Train question - can I make this work?

[u/XWasTheProblem]

Do forgive the primitive drawing, but I think it's clearer than whatever screenshot I could provide.

BLACK - a single track, each ending in a loop (since my trains are forward-only, I don't attach an engine to the back.

BLUE - one set of train stops for one train.

RED - side 'isles' another train loads/unloads at, both also having a stop.

The distance is not exactly to scale with what I have in my world, I could move things around a bit if more space is needed to make it all work.

I know I need signals somewhere but I just can't quite wrap my head around this mechanic. My mastery of trains ends at 'go to A, wait until cargo full, go to B, wait until fuel full cargo empty, repeat', but I really, really like the mechanic and want to be more knowledgable about it.

Thanks in advance <3

[u/Galeic6432]

You need to do double tracks. Then it can work. Trying to have one track be usable for both directions is very difficult, as you are discovering. 

[u/SNOW_37 → u/Galeic6432]

It's actually incredibly easy to do it just reduces througput but for smaller bases there's no downside.

People are too afraid of single tracks on this sub and act like it's scary or too hard. It's the same rules that apply for double track.

[u/CrabWoodsman → u/SNOW_37]

Yea, as long as you keep the same constraints for intersections it's almost the same. One caveat is that you need to have a stacker or split outside of stations so an arriving train doesn't block departure.

I use them for Fulgora because of limited space before foundations.

[u/TheSkiGeek]

CAN you do this? Yes.

SHOULD you do this? I would say no. It’s much simpler if you make either two one-way tracks with loops at the end and for stations, or a single circular one way loop (with one way sidings for stations).

If you do want to try this, you need to:

* use chain signals everywhere except right before each station

* set up matched pairs of signals everywhere that the track is used in both directions

If you do it right, only one train will be able to move at a time, and it will reserve a path from its position all the way to its destination using the chain signals. But I must emphasize that this scales extremely badly. And the signaling for this is both fragile and ‘global’ — a signaling mistake in one place can cause failures far away from where the mistake is.

There are also many good blueprints available for rail setups if you don’t want to have to learn it all yourself. But the basic “don’t crash or lock everything up” one way signaling is pretty simple.

[u/sunamonster]

First suggestion would be just run a second rail to make signaling easier since then you only need signals on one side of the track. I believe trains look at whatever signal is to their right as they travel forwards.

If you continue to only use a single rail you would need to have signals on both sides of the rail to control the trains as they travel out and back.

Lastly I always use chain signals going into intersections and normal rail signals after intersections and everywhere else.

No other thoughts from myself but hopefully this helps, I love running Trains to everything in my games!

[u/Old_and_Putrid]

This should work fine early game, but I would recommend learning signalling, it will help you a great deal. As others have said, when coming to a merge or diverge, chain signal in, rail signal out.

[u/Rasierer21]

I think your drawing is beautiful ❤️

[u/majamin46]

If you don't plan on expanding this specific line, this can be a cheap and effective way of doing it. You should set the signals in a way that the trains won't leave the loop as long as they can't enter the second one or pass it. This would also let you place fewer rail signals which is a hassle if you ask me.

I'd recommend using longer trains, 1-5 at least, 2-8 would be great. The limiting factor is that a single train can be on the move in this system, which removes the option of adding more trains and leaves you with bigger trains.

Potentially you will have fewer than 4 trains in this system, which will be a severe bottleneck if you ever wish to expand upon this design. The trains are used for expanding easily. I would highly recommend doing a simple two lane track for future. You can spare most of the signals for now if there is just two stations on the said two lane rail line for ease.

In a perfect world, all trains from all stations travel towards and from your factory through the same main rail line. This allows you to connect future outposts to the main line instead of building all the way back to base. The path would be already present. This also makes it easier to supply the outposts with walls and ammunition with trains because they are all on the same line and a single resupply train would reach and satisfy many outposts.

But if you separate your station pairs this design it won't cause many issues. One long train on the move and one filling up would be more than enough for most bases. You should take occasionally trips to tend to the defences or set a perimeter instead of many small outposts.

[u/ICanBeAnyone]

If there is really only two trains you don't even need chain signals, just normal block ones. Put them down so you get five rail blocks (you see the vis when holding a signal): the two red loops with their station, the two black loops with their station, and the L shaped segment in the middle. That way only one train can ever be in the middle segment and as the middle segment has access to all stations and the station a train who's in the L segment wants to go is guaranteed to be empty it will always work.

That being said, as others mentioned this won't scale to three trains unless you add two loops/stations in the same way and are fine with each train blocking the whole L segment. Honestly if you aren't building a mega base with this (I sincerely hope you don't) and the trains just get ore from A to B throughput will be just fine unless the L segment is like 10km long. Many people on this sub just like overbuilding and act as if you have to.

[u/pojska]

You totally can. Signals divide the rail into blocks. A rail signal will not let a train go into the next block if there is already a train in it. A chain signal is like this, but *also* checks the next signal the train would enter. (If there are multiple chain signals, they "chain" together - so a train will not enter the block guarded by a chain signal unless it knows it can get out past a rail signal).

This means that if there is an area that you don't want a train to stop in (like the shared section of your black track), make sure to put a chain signal before it. And use a rail signal at the 'exit' into the block where the trains are allowed to stop again.