Max number of trains going through a station

dghillza · Post by **dghillza** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:08 am

Hi All,

I was playing around to see what is the maximum number of trains I could get going through a station / city without having them grid lock - sure they have to wait a bit for other trains to leave but I got it up to 18
I had 3 lines going through the station and then each line split into 3 from both sides. What's the most you have had going through?

Weps · Post by **Weps** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:16 pm

24

And I think it's the max possible. (Adding a switch / train anywhere and it will get stuck sooner or later)

3 lines through the station, connect on each end a switch, and each end of those 6 switches another 12 switches.

........................=1
................==S =2
station ==S
................==S.=3
........................=4

add a switch anywhere and trains will get stuck.

But you said "passing through", well, thats "unlimited". All you need is a loop that goes through every city/resource. Add a train for every stop.

Bleser · Post by **Bleser** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:56 pm

This will all change with the next patch that will support stations being able to connect to 4 tracks (up from 3)!

dghillza · Post by **dghillza** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:43 pm

I supose passing through would be unlimited! I actually didn't have any trains passing through - they all deliveries and collections to make basically what I had was 9 trains comming in from the North and the woud all leave the same way they came and then another 9 comming in from the south and leave the same way they came in. At times I'd have 5 trains waiting to get to the station but as soon as the train at the station was free it would move out and the other would contuine in turn - I must say it looks impressive having all this activity around a city

darthdroid · Post by **darthdroid** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:19 am

I can imagine 24, but NOT with half on each side ie, you cant have them running opposite directions into the same piece of track at station, they must run same direction as any track they share a piece with (same direction into station that is). And 24 is not the max, infinity is. But yes, the more trains past 4 you have the more waiting there will be all else held equal.

But frankly on the rarest of occassions I've actually needed about 12 running into a station and did so with minimal waiting (0% on like 9 maybe 3-10% waiting on the other 3), and this is really uncommon.....so the final answer would be: As many as you need.

-Bob the Lunatic

darthdroid · Post by **darthdroid** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:20 am

Of course any time I talk about routing, I ASSUME we mean "hard routing".....with easy or medium routing it's no fun at all

-Bob

darthdroid · Post by **darthdroid** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:37 am

To help alleviate the confusion created by words. here's a simple example of 8 tracks into a station done PROPERLY. there are no trains in this example, but if you need this many tracks, set it up similar to this and it will work fine, with minimal waiting.

-Bob the Lunatic

darthdroid · Post by **darthdroid** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:45 am

Just so we're clear, here's one with about 21 tracks going into a station, it ain't that pretty but you get the idea...and frankly I don't think 21 COULD look pretty lol. 12 is fathomable, but 21 would be stupid...why? Cuz you should take those resources to other cities. It is possible on some maps that you'd need to bring 12 trains into one city....so that's only 2 splits per track....still pretty efficient.

Again, no trains here, but this is the key thing to note: All trains are running into the station. Note that no tracks are shared back to back, but only tracks running same direction are shared. I'll do one more after this as I don't think I can make it clear with words to demonstrate the WRONG way

-Bob the Lunatic

darthdroid · Post by **darthdroid** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:53 am

Lastly, this is the WRONG way to do it shown below.
One more attempt at explaining why: Sooner or later you're gonna do hard routing, when you do you should have learned how to route right or you're gonna have to unlearn old stuff and learn NEW stuff and have piles of problems for a while. If they run like shown below, trains WILL come face to face, they will both (or more than 2) get stuck and you will have to start deleting stuff and lose lots of money scrapping and from time wasted.

If you do it the ABOVE ways, the trains may have to wait a little for each other, but they will keep moving eventually without any help or adjustments from you. BECAUSE they're all going the same way, they turn around at station and get out of each other's way....see?

K, here is the WRONG way: NO NO NO lol