Other Tips
  Feeders

Sometimes it is useful to build a "feeder" service for your station (sometimes known as a "piglet"). A feeder is a vehicle that picks up cargo, transports it part of the way to its destination and drops it off at another station. Here it is picked up by another vehicle and taken the rest of the way.

Feeders can be used in several situations. Large stations and airports can not be placed in the population centre of most towns because there isn't enough room. Instead, you can build the station/port on the edge of the town and build a feeder (or feeders) between the town centre and the station.

If there are two primary industries (such as coal mines, oil wells, etc) near each other, but not close enough to build one station that covers both, you can use a feeder. Build your main station next to one of the industries, preferably the one closest to the intended destination, and then build a feeder between it and the other industry.

The third place I can think of where a feeder would be useful is on Oil Rigs. Because trains are faster than ships, you can use the ship as a feeder to a nearby train station and use a train to transport the oil the rest of the way.

Although it is not necessary, having TTDPatch helps. The feeder switch (feederservice or -Xf) enables all vehicles involved in transporting the cargo to get a share in the profit, instead of just the last one. It also changes the "Unload" command. When a vehicle unloads, its cargo will now be added to the station's waiting cargo even if it that station accepts that type of cargo. However, this can mess up the AI, which always uses Unload. A vehicle with unload orders will not pick up any cargo at that station if the switch is enabled.