#open ttd

it's free

it's open source

it's about trains (fuck yeah)

it has numerous types of transit that you can make (airports, trains, busses, trucks, trams, boats)

it has very integrated modding/add-on system with an in-game content browser

it has trains

you can add very complex industry chains with the add-on FIRS

it has trains

it was originally made in 1994, and all the graphics are thus retro-style.

it has trains

example image from the wiki:

Gronfinghill Farm shut down meaning I have to find a new farm, I ended up finding a suitable replacement in Ledworth and sold my current trucks as I had no way to get them to Ledworth.

I built a two platform train station in Ledworth (Ledworth B10L13T13) with a bus and lorry station connected to it. I then built a road out to the farm with a lorry station (Ledworth Heights L14) and bought two live stock trucks and two grain trucks to run between the two.

Now that everything in Ledworth was set up, I could get some trains in. I bought two trains, one for live stock, and one for grain, both running from Ledworth T13 to Flebourne Woods T11.

I added a lorry station to Flebourne Woods, now making it Flebourne Woods L15T11, I'm planning on moving loading from Flebourne Heights L10 to the new lorry station so that the road doesn't get blocked by trucks.

Just to the north west of Flebourne Factory is Flebourne Sawmill, I decided to set new ventures into the transport of wood and wood based goods, so, I built a lorry station at Flebourne Sawmill (Flebourne West L16) and scouted a forest in Ludinghead and built a lorry station onto that (Ludinghead Woods L17). I put four trucks onto a route, L17L16W, to take wood from the forest to the sawmill.

I now needed a lorry to transport the goods made into the city. I bought a truck and set its route, L16L9vL1, taking goods from Flebourne West L16 to Hudinghattan Central L9.

I had been keeping an eye on the trucks on route L17L16W as they were stopping at Ludinghead Woods L17 for extended periods of time. I discovered that the forest just takes a while to produce wood and so didn't as many trucks as I had, so I sold two of the four trucks I had on that route as they were just wasting money.

I think I figured out how to play the game properly while playing today so next time I play there's going to be a lot of over hauling of things.

I currently have 10 bus stations, 17 lorry stations, and 13 train stations.

Map:

Putbourne and coal mines | Hudinghattan, Gronfinghill, Ludinghead, and Flebourne

Ledworth | Hetburg

I removed unnecessary roads that had been built over my train tracks as this has proven to be a potential risk, this is something that I have to keep going around and doing.

Now some trains needs replacing as they were getting old and kept breaking down so I spent some time going through my trains and checking in on them.

I decided to go through my road vehicles to see if they needed attention and noticed my fleets of grain and live stock trucks moving goods from Gronfinghill Valley to Flebourne Heights was too big and I was loosing money on them. I downsized both fleets from five trucks each to three trucks each, this seemed to have mostly fixed my problem.

I then noticed that Flebourne Iron Ore Mine had shut down meaning my train running iron ore from it to the Hetburg Steel Mill was burning money. I decommissioned both my iron ore trains to save on money and went scouting for a new mine to pull from.

I found one in Hetburg nice and close to the steel mill, I officially set up shop in Hetburg and built a road connecting the two for a truck to run iron ore from the mine to the steel mill.

I decided since I've got operations properly set up in Hetburg, I might as well connect it to the railway network, so, I built a train station in the town and updated the passenger train that runs from Putbourne Woods to Hudinghattan Central to instead go from Putbourne Woods to Hetburg, stopping at Hudinghattan Central and Flebourne North along the way, reversing the route on the way back as well.

I then decided my route naming and organising system needed a big update as it was hard to read and understand what was going on.

I started by adding an identifier to every bus, lorry, and train station, bus stations being identified with a B, lorry stations being identified with an L, and train stations being identified with a T, followed by that stations unique identifier number, combined it looks like this; B1.

For stations that are combined their identifiers are combined, and always in the same order, going bus, lorry, then train, so a bus station/lorry station/train station identifier looks like this; B1L1T1

I then renamed all my train then road vehicles with their updated route names and vehicle identifiers. For the route name, I've simply taken the beginning station and end station and put them together; B1B7, then if there are multiple stops, I add one of the major stops along the route with a v for via; B1B7vB4, then to round it off, if the route reverses itself, i.e. it stops at the same stops on its way back, that's symbolised with an r; B1B7vB4r.

The vehicle identifier is a lot simpler just being the first letter of the cargo type and a number for if there are multiple of that route and cargo type; P1. Together the route and vehicle identifier could look like this; B1B7vB4rP1

I then did something I've been needing to do for a while now and moved Hudinghattan Woods lorry station directly next to Hudinghattan Central, merging the two to be one entity. This was so items could be transferred between lorries and trains.

I currently have 9 bus stations, 12 lorry stations, and 12 train stations.

Map:

Putbourne and the coal mines | Hudinghattan, Gronfinghill, and Ludinghead

Flebourne | Hetburg

I started replacing my older busses with new ones as they we're getting quite old and kept breaking down, as I was doing this, I noticed that some of my other road vehicles were missing, so I replaced them too.

The rail intersection between Hudinghattan and Gronfinghill was getting rather busy with not only trains, but also road vehicles. Tragedy struck when a bus was hit, killing 18 people, I now knew where the missing vehicles had gone, so I set out to fix this problem to make sure this never happened again.

I started by moving the signals a little further down the track to give any vehicles on the tracks some time to move out of the way. This, unfortunately, didn't work, the crashes kept happening just as frequently. I figured the signals weren't far enough away, again this was not the solution, as tragedy struck once again, another bus was hit, killing 27. I needed a solution and I needed one fast!

I then realised I could just raise the road, build a bridge, it was the perfect solution! I immediately started on replacing the road with a bridge, and finally, no more crashes, I could now rest easy, having to replace all those vehicles was damaging my profit margins!

Next I realised the trains carrying grain and live stock from Gronfinghill East to Flebourne Woods weren't making money, the distance was too short, and same with the train moving goods from Flebourne Woods to Hudinghattan Central. I decided it would be best to build a road from Hudinghattan out to Flebourne Factory and replace those three lines with trucks, five trucks each to replace the grain and live stock trains and ones to replace the goods train. This worked out very well as a lot of the trucks have been making a profit! Although I will likely have to change how many trucks are on each.

I decommissioned the trains carrying the grain and live stock but realised that I could instead reroute the train carrying goods to Putbourne instead. Putbourne is very happy with this and wider distribution across the city will be organised.

I noticed some of my trains were getting old as well so I decided to replace them as well with the new SH'125', my trains no longer have to turn around, they can just go back the way they came, this will spare some money and time!

Maps:

Putbourne and coal mines

Hudinghattan, Gronfinghill, and Ludinghead

Flebourne