Advanced routing - how it works in the game
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:34 am
When playing Super Bowl Express map, I started to wonder how to speed up long distance transport of passengers or goods. I have also wanted to switch to hard routing difficulty and needed to avoid any deadlock.
I started to study a simple problem. How many trains I can run safely between two places while only using a single platform in each city:
Getting from single train to two trains is easy:
*edit: removed two_trains_working_214.jpg*
You can also lay the double track only in the middle or in multiple places. If it was possible to setup tracks to only allow train in one direction, it would be possible to run three trains on this layout as well. Unfortunatelly, it does not work.
I started to look for ways how to get three trains working simultaneously. At first I could only come up with this layout:
*edit: removed three_trains_working_253.jpg*
Disadvantage turned out to be that one of the trains decided to wait at the beginning of the track instead of proceeding through it to next semaphore loosing time when the platform became available. Other big problem was that this setup required two platforms at each station so it would not really solve the problem.
Besides, when you need two platforms, you can just create second double track and get four trains running:
*edit: removed three_trains_working_253.jpg four_trains_working_131.jpg*
This gives you even more cargo capacity but you still need two platforms.
I have tried several other things, among others to create loop like this one but trains just ignored the longer route completely.
*edit: removed three_trains_working_253.jpg three_trains_lockup_285.jpg*
In theory this setup should have supported up to 5 trains running simultaneously.
Then I remembered that when playing Scrooge 1.0 scenario, I have used closed loop to transport wood from sawmill to Shady Hollow, then paper to Tinseltown and empty train to sawmill. When both places started accepting passengers, I added passenger cars to transport them as well. The trains picked up passengers in both Shady Hollow and Tinseltown and on the way to Shady Hollow, train stopped to add wood. This setup had benefit of having trains used 100%. The setup looked like this:
*edit: removed circular_track_161.jpg*
In the simple form, the track consisted of 6 segments and could support up to 5 simultaneous trains. Picture is actually showing 7 simultaneous trains running and to allow this, I had to split segments between stations into multiple smaller ones (we will return to this topic at the end of the post again).
I started to study a simple problem. How many trains I can run safely between two places while only using a single platform in each city:
Getting from single train to two trains is easy:
*edit: removed two_trains_working_214.jpg*
You can also lay the double track only in the middle or in multiple places. If it was possible to setup tracks to only allow train in one direction, it would be possible to run three trains on this layout as well. Unfortunatelly, it does not work.
I started to look for ways how to get three trains working simultaneously. At first I could only come up with this layout:
*edit: removed three_trains_working_253.jpg*
Disadvantage turned out to be that one of the trains decided to wait at the beginning of the track instead of proceeding through it to next semaphore loosing time when the platform became available. Other big problem was that this setup required two platforms at each station so it would not really solve the problem.
Besides, when you need two platforms, you can just create second double track and get four trains running:
*edit: removed three_trains_working_253.jpg four_trains_working_131.jpg*
This gives you even more cargo capacity but you still need two platforms.
I have tried several other things, among others to create loop like this one but trains just ignored the longer route completely.
*edit: removed three_trains_working_253.jpg three_trains_lockup_285.jpg*
In theory this setup should have supported up to 5 trains running simultaneously.
Then I remembered that when playing Scrooge 1.0 scenario, I have used closed loop to transport wood from sawmill to Shady Hollow, then paper to Tinseltown and empty train to sawmill. When both places started accepting passengers, I added passenger cars to transport them as well. The trains picked up passengers in both Shady Hollow and Tinseltown and on the way to Shady Hollow, train stopped to add wood. This setup had benefit of having trains used 100%. The setup looked like this:
*edit: removed circular_track_161.jpg*
In the simple form, the track consisted of 6 segments and could support up to 5 simultaneous trains. Picture is actually showing 7 simultaneous trains running and to allow this, I had to split segments between stations into multiple smaller ones (we will return to this topic at the end of the post again).