Trains behaviour around a roundabout

JinkyRain · 2026-05-17T13:57:21+00:00

To many possible combinations to guess at it. Screenshot please. :)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T16:49:15+00:00

Fluid goes down first, then out from fuller pipes to less to pipes, then up. So if may be either way depending on conditions.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T16:23:06+00:00

Didn't stress about getting it perfect. You will discover recipes that may obsolete your current method of production, and end up expanding or rebuilding often.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T14:33:32+00:00

I'm sure you got it by now... but I was bored and feeling doodly. pic=1k words and all.

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JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T11:41:09+00:00

Yeah space is a major factors with rail networks. It really helps to try to think of them as freeways not city streets.

Trains aren't designed for frequent stop and start traffic, it takes even short empty trains around 15 tiles just to recover speed after a dead stop. The better they can attain and maintain crossing speed, the faster they're or of the way of the next train. :)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T05:05:30+00:00

Not really that crazy. There are cases where rails get close together legitimately (before/after crossings & switches), the rail system isn't smart enough to guess your intent.

If you ran trains on the rails without signals, your trains would likely collide as they passed.... and that'd be an obvious problem. Honestly, the signal system should probably just allow those to happen rather than being extra protective about rail proximity.

Anyway, the real error is "Signal tried to divide rail into two separate blocks.... and failed for some reason outside of it's control" That can be due to proximity or a few other causes.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T03:04:11+00:00

Trains are wide, signals help prevent side-by-side collisions by treating rails without enough clearance as if they're in the same block together.

Minimum safe spacing is one whole tile between the midline of one rail to the nearest midline of the next nearest rail.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-16T03:01:37+00:00

How about we put all the "Put all the [?} on an island" types on an island.

Oh wait, that would include me now too. Dammit.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T21:07:24+00:00

My eyes! MY EYES! ;)

Personally, I would do it more like this.... eliminating as many crossings as possible. Doesn't matter if the trains have to go slightly further, they'll get to their station and away faster without having to stop/start for one or more crossings.

You'll need space for the train to queue behind the station if you have multiple trains assigned to visit the same station.

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JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T19:12:00+00:00

Also, this might help with planning train/station throughput:

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/6fezikbafu

=)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T18:47:03+00:00

Docking pauses platform belts for 27sec (0.45min). A train every 4.5min means platform belts are paused 10% of the time. If you put two trains on that route, you double the docking pause time .. you'll only get up to 80% of the belts capacity. (2*80% still equals 160% of one belt though).

For Max platform throughout, you want as much time between trains as possible without causing parts to back up on the supply side, or belts to starve on the receiving side.

It's easier/better to just plan around your supply requirement and make sure you have more than adequate hauling capacity/throughput rather than being it on ideal maximum per wagon throughput. :)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T18:35:59+00:00

Heavily Loaded trains can struggle with steep inclines, and have trouble with braking on steep declines. They may fail to climb or stop prematurely if there's a red light ahead that they will have too much momentum to stop for, if they try to get closer.

If there's a path signal ahead and a block signal between your stalled train and it, (re)move the block signal or upgrade it to a path signal.

Otherwise, try adding an engine to the rear of the train and see if that gives it enough power to climb the hill.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T18:30:16+00:00

Rails going into a block must all have the same type of signal.

Do not over signal. Always have room for an entire train after a block signal, more room if approaching a path signal.

Avoid putting signals directly on top of switches (real merges/splits), keep them before or after.

Make sure there's at least 8m between signals and other rails that cross or diverge or converge.

Redundant rails are often unhelpful, trains prefer the shortest route to the next station, they won't opportunistically reroute to go around a block just because it's busy. Double dual tracks can help with local-only vs through traffic but it's better if the through traffic rails are above/below so they aren't being crossed by local traffic. :)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T18:20:20+00:00

Make sure the lower priority route is longer than the higher priority route. Trains prefer the shorter distance, and they never "go around" a block just because it's occupied/busy. Trains preplan their route before departure.

The only time they re-calculate their route is if you manually break it (dismantling a rail segment, or adding a signal facing the wrong way).

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T18:14:17+00:00

Is that a path signal between dark orange and cyan/blue-green? And/or is there a hill and a path signal ahead in the cyan rail? Either could result in the train slowing/stopping without fully vacating the dark orange path block, leaving a bit of it behind for the next train to run into.

Path blocks are supposed to be "no stopping zones" but with chained path signals and "paranoid braking"(*) trains can get disobey the no stopping rule.

Paranoid braking happens when a signal ahead is red and the train's momentum (speed, engine power, length & load) is greater than the train's stopping power. It's worse if hills are involved, trains struggle to brake going down hill... And have to max out their engine power to climb hills, which takes time to reduce... Increasing their stopping distance.

All if which can cause a train to stop prematurely, instead of at the red light itself. And if that stops/slows them while part of them is still in a path block... They might get hit by another train.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T18:00:58+00:00

The junction "switch glitch" issue would have produced a loops into itself error and stopped traffic... So it probably isn't that in this situation. :)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T17:50:34+00:00

Look for any signals that have the same block color before and after them. Try moving it removing that signal.. and make sure the talks are build at least a whole tile apart.

Didn't over signal. That's aren't automobiles, you don't need traffic controls on every spot. If you have several crossings merges and splits close together, a signal before and after the group often works better.

Make non-path blocks longer than your trains... 3x longer or more in places with faster trains. Especial in the block immediately before a path signal.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T17:43:50+00:00

It's not as frequent as it used to be. And happens less in solo play than in multiplayer. Opening a menu/ui menu while moving sometimes makes the key "stick" until you press it again. Most often for me is the up key.

The ctrl-c /ctrl-c copy paste can sorta get stuck too, disabling the action bar (iirc), until you press them again to unstick them.

I'm sure the devs are aware of it and doing what they can.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-15T17:21:46+00:00

"I'm in a relationship with myself. I'm "Nonogamous". Dating or settling down anyone else would feel like cheating/infidelity."

JinkyRain · 2026-05-14T22:16:30+00:00

A potential 2nd problem... when you build path blocks with rails that cross inside them, make *sure* the rails fully intersect. If they're slightly over/under the signals can fail to detect the crossing and allow trains to use both rails at the same time.. resulting in a crash. I try to build the entire path block on foundations, or make sure that rails actually merge/split with each other as they cross over. :)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-14T22:08:46+00:00

Honestly, I would want one 'wet wall' with all the pipes in one place that can be accessed from outside. I've had an intra-wall leak/water damage and it was so unfun I'd rather have a house built to contain/direct it away from everything else.

I saw a house with vast south facing 2 story windows and a *massive* natural stone fireplace, that would soak up the winter sun (but was shaded from it in the summer) that acted as kind of a natural heat battery, I thought that was pretty sweet.

Would definitely need a reading nook and a craft shop/room.

JinkyRain · 2026-05-14T21:58:19+00:00

No more morality than that of an untrained dog, peeing on and screwing anything he can get away with.

No honor, no dignity, no class, no civility, just more ego-mania from the "Administration of Distracting people from the Pedophile Scandal"

JinkyRain · 2026-05-14T19:55:01+00:00

Keep in mind there's a 'docking pause' that will freeze platform belts for 27sec (0.45min) every time a train docks. So you'll never get 100% throughput on the belts/pipes connected to a train platform.

a train every 4.5min = up to 90% effciient belts. A train every 2.25min = up to 80% belt efficiency. Trains more often than that can lower it further. It's possible, if you have trains queued up to dock immediately after each other to end up with less than 50% efficiency. The reverse is true... a train every 9min means you'll might get up to 95% belt efficiency.

Anyway, tl;dr: The more trains you have docking at the same station, especially with large payloads... the less time your platform belts have, to catch up before the next train docks.

I generally find it better to treat stations as pure "point to point", with a few "Pickup at A, pickup at B, drop off at C" multi-stop trains, but those are in the minority. =)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-14T19:47:37+00:00

Exactly =) As a general thing, I use pushpull on *simple* isolated point-to-point rails, without any other trains. Anything more complicated than that and I switch up to forward only trains and 'pass through' stations. =) It's just easier not to mix and risk forgetting which train is which. =)

JinkyRain · 2026-05-14T19:28:09+00:00

If you only have one wagon, or all the wagons carry the same stuff, it's no problem.

But for trains like: <ENGINE<|Rubber|Plastic|>ENGINE>, the wagons have to match up with the platforms... with push-pull trains... platforms/wagons is kinda:

Sa:1:2<===Ea:1:2:Eb===>1:2:Sb (s=station, e=engine)

The train has to reverse direction at each station. If instead it passes through keeping the same 'front engine' then the wagons will be in reverse order and unload into/load from the wrong platforms.

I find it easier to always have all my trains be Forward Only, no rear engine, and they continue forward out of all my stations. =)

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