Crowded rai line

[skunkpuppy]

My style is to have one trunk line between each town, and all the passenger and cargo trains go on this one trunk line. Closer to the station (usually passenger/cargo mixed stations), the trains will then split up into individual lines, heading to their own platforms (one platform per line).

I thought this is optimal use of the rails, but now it's getting crowded and my trains delay each other near the station, and at points long the trunk line where one trunk line meets another.

Ideas?

[juliejayne]

Double the tracks, and stick the cargo on the slow line and the passengers on the express.

Also check your speeds, make sure that they can all travel at the same speed. on each line.

[Autocoach]

A few things . Do your lines merge with flying junctions so that you avoid crossing the down line with an up line (say) and do those junctions have good line speed through them . And at the station do terminating/reversing trains terminate in the middle again to avoid crossing moves but yes I would go 4 track where required

Can you (do you want to) maybe reduce the number of trains by doubling them up ?

[skunkpuppy]

I thought of separating cargo from passenger, but figured it would result in many junctions. But I didn't think of flying junctions. I suppose I should use overhead bridges more.

Would that seriously slow down trains as they climb the bridge?

I think I can also increase the train length. I usually stop adding carriages once it reaches "Mediocre". But should I just heck it and do really long trains? If so, I guess I should also start provisioning for longer train stations.

[Autocoach]

Climbing can slow them down depending on the era but don't forget it will stop a full speed train going the other way hitting a red if the joining train is crossing it's path.

Sometimes the terrain in the area is helpful as here
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2104883011


Hint : More than one loco on longer trains ....

[skunkpuppy]

Originally posted by Autocoach:

Hint : More than one loco on longer trains ....

You see, this is why I seek advice on forums! Now you've said it, it seems so obvious...

[s4r4hb3th]

It is possible to put passengers and cargo on the same train if you really want to double up
There are videos on it.

Occasionally I do it.

[larry_roberts]

There have been many discussions about mixed freight/passenger trains before e.g:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1066780/discussions/0/2246678620212166206/

[genemead]

Originally posted by skunkpuppy:

My style is to have one trunk line between each town, and all the passenger and cargo trains go on this one trunk line.

Seems like you should rethink your "style".
You need at least a cargo main line and a separate passenger main line.

[lozacenz]

Originally posted by genemead:

Originally posted by skunkpuppy:

My style is to have one trunk line between each town, and all the passenger and cargo trains go on this one trunk line.

Seems like you should rethink your "style".
You need at least a cargo main line and a separate passenger main line.

Well, you don't always need to split freight vs passengers, it depends on the configeration of the trains you're using, among other things.
Sometimes it makes more sense to split by source/destination, sometimes by their actual speed through that section, or by how well they accelerate, terminating vs stopping vs through trains at a given station, and so on.

A lot of the time passenger vs freight isn't actually all that important for that sort of thing.

That said, that effects what criteria you make the split based on, it doesn't at all affect the fact that adding more tracks and splitting the trains up is the answer to the track getting overloaded (well, when you can't just merge trains together, at least.) or problems caused by running trains with capabilities too different from each other on the same track.

[CppMaster]

Originally posted by skunkpuppy:

I think I can also increase the train length. I usually stop adding carriages once it reaches "Mediocre". But should I just heck it and do really long trains? If so, I guess I should also start provisioning for longer train stations.

You can add multiple engines in the same train

[Mackintosh]

You will always run into these bottlenecks if you try to play this (hint, hint) game realistically. The only way to minimise these issues is to have separate tracks for different types of cargo. I usually have my freight traffic separated from my passenger lines, and even then I tend to have some traffic cargo split from others and passenger tracks divided into express and local. Some of my cargo mainlines have up to ten tracks, with overpasses and tunnels to minimise trains crisscrossing.

Basically, you can either have a functional network, or a realistically looking one. Not both.