The August and September newsletters were written during a period of emmigration to Spain and has been late. As such, i hope you can tolerate an almost rushed and shorter newsletter.

I may rewrite various parts as i sober up.

There have been various commits to Advtrains repositories integrating new and old features alike“ Says C, Andrews, CEO of Andrews Products, creators of various railway products for Indian Railways Limited.

Cargo lines are vital for item transport. They move items quickly, efficently, and safely (good luck trying to stop a freight train to rob it). As such, we will focus on building a cargo line.

First we start out with two places we need to connect. They are quite a good distance apart and a small passenger line serves the two towns. So we build a railway spur connecting to the line and supplying a small goods shed. The shed should provide a small track which an entire locomotive can comfortably cross before being forced to stop. Use a “PSR”, a Point Speed Restriction rail. Right-click it and place the text “1”. This will ensure a train will slow down to 1 m/s before reaching the rail. After that, place a ATC track which says “S1”. This ensures the train will maintain a speed of 1 m/s.

After this (prefrably after a few block's margin), we can place loading and unloading tracks. The loading tracks will take items from a chest and place them on any wagons as long as they:

* Match the freight code specified on the track * Have space free for items to occupy

An unloading track will take items from wagons and into chests as long as wagons:

* Match the freight code specified on the track * Have space free in the chest below

This should now accept an incoming train (as long as it isn't reaching the ATC and PSR after the loading tracks).

The front of the train is where all items are loaded and unloaded. Scientists still don't understand how it works, but they believe it has something to do with the mesterious coupling mechanism and secret pipeworks.

Now, this works perfectly fine for two towns, but it turns out another town also needs freight services. What now? How to sort freight?

One solution takes one town-town connection and builds seperate sheds for each, using interlocking to sort trains. This does not scale well nor allows a single train to carry more then one train's cargo.

Another solution is to use freight codes. As long as a freight code on a track matches a freight code on a wagon exactly, then the two components will send each other items. This allows for wagons and un/loading tracks to be the units of freight routes, and not tracks and trains (which, as said, does not scale very well).

Note This is fantasy based loosely on reality, almost light-hearted comedy. It is not fact or to be taken as cannon.

It all began in late/early 2017 with one player standing at their town thinking of connecting it to a friend's town. It was uncomfortable to walk and a Dandy Horse was the only option to get across to there. So they designed a transport machine. A small little metal box would hold a passenger as they moved across to the town. To help guide the metal box, two steel rails, held a comfortable distance apart by wooden “sleepers” (which only sleep when there is no train), would allow the metal box to skid… no, rolling was a better idea. Maybe instead of rolling the box, small discs could roll which allow the metal box to keep free from vertical pitching.

The player drew up the plans some more and then began work, using their code and pictures to create a small yellow “testing box”. It has windows cut out of the metal box and no seats. It had no form of locomotion either. Instead, a small power box would be made, featuring water and coal to help push the testing boxes attached through a small chain.

A small test track was built and was a massive sucess. The train managed to keep an extremely high speed of 10 m/s and went 1 km in about 100 seconds.

Some more work was put into developing the carriages further and a testing box MK2 was made. This one featured seating and proper glass windows, as well as telepathic controls of the train, which also had its own method of locomotion (the player continues to hide this information). On a test track, the train was proven capable of reaching 20 m/s, but was kept at 15 m/s. A speed limiter of 16 m/s was installed to prevent “eyeballs being sucked out” (A genuine concern; there was no other way of reaching such high speeds). The testing box Mk2 was rebranded as a “Sûp-way Wagon” (Sûp-Way refers to the way of being superior to any other form of transport, the arrow (or cool hat) furthering this cause).

Another train was devised. It would feature strong walls and a climate control system paired with big glass windows and red walls. Due to the strong walls, a speed of 20 m/s could be achieved without any organs being forcibly removed.

Train control systems were next. “ATC” (Actual Transit Coworkers) areas were devised, a small range of track which would be a target for the inprecise systems of the train to stop within. These areas also defined stopping time and door side.

Soon, a proper track was built connecting both towns and the Subway wagons being used (Over time, colloquial usage caused Sûp-way to become “subway”).

Unfortunately, the line could only carry one train. A system of control was desperately needed. First, players would allow trains to pass only after a sufficient amount of time had elapsed since the passing of the last train. After a massive disaster, causing 4 trains to derail and burn, each 5 minutes apart, this system was abandoned.

Instead a “trip-signal” method was devised. “Track Control Buffers” (TCBs) were small yellow bumps on the rail that would detect the passing of a train and change the state of a small pale light to be on, until the next TCB would be activated and the train was assumed to have left.

However, a small halogen light failure caused by local youth touching the light would cause a pilup of trains, resulting in the abandonment of the system.

Instead, an electronic current was pushed through one rail. If a train axle ran on the rail, the circuit would complete and announce the presence of a train. This turned a signal red and made the system a lot safer. This worked perfectly without error and is an ancestor of the more complicated current system.

Over time, various improvements were made. Points were turned into something that trains could run atop without any risk of derailment, and ATC become more precise and advanced, letting trains also recieve instructions on speed and ARS rules. Trains also became a lot quieter, so the transharmonic hum was now effectively silenced.

Trains began becoming more and more diverse, some being very detailed and cargo becoming a thing.

Eventually, advancments in technology managed to break the speed limit of 20 and allow trains to go at whatever speed the admin of a server wanted. Trains were now able to hit Supersonic Speeds.

However, after an admin reported serious damage with 1000 m/s trains, causing all rail infrastructure and surrounding areas to be destroyed by severe sonic booms, a caution was placed for this experiemental technology. Currently, a good speed is 40 m/s, where trains can go fast, but not so fast they need their own modernised infrastructure.

Where we stand now, Advtrains is at a good position. A community has grown around the development of it and is slowly putting an end to sci-fi technology, such as thoughts of combustable fuel, ending the prepetual energy which has been the workhorse of various servers.