Games

Freight Yard Marshal

Sort a stream of wagons into trains in a hump yard. Each wagon rolls over the hump with no engine at all, so you set a retarder to take speed off, pick a siding and let it go. Too fast and the wagons are damaged, too slow and it stops short. Make up each train on order and send it away. Six yards with more colours and longer queues.

Freight Yard Marshal

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A real run of the game, recorded with captions and no sound.

How to play

  1. The wagon at the crest of the hump waits for you. Choose a siding with the Siding buttons, pick a retarder level from 0 (no braking) to 4 (heavy braking), then press Release. The Forecast chip shows what will happen at the buffers.
  2. Each order on the right asks for a number of wagons of one colour. Put the wagons of one colour in one siding, then press Send the train when the siding holds enough. Wagons nobody has ordered go to the Reject siding.
  3. Arriving at more than 1.5 metres a second damages the wagons, and stopping short leaves a loose wagon that costs time to pull up. Send every train away before the time runs out and with no more than three damaged wagons.

Controls: mouse, touch or keyboard. Made by CalcoTools.

Tips and strategy

  • A heavy wagon carries more energy, so the same retarder slows it less. Use a higher level for full wagons and a lower one for empty ones.
  • The more wagons are in a siding, the shorter the run to the standing wagons, so a siding needs a higher retarder level as it fills.
  • If you put a wagon of the wrong colour in a siding, clear the siding: the wagons come over the hump again, at the cost of twenty seconds.

FAQ

How does a wagon move with no engine?
It rolls down from the hump under gravity and carries on until friction stops it. The distance it rolls is its speed squared over twice the rolling resistance, and the retarder takes some of that speed away at the crest.
Why does a heavy wagon need a stronger retarder?
Its kinetic energy is greater, and the retarder takes off a fixed amount of energy per level, so there is a smaller change in speed for a heavier wagon.

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