Once you realize this, you can make a quantum leap in station design

• Some terms: Hopping a station: by this I mean deleting the whole station, then recreating it 1 .. 8 tiles away. The station keeps it's name, home town, and contents; but it's origin changes.

• Walking a station: by this I mean deleting e.g a bus stop in an extended station, then attaching a new bus stop elsewhere; the station moves or extends, while it's origin is unchanged.
  

• Stretch or Spread: max distance between station legs.
• Have the origin of your extended station at some extreme point, far from the other station it communicates with. But place the Railway station near to the other railway station!
  This gives short train distance, but long 'pay' distance. Payment for your transport is calculated from the origin: i.e. the place where the station started .
• Give your station 3 or 4 'legs' or anchor points; near to 3 or 4 resources. So the station can load / accept a number of things instead of just one or two. Use few long strong trains with combined loads.
  
• 'Accepts:' this depends on the lines between the anchor points! Between 4 station 'legs' there are 6 such lines. Any towns or other resources within 4 tiles of these lines will contribute to the station's Accepts list.
• So, in TTo Accepts GOODS may be combined from more than 1 town! This may solve the problem of getting Goods accepted early in the game, and not losing Goods acceptance because a town demolishes one of it's 3 'G-houses' (Shops and Offices)

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This picture was made in a Paint program, before I had TTd screen capture. It tries to describe a 4-leg MEGA station in the N-East corner of the map. The station was 'born' centrally in Gvarv.
it was then 'hopped' (small violet tiles) to the extreme N-East corner, to get the 'transported from' origin far out. From there, the station was 'walked' (brown rectangles) to places A, B, C, D to form the 4 legs: Docks, Airport, Lorry station, Railway station.

The station shown will both have and accept Farmstuff and steel; It receives Wood because the Saw is on one of the lines between legs. The station both has and accepts Goods: the factory and refinery produce Goods; the 4 G houses in the 3 towns combine to give Goods Acceptance!

Assume another MEGA station e.g. from the NW quadrant of the map. If this station also both Has + accepts Wood, Wood transport can go both ways! Same for FarmStuff, Steel, Goods.

So Wood / Farmstuff / Goods trains between these 2 stations will be very efficient - no empty journeys! This, combined with long pay distance, shorter train distance, will give very high earnings.

Also, the many resources make this mega station scheme resilient against closing industries; the station does not depend on just one thing.
And one might also move one of the station legs later, if needed.

Note that in TTdx this enormous station 'stretch' is not allowed. Also, I and some other people now agree that station 'stretch' should be no larger than 20 or so.

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Why did I start a station 'centrally', hop it out, then walk it back?
In 1998 I formed the impression - in TTo - that the station works better later if this is done. Probably quite wrong.

But one should know which city the station belongs to, and make sure one is 'hopping' the right one! So I always rename my station to a name the computer wouldn't choose.

Warning 1: Maximum distance between mega station legs:
TTd: 11 to 16 (or 20, with TTdPatch).
TTo: about 120 tiles, = half the width of the map.
At longer distances than this, the station stops accepting anything!

Warning 2: only industries within 16 (15+1) tiles of your station's origin will produce secondary cargo: Goods, Food, Paper.

Warning 3: Only city or industries within 9+7 tiles of your station's origin count when subsidies are given! - So if you don't go for very 'long pay', your station should have it's origin near one or more resources which are likely future subsidy endpoints.
See also: Subsidies and MEGA stations.
See also:Handling EXTREME MEGA stations.

In TTd - TT DeLuxe - Mega Stations are restricted: Max 'stretch' is somewhere between 8 and 16 tiles, depending on WHICH DIRECTION you are extending in!
See my updated 'Max Stretch rules'. NB: If you use TTdPatch, you can avoid those stretch limitations.

Station Origin priorities:
Just Coal, Iron, Wood: These rarely get subsidized in TTo; go for 'long pay'. If subsidy is offered: you can afford to rebuild.
Cities: passengers or mail, to/from many cities - many possibilities: So place origin within 10 tiles of the city centre; even better: within 5 tiles of city centre - better town growth!
If you plan to use airplanes with this MEGA station, there's a risk of a crash! Within 10, 15 or 20 tiles of a city centre gives you a chance to repair the bad station ratings with an advertisement.
Factories: A number of things may be subsidied to / from it! so get that origin within the factory's acceptance range.

Warning 4: At least in TTo: Do not, DO NOT use the 'long pay' technique for the city stations you use to develop a town, and increase your popularity there! To develop a city, you should normally do the opposite! Have the station origins near the city centre; earn almost nothing now; the money can come later, when the city gets big.

Exceptions?: In TTo I have tried this combination:
- A station started with a Lorry station in city A, extended to bus stop in city B
- A station started with a Lorry station in city B, extended to bus stop in city A
- an extra local bus station in each city
- 1 bus per city, 2 stops; they both have short trips, but 'long pay' from the neighbour town.
- This works; your city rating and the towns' population grow; but more slowly than in the simple standard model with only local bus stops.
- This technique can even be used to transport valuables both ways, even if only 1 of the 2 cities has a bank! Try it!
Both stations have and accept valuables from bank A, but because one of the stations belongs to city B, it works - in TTo - probably not in TTd, unless the cities are very near to each other.

In TTd, you may also have a problem walking your Mega through a city - it's not so easy to tear down those urban streets.

Still, even in TTd you can reap large benefits from Mega stations. But you may have to trial-build a few times, until you get it right.

Advantages of simply collecting 2 or more resources into 1 station, rather than using 2 separate ones:
- You save a little 'Property maintenance' - fewer stations!

If you play it 'standard', you might have:
-- Station A with Copper; Station B with Rubber; Station C at the factory - (for both).
-- 2 short copper trains, with 2 tracks most of the way between A and C.
-- 2 short Rubber trains, with 2 tracks most of the way between B and C.

But with a MEGA AB station, you can use 2 or 3 long mixed trains; 2 tracks, max 3, are enough between stations AB and C.
And if one of the resources doubles production: just add some more wagons, or an extra train.

What about 'FULL LOAD'? You can 'LOAD' if the balance is kept right between the 2 resources. But with mixed loads it's usually better to let trains just GOTO, not FULL LOAD. With mixed loads the trains will usually visit quite often, one maybe doesn't even need a train or truck piglet as a ratings booster.

The Blood Transfusion trick:
if 2 stations A and B both produce goods; - but only A accepts Goods. So what?
You can have a goods train running back and forth A------B;
- use 'goto B UNLOAD; goto B'
The train will transport e.g. 100 cases of goods from A to B; unload them there; then load 220 cases: the 100 just dumped, and the 120 produced by B; all 220 now count as goods from B!
Then back to A, unload, money in the bank!
Same principle for coal, wood etc. Unload the cargo from the Low-pay station into the High-pay station; wait a little (send train to depot), then load up and go.

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In some of my other pages I now have screen shots from my "Tropical competition" TTd game - showing a few of my Mega stations there.

You might also have a look at Cecilie's MEGA Workshop: constructed examples of MEGA stations in TTd; - with pictures, and a save file to download.

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Now let's see some difficult TTd examples:
Especially your Airport should be attached to a MEGA station. With it's origin, Bus or Lorry stop near the heart of a city, but Airport and Rail Station well outside, giving the town lots of house space.

"WalkBack Mega station": Example of a MEGA station with Airport + Rail station, both stretched in the 'bad' direction, 'Down Right'. Origin = final Bus stop at 'O', 2+1 tiles from town centre. From there the station was walked along path 'w' to tile 'W'; deleting all other station elements.
from 'W': Airport, then Rail station were added. Then I walked back from the Airport, making docks on the way - maybe useful?
From Dock: back to Lorry stop, Bus stop at 'O'.
This station's stretch:
10 NS (Up right - Down left) - 12 EW (Down right - Up left).
The rail at 's' is a stadium-stopper! and those rails on coast ('b') stop the town from making silly bridges.
The empty stripe between Airport and Rail station makes room for a rail track here - very useful for a RoRo arrangement.

This town had not been 'prepared' by chopping trees in advance.
City ratings: VG3 --> mediocre 1; the whole operation chopped 14 trees in the town's area: 2 for the walk path, 12 more for rail station, airport. More than half of the rail station is outside, in NONE territory.

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Another example of a MEGA stretched the 'bad' way - Down, Right:
My Broome MEGA station (AusTrans game) has all 5 station elements.
The origin + lorry stop is 7 tiles north of the bus stop, hidden behind the bank; it catches Wood from the lumber mill.
The Lorry + Bus stops cover the whole city, generating lots of passg/mail; +wood,+copper.
To build this MEGA I had to walk out to north of the Airport site; delete all station elements minus one; add Airport. Then walk back to the origin, put the lorry stop there. Then use a temporary 1-track rail station from the airport to get the bus stop into place.
Finally add the real rail station, then docks, at maximum NS stretch. The rail station might have been 1 more South, (depots less cramped); but then no docks would have been possible.
The rail station has 2 separate RoRo loops, and is used by 6 mixed trains with: passengers, mail, wood, copper; and goods, diamonds coming in. All 5 station elements are being used.
City ratings: I had been 'saving up' for this; and most of the raintrees had been removed by the helpful lumber mill (NE corner of picture).

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My Melbourne MEGA station - all 5 station elements - is stretched the 'good' way, Up + Left: Stretch 14,17 is possible!
The bus- and lorry-stop straddle the city, with 8 tiles inbetween; so they cover the whole central city ... lots of passengers / mail.
This station was easier to build than Broome. Origin = Bus stop. From there I walked around town to the North lorry stop. From this: a temporary 1-track rail station going West, in order to add the Airport - EW stretch 11.
Then a temporary 1x1 rail station south of airport, in order to add docks in the river near Geelong; Then the real Rail station: 4 tracks is possible; 3 tracks was enough for me. The rail station can be rebuilt without disturbing the other station elements.
The railstation might have been 1 more South, to get wood from the Mt Gambier lumber mill. Now Mt Gambier MEGA gets that Wood.
Note the half-roads, to invite Melbourne to build houses!

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Mega stations - Is this cheating? Some of you will think: Some arguments - both ways:

• It's different from 'real life'. It doesn't feel natural.
• On the other hand, real life airports are often far from the cities they service, and with train / bus service integrated.
• Like all the other program loopholes / 'cheat' methods available: each player must make up her own mind which ones to reject. I myself would never use the 'make millions by building a looong tunnel / a tree, etc'; that is just not interesting.
• It's possible to use the MEGA station method without extending extremely far from the station's origin. In next TT version, there will probably be a limit on how far from the origin one can 'walk'.
  Here is a discussion about this.
• "I do not condone the Walking of Stations ..." someone writes on the Web. But Chris Sawyer condones it!
  Since the programmer put in a maximum span (120 tiles, or 12 or ...) for station stretch, he is aware of the possibilities, and has left them there on purpose; unlike some other 'cheat' methods, which are simply due to straight bugs in the program.
• Building good Mega-stations adds a new challenge to the game! Find the right resources to connect; the right pairs or triplets of Mega stations to build.
  How to walk the station from A to B without tearing down mountains: through cities is often OK! temporarily remove some streets;
  but it's good TTetiquette to rebuild the streets afterwards!
  
• Getting the railway station far out in 'no mans land' gives you the opportunity to experiment with the Ro Ro or one-way station: one which can service a lot of trains with few bottlenecks. There are several good models on the Web; try J.S. Baughn's TT Semi-FAQ
  

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NB! This page was originally written from plain old TTo experience; station stretch had almost no limits. Revised 2002, 2003.

Last updated: megastat.htm 2004-0415,0201 , 2003-0105 ,(2001-0528, 990424,0404, 980602)

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