port and only then did a train depart Giovanni to transport the coal.

Next I am going to set up trade ports and seaports to move oil from city to city. We'll see how that goes.

It is becoming more interesting and fun all the time and I really appreciate your efforts to help and advise.

If the publisher were ever to update this game I think the best thing they could do is allow the shipper of say coal to collect X number of Simoleans from the receiver and same with other raw materials or manufactured goods.  Also the cities that specialize in research should be able to collect a licensing fee from cities who use their inventions and/or researched ideas.

Thanks again.

LB

I got the message about the shipment being stalled at the border, too, under the same circumstances. That's what finally clued me in to the fact that both cities had to have the port resource storage. It was a very helpful message at the time. I really liked watching the train pick up and drop off the resources. When it's traveling across the region like that, it can take some time to actually arrive. I would get the message that the gift had been received as soon as the train left Yorkshire but not receive the resources until the train made it all across the region and delivered to Giovanni. A lot faster than truck deliveries even if they had a road connection, though. No traffic!

In my case, I imported coal directly to the trade port so did not experience any intercity deliveries from the trade depots. But I did find out that the train will deliver a maximum of 50 tons at a time. I gifted 100 tons from Yorkshire to Giovanni and it delivered in 2 separate deliveries. So, maybe most efficient to fill the trade port storage before gifting so that you don't have the multiple deliveries as it fills from the trade depot 10 at a time.

Thanks for sharing - good luck and have fun with your region. Happy Building!