Hiya Lynne,
Well id like to address both games differently and hope I can help you with your Coaster Building skills in RTC:)
RAILROAD TYCOON
I remember getting the first one way way back and fell in love with it. Yes its a great stress reliever. Except when you watch your money train come back with Nada when you got a hostile takeover cooking! RT2 was another great game that i spent hours and hours on. Getting your San Fran to Fresno line going while trying to squeeze out the other guys was great fun. I kinda liked RT3. The full game has much more and you can still pan out and get that old school goodness. I'm not sure about your system but mine ran just fine and the trains looked pretty cool as they were going down the track. I liked that you can buy your own factory's and get the most out your towns to build them up to mega city's. The scenarios were tough and challenging with a nice sandbox and Internet play modes. I liked it. Witch brings me to..
ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON
OMG as a guy who loves amusement parks this game was pure computer crack. A game where id look at the clock and realize that id have to be at work in 4 hours not knowing where the time has gone and STILL trying to lie to myself that i can make it on 3 hours sleep. I consider myself a very non obsessive guy and this game made me rethink that. They are coming out with RCT3D and it looks fantastic with such things and make your own fireworks display with your own music. Check it out and when you come back ill give you tips on how to make the perfect coasters...
http://www.atari.com/rollercoastertycoon/Pretty cool huh? Thats a must get game for me..Ok how to make a great coaster. Ok as you know what goes up must come down try not to make hills bigger than the hill before it unless the train is going very fast ( Testing click on the test icon then with clicking on the camera position will zero in on your car and how fast its going..ONLY test with one car on the track to keep it from blowing up ) Just take away 10..If the hill is 90 feet try making the other 80..OR when you got the smaller hills at say the first one is 90 and the second one is 70 you can get away with another 70 if the train is going fast enough ) and just work your way down to the end of the ride. Try to keep the cars at the top of the hills from not going too fast ESP if you got a curved drop dont have too many curved uphills it will make the ride more intense. And to keep your little peeps from puking all over your park and keep the intensity down my rule of thumb is this. Curves not higher than 38 MPH and loops not higher than 25 MPH. Bank your curves if going over 20MPH. Longer curves the cars can go faster than the tighter curves. Coasters are very different they way the handle. Try not to let your Intensity go over 8 ( 7 to 8 is perfect 9 is pushing it )and the nausea don't let go over 6. Brakes help but it take away from excitement so try not to have too many brakes if you can help it..Think SMOOTH ride. And to help create more excitement for your ride getting the tracks as close as you can always bumps up the excitement. Scenery and trees help too. You have a good coaster that the peeps love and the battle for making a great park. Can you tell Ive played this game a bit LOL
Have a great day
Scott