Trevithick-1

The **Trevithick-1** is steam locomotive in Railroad Tycoon II. It is statistically the worst locomotive in the entire game in just about every aspect, but is the only engine available from 1800-1829. With a top speed of just 10mph, it takes several months to even reach a short distance. It will struggle haul a train of 3 passenger cars at 8mph.

It's important to note that they are usually only available in scenarios with the European locomotive region setting.

## Strategy

Being the first locomotive in the entire game, the player is forced to use it despite its atrocious specifications. Its dreadful top speed and power limits its usage. It's best just to stick to passenger work between two relatively close cities (20 squares or less). This is because full passenger cars between 1800 and 1846 weigh just 10 tons each. Since the Trevithick-1's free weight is 30 tons, it can haul three cars without any impact on acceleration and top speed. If freight is required to be hauled, then certainly no more than 2 cars should be hauled at once, and stay away from heavy freights like alcohol and coal. Again, it's important that the distances travelled are close, so that they will a train can at least reach it's destination within a year.

The Trevithick-1 has the equal-lowest hauling power modifier for all locomotives, and combined it's low speed, this means that it should avoid hills and sharp curves at all costs. 90° turns are not recommended, as this will slow the locomotive to a crawl. Meanwhile, 1-2% is the maximum acceptable gradient, and it should certainly have a slight run-up before hand. At the very least the dreadful acceleration also leads to slow deceleration when a Trevithick-1 begins a climb. One small advantage of using the Trevithick-1 is it's low initial cost, which means that they can afford to be bought in large bunches. Between two decently sized and distanced towns, you'll need half a dozen to satisfy all of the passenger supply and demand, so this proves handy. Also, the supposedly 'extremely poor' reliability hardly comes into play, since the Trevithick-1 will hardly travel much distance in it's lifetime. It would take an estimated 20 years or so of continuous operation for the Trevithick-1 to travel the 600 squares that is the mean distance for a breakdown for a locomotive with 'Extremely Poor' reliability. The acceleration of the Trevithick-1 can be annoying for players to deal with especially during station turnaround (no telegraph poles during this era). One way is to saturate the supply of these stations by buying too many locomotives. By setting a red light to each station in the station list screen, the locomotives will be waiting at the station for quite some time for cargo. Because of the 'station acceleration buildup' glitch, each train will rocket out of the station at full speed (one of the only ways a locomotive can reach it's top speed), and avoid it's long and arduous acceleration.

When the Stephenson Rocket and 2-4-0 John Bull become available in 1829 and 1831 respectively, the Trevithick-1 locomotive really becomes obsolete. Even though both of the aforementioned locomotives have similarly poor hauling ability, the improved top speed is more than enough be good replacement of the Trevithick-1. They also have low initial costs, so the player should have no problems replacing them either. Overall, the Trevithick-1 is an astonishingly poor locomotive, but the player is forced to deal with it while no other locomotives are available prior to 1829.

## Comparison

Below is a table comparing the specifications of the Trevithick-1 with those of relevant locomotives. Holding mouse over column header gives unabridged heading.

## History

The earliest railways employed horses to draw carts along railway tracks. Meanwhile, steam engines around the UK were becoming popular for making textiles and extracting minerals. A Mining Engineer from Cornwall by the name of Richard Trevithick, was able to combine the two ideas together to create the world's first steam locomotive in 1804, the "Pen-y-Darren".

The Pen-y-Darren is the basis of Railroad Tycoon II's Trevithick-1, which was notable for having one of the first boilers that could withstand extreme steam pressure. It was able to prove itself by pulling 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons, and 70 men the distance of 9.75 miles (15.69km), at average speed of about 2.4mph (3.9km/h). Trevithick's design definitely proved to be an inspiration that others would follow in years to come. However, railways were still relatively constricted to mining activity and short freight services for many years after until 1829 when George Stephenson's "Rocket" proved a successful at hauling both passengers and freight at speed.

## Gallery

Train List IconA group of Trevithick-1 locomotivesPuchasing Screen