How to specify from which platform a new train should depart

[najevi]

Game version: 1.1
Routing difficulty: Hard
Map: NE USA

I had a bizarre situation recently and it prompts the above question. For the most part I adhere to the one train per track method of routing with just a few exceptions I'd rather not get into here.

Suppose you have 3 parallel tracks running through a coal resource and leading to station NY. Each track is delivering some train consist and you now want to add a track+annexe+train to pick up coal and carry it to NY station which has a steel mill.

Now you might have chosen to lay track that forked away from the 3 parallel tracks and place an annexe uniquely on that fork ... but I did not. I routed a 4th track parallel to the other 3 and ran it to NY station. I then placed the coal annexe adjacent to this newly placed 4th track. I fully expected the track/platform nearest to the annexe to be the track/platform used by the next new train that I added with a route starting from this newly placed coal annexe and terminating at NY station.

To my surprise the new train was added to the track/platform farthest away from the annexe! That track was already dedicated to some other train+consist and would eventually lead to problems. Of course the ambiguity arises because there are now four possible routes from this new coal annexe to NY station.

Similar experiences with fewer parallel tracks has taught me that one way to avoid this problem is to wait for (an)other train(s) to be occupying any other platforms/tracks at the annexe or station and then pause the game to add the new train. That way only one track/platform is vacant for the new train to possibly depart from. However, this was a 4 track situation and I did not have the patience to wait for 3 trains to coincidentally occupy those other 3 tracks at this newly placed annexe. (I also naively thought that, unlike a terminal, an annexe would not recognize all 4 parallel tracks as being associated with it.)

So the brute force method I resorted to was to add one ... two ... three ... four(!) trains at the same annexe and sadly it was only the 4th train that was placed on the (desired) track/platform nearest to the newly placed coal annexe! ... I then deleted the other 3 trains!

Now in this particular case I had plenty of cash and could afford to create and then delete trains but that is not always the case.

• Does anyone know of a fool proof way of specifying from which platform a new train should depart a station? (e.g. Something akin to specifying "nearest" "middle" "farthest" which I seem to recall from the Transport Tycoon train routing interface.)

As I write this post, it occurs to me that one solution might be to lay additional track, if need be, such that there is a destination station or annexe that is unique to the target track/platform. In other words make an effort to ensure that there is a unique (begin, end) pair of stations/annexes for each platform at a station or annexe. ... Once a train is placed on the target track it can be re-routed as desired.

[karsten]

Pretty complete analysis, from my experience!

[Jediron]

No, there isn,t.

The only way to get the train exactly there where you want it, is too make sure the route the train will take is unique so in order for the train to complete his route, the train MUST use the track/station you want it too.

When there are more choices for a route; there is not a bulletfroof methode, other then waiting for other trains fill u the station as you describe OR removing some rails from the unwanted route(s). Which involves deleting trains often, to clear the track.

Btw; there is one rocksolid methode to get 2 trains on one track, place a bypass somewhere in the middle of the trains route, long enough to "park" a train there. This way both trains have room to pass eachother and this never fails.