Township Train Upgrade Guide: How to Get Building Materials Fast

To solve shortages of bricks, concrete slabs, glass, and barn expansion tools in Township, spend your metal ingots at the Academy of Industry to upgrade train lines before upgrading factories or ships. Upgrading each train line to level 21 cuts its round-trip travel time by the maximum cap of 50%, effectively doubling your incoming supply of essential construction items.

Why Train Upgrades Take Priority Over Factories

Trains serve as your primary source of construction supplies and barn expansion tools, including nails, hammers, and paint. In contrast, helicopter orders only supply coins and experience points, while ships deliver fruit and island commodities.

Spending ingots early on factories like the Bakery or Dairy creates an inventory problem: goods produce faster, but without sufficient barn upgrades and completed community buildings, your barn quickly runs out of storage space. By prioritizing train travel time reductions, you accelerate the delivery of materials required to enlarge the barn and construct new infrastructure.

Academy of Industry Upgrade Path

The Academy of Industry unlocks once repaired at level 22. Each train route can reach level 31, but transit time upgrades stop yielding speed increases after level 21. Beyond level 21, upgrades only increase the experience points granted by departing train cars.

Step-by-Step Leveling Strategy

1. Unlock all three train routes: You start with one train line. Unlock the second line at level 14 and the third line at level 25.
2. Raise trains evenly to level 11: Upgrade Train 1, Train 2, and Train 3 in parallel to level 11 to shorten wait times across all available tracks.
3. Push each line to level 21: Focus on one train at a time from level 11 to level 21, selecting the 5% time reduction at each eligible tier until the train reaches the 50% cap.
4. Halt ingot investment at level 21: Once a train reaches a 50% reduction, stop spending ingots on it. Direct remaining resources into your unmaxed trains.

Gathering Ore and Smelting Ingots

Upgrading three train lines to level 21 requires substantial reserves of bronze, silver, gold, and platinum ingots.

• Save digging tools for events: Stockpile pickaxes, dynamite, and TNT for mine events such as "Ruler of the Mine" or "Mine Time" to earn milestone rewards while extracting ore.
• Activate laboratory boosters: Run the "See the Light" booster during long mining sessions to reveal the locations of hidden ore deposits and buried tools.
• Keep foundries active: Smelt ore into ingots continuously. If gold or platinum supplies run low, keep smelting bronze and silver to avoid idle queues.

Managing Barn Storage with Faster Trains

Doubling train arrival speeds increases demands on your barn. To keep storage open for inbound construction materials, apply these storage practices:

• Use factory shelves as holding areas: Leave finished, slow-to-produce goods on their factory output platforms until an outgoing train car specifically requests them.
• Avoid stockpiling basic crops: Grow wheat, corn, and carrots on demand rather than letting them take up permanent barn slots.
• Spend materials immediately: As soon as an incoming train provides the final supplies needed for a community building or barn tier, complete the upgrade right away to clear the inventory space.

Common Ingot Spending Pitfalls

Avoid dividing your ingots across islands and factories before all three trains reach the 50% speed cap:

• Island ship upgrades: Ships consume large amounts of bronze and silver ingots, but island produce is only needed for specialized recipes and occasional orders.
• Factory XP enhancements: Upgrading factory experience increases player levels without providing the barn capacity or building tools needed to manage higher-level demands.
• Upgrading trains past level 21: Sinking platinum and gold into train levels 22 through 31 grants only XP boosts, which does not help with material farming.