Cargo

Taking inspiration from Railroad Tycoon 3, cargo in Logistics: On Rails travels on its own, given no transport company picked it up. This is realized with an “Other means of Transportation” feature. Essentially – every ‘Source’ of cargo, be it an industry or a town house, has a list of ‘Sinks’, which are its destinations. Periodically a source will generate a bundle of cargo and send it to one of its sinks.

The picture above shows bundles of cargo in an industry chain travelling between them.

Once in motion, the bundle will creep toward this destination at a moderate speed. Staying for a while on each tile on its way, where it can be picked up. It can happen if a station with a catchment area spanning that tile is nearby.

While cargo sources may have preferred destinations, the player is ultimately the one who decides where the cargo is delivered to.

When it comes to transporting in vehicles, cargo itself is considered a physical entity with properties such as density. It can also be a liquid, solid or even an item. These properties are used to determine the kind and capacity of vehicle the player needs to design to carry such cargo.