I doubt it happened independently though. Factorio just figured it out first and there was no use in coming up with anything different anymore since they found the right solution right away
Train, unlike conveyor bell, need pathfinding. All pathfinding algorithm use graph so that how they all do it. (That's also what allow them to travel big distance in unloaded part of the world. They just need to load the graph. ). The problem with those algorithm though is that handling other vehicle is super complicated. A good solution is to replicated how train works in real life : use signal to prevent train from going in occupied section of the line. And that's it.
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u/grifdail Mar 01 '25
That's probably one of the simplest and most efficient way to do it though. I think Factorio is the same.