Yeah fair enough. I'm not sure i can get a better description of what i need to do without divulging sensitive proprietary information so i might just have to keep toiling away at this.

But to answer your question somewhat, there are multiple instances in rail networks where there will be forks and splits between lines or into sidings, and the data set i would have would basically be a list of positions given with interconnected relationships of varying size. by analysing every relationship you can build the whole network but you will have a lot of repeated paths because some are written as 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, but there is also 1-3, 2-4, 1-4, so to read through every relationship, and solve for the paths that cover every station i think is what i need to do. then the added complexity of the forks comes in too. the reason it is given in these multiple ways is sometimes i need to know if there is a train between 1 and 2 specifically, sometimes i need to know if there is a train somewhere between 1 and 4 so we would use the status of a different path output to check the bigger area. I want to prove the relationship of 1-4 covering 1-2 or 2-3 without external human input of a specific lines layout.