When I started Railroader, the locomotive was never the end goal. It was the means. What I really wanted was a way to live on the railroad: a base that moves, so you can roll from town to town, loot what's along the line, and come back to your own bed, your own stove and your own stash, wherever the rails took you that day.
With 3.0 you can do that for the first time.
The caboose. The K&L kept two cabooses, KL 3 in red and KL 5 in yellow, and both are somewhere in every world: by the engine shed at Muldraugh, at the shops, at the tail of a cut in a yard, or set aside at a depot. Find one, couple it behind the 800, and you have:
a bunk to sleep on and chairs to sit in
cabinets and cupboards for your loot, and a floor that takes cargo
a mini-fridge that keeps food from spoiling
a sink with its own water tank
a wood stove to cook on and keep warm by
lights and a battery that charges while the train rolls, or from a generator when she stands
The cabin stays dry and warm, even on the move. Zombies will climb the end stairs and can break a door down, so it's a home and not a fortress.
The boxcar is your freight car. Its hold carries what you haul, you can lay a sleeping bag out on its floor, and while it stands it shelters you like a building.
Making up a train. Back the locomotive onto standing cars at a walk and they couple. Uncouple them anywhere and they stay where you left them. A train with cars needs the Air Brake and Train Handling Rules book, which is now out in the world.
So the loop I had in mind from day one finally works: load up, couple on, drive to the next town, park the train on a siding, go looting, come back to a warm caboose and a full fridge, sleep, move on.
The cars are by DrewGoodOne, who modelled the boxcar, the caboose and the new locomotive trucks. Without him this update would not look the way it does.
Thank you for supporting this. Every coffee went into hours of work on exactly this update. If you play it, I'd really like to hear how your first trip went.
Railroader on the Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3774360904