Maintenance

Wear on wheels, brakes and boiler, repairs at the stations and workshops, the caboose’s workers and broken rails.

Wear

Wheels, brakes and boiler each wear from 0 (new) to 100 (worn out). The office’s Fleet shows the wear of the company’s train.

Part	Wears with	A worn part
Wheels	Every km, and more above 25 mph	Makes the train slower
Brakes	Every km, and more under hard braking	Stops the train worse
Boiler	Every km, and more with low water under a high fire or with the pressure at the top	Makes less pressure

At 100 wear a part loses 35% of its speed, braking or pressure.

Repairing the train

Stop the company’s train in a station’s yard or at a workshop (Annesburg, Emerald, Flatneck and Heartland Oil Fields), and stand by the engine’s cab. Once a part has 10 wear, G (“Repair”) starts the repair: the crew repairs every worn part, one after the other, by hand.

Each step is done at its spot by the engine by holding G:

Part	Steps
Wheels	Jack up the front truck, change the front wheels, jack up the rear truck, change the rear wheels
Brakes	The four brake shoes, one side then the other
Boiler	Open the firebox door, scrape the firebox, patch the tubes, fill the boiler

• Each step is paid from the company’s till as it is done: the parts only, 40% of the part’s full price ($50 wheels, $30 brakes, $100 boiler, from 100 wear). Less wear costs less: wheels at 50 wear cost $10.
• Letting go early starts that step again. L (“Stop repair”) stops it; the steps done stay done.
• Anyone in the company can repair, and take up a repair a crewmate started.
• The train stays stopped while it is repaired.

The caboose’s workers

A train with a caboose carries its own crew. Stop the train anywhere on the line, go to the caboose and press G (“Repair the train”): a worker gets off, repairs every worn part at the engine, and sits back down. It costs the same as repairing it yourself, and the train waits for him.

Broken rails

Repair points appear along the lines, 6 at a time, rarer near the stations. A broken rail closes its block: the signal shows Stop: broken rail and the cab warns “Broken rail ahead: repair it to go on.” Members of a company with a train on the line see the breaks on the map (“Track repair”) and on the cab map.

Stop your company’s train within 60 m of the break, walk to it and press G (“Repair the track”). By hand there are six steps, with the tools from the tender:

1. Take the crowbar from the tender.
2. Hold G: pull out the old sleeper.
3. Take a new sleeper from the tender.
4. Hold G: lay the new sleeper.
5. Take the hammer from the tender.
6. Drive the spikes on the beat: press G in time with the hammer.

With a caboose near, J (“Call the workers”) sends its workers to do it instead. Each repair pays $2 to the company: "Track repaired: $2.00 to the company.” L stops a repair by hand; it picks up where you left it.

A wrecked boiler

On servers where a dry boiler explodes, the wreck is sent to the yard of the nearest workshop. Call the train there: it only crawls until its boiler is repaired.