Serving two destination factories from one source

[eugene]

I have a map where a coal power plant and a steel mill are close together and paired with the same coal mine.  I tried to setup one train to deliver coal to both in one trip.  Can this be done or do I always need to make two small trains.  I thought if I made the pickup platform long and a long train then make the first drop off platform short maybe it could drop off part of the coal then go on to the next and drop off the rest so I made a train with 6 coal cars and three platforms at the first drop off and 5 at the second.  I would just stop at the shorter platform and not drop anything and wouldn't drop anything at the second either.  i finally expanded the first platform to 5 and it would then drop everything off there, at least for the first several trips then decided to not unload the last car instead carrying it around full.
Also I've started combining passenger and freight trains, I'll put the engine then a passenger car then the freight cars.  That way the profitable freight trains can carry the passengers instead of a money loosing dedicated passenger train.  I just have to make the passenger platforms long to accommodate the whole train.  the odd thing though if I have a freight and passenger platform at the same factory sometimes the trains will load or unload freight at the passenger platform.  Is that a bug or can the simple open passenger platform load and unload freight too.

[Ters]

As long as a station contains a goods enabled tile (platform, dock, loading ramp, extension building), the entire station accepts goods.

[Combuijs]

You don't need two bulk good trains, you can do it with one. However, every good produced and dumped on a platform will have a fixed destination, in your case either the powerstation or the steel mill. So your different platform sizes are unnecessary and might even harm.

Anyway, your idea is good, though maybe you could improve it:

- If the steel mill and the powerstation are very near to each other, you could try to serve them with one station.
- You could use a train from coal mine to powerstation, and then a coal-truck from powerstation to steel mill (or the other way round, just depend on which one is closest to the mine)
- You could build a station in between the powerstation and the steel mill, and use trucks to deliver the coal in the final stretch.

[eugene]

So I really can't split the load then without using trucks.

What about passengers and goods at the same factory, it seems those sometimes share a a platform and sometimes don't.  If I need a 4 tile platform can i do two passenger and two freight or do I need 4 of each?

[AP]

Platforms longer than trains are a problem - if the last wagon(s) contain goods for the short station, they will not unload. But they will not unload at any other ("wrong") station either- so you end up hauling around dead weight forever. And even if the last wagon starts out being full of freight for the longer station, as the route gets repeated, eventually it will end up with some for the short station.

Making one train serve multiple industries - where they use the same type of freight - is often very efficient, since it can mean fewer wagons moving around empty. The ideal is something like a colliery and a brickworks at one end, and a coal power station and a clay pit at the other - a bulk-freight train will always be full in both directions. It also requires much less expenditure on buying locomotives (which are generally more expensive than building the track).

Your example avoids the main downside - if you have multiple freight origins as well as multiple destinations, you can't really use wait-for-100% load commands, without both routes being delayed if production at one is stopped unexpectedly.

Edit: typo

[Combuijs]

So I really can't split the load then without using trucks.

Wrong conclusion, you can of course do it with one train. Start your train at the coal mine, and schedule it to the steel mill and the power station. No problem. Only disadvantage is that the train is not fully loaded going from the steel mill to the power station.

What about passengers and goods at the same factory, it seems those sometimes share a a platform and sometimes don't.  If I need a 4 tile platform can i do two passenger and two freight or do I need 4 of each?

Passengers and goods can be combined in one train, no problem. You need at least one freight platform tile and one passengers platform tile (or build a bus station next to the platform). Goods and passengers will be delivered at all platform tiles.

[eugene]

Wrong conclusion, you can of course do it with one train. Start your train at the coal mine, and schedule it to the steel mill and the power station. No problem. Only disadvantage is that the train is not fully loaded going from the steel mill to the power station.

this is what I was asking originally.  How do I get it to take a partial load from the steel mill to the power station, which ever one it stops are first takes the whole load.

Then if I have a train that needs 4 tiles to unload I can mix and match passenger and freight as long as it adds up to 4.

[Ters]

When trains and other vehicles in Simutrans load, they first load everything at the station that can fit in the train and that is bound for the next station. If that does not fill up the train, it continues to load stuff bound for the station after that, and so on.

[eugene]

I'm meaning unloading though, it loads fully at the coal mine just fine but then unloads fully at the power station so there is none left for the steel mill.
Though I noticed somethings take more, like a cement factory takes twice as much coal as stone so I have to make two coal trips for every stone trip.  So i thought i could make one trip from each coal mine but it refuses to pick up anything at the second even though its paired with the plant.
I can't seem to get a scrap truck to pick up from a scrap yard either, seems all i have for roads tools is bus stop.

[Roads]

Eugene, to use one train to unload coal at two stops you need to make two trips.  When setting up the trip, simply click the coal station, then delivery point one, then the coal station again, then delivery point two.  If you have set it up this way and the train is not picking up coal or dropping it at the delivery point, then the factories are either not connected or the station is too far from the factory.  Click on the the factories and make sure each states it is connected to the coal plant and also each states which delivery station it is connected to.  One more thing, if you have two different named stations and both coverage areas overlaps a single factory, it has caused me problems but not the kind you are talking about.

[Ters]

I'm meaning unloading though, it loads fully at the coal mine just fine but then unloads fully at the power station so there is none left for the steel mill.

It unloads everything at the power station because it only loaded coal for the power station. What gets unloaded and where depends on what got loaded in the first place. Goods have a destination in Simutrans and won't unload anywhere else. The train never loaded any coal for the steel mill since the power station has "higher priority", being connected to the first station after the mine. Once the coal mine station has been emptied of coal for the power station, the train will start loading the coal going to the steel mill. This is assuming the steel mill actually has a contract with the coal mine.