Night Depot: Shunting Shift

No combat, no clickers. A timetable, one locomotive, and rails you cannot stretch.

How the shift works

1. Wagons arrive on the intake tracks with a tail number and a consist to join. Every consist has its own departure time; the order must be right before it.

2. The locomotive has a move budget. Pushing forward costs one, reversing costs double — half of all mistakes are paid for exactly there.

3. A dead-end holds exactly as many wagons as it has rail. Couple the wrong tail and the road is blocked for the rest of the shift.

4. A switch moves only when no cut crosses it. Rush it and you get a derailment, which costs more than a delay.

5. Fog hides the manifest until the wagon reaches the switch: plan one wagon ahead blind, or your second move is a paid one.

Tips

• Keep one road free until the end of the shift — the emergency tail always shows up early.
• Build the far consist first and the near one last: turning back in time costs more than turning back on rails.
• An extra wagon in a dead-end is not 'I'll move it later', it is a blocked road for the whole shift.