Folders for lines

[class800]

Is there a way to group lines into folders? I only just found the "line service" option by accident after creating about 50 different lines that all ran the same bit of track but had differing station stops and leg times and are clogging up the line menu. Only took me 100 hours of gameplay to realise that was even an option; pretty poor that such a critical tool is hidden as a tiny, seemingly insignificant icon.

[david_neibig]

Not aware of folders, but there are custom tags

[adlet]

The convenience of line services is also that if a station is linked to the parent line (i.e. was not changed in the line service setup), any changes you make to this station (stop duration, speed, platforms) will automatically apply to the line service too. Also, any stats (revenue etc.) are shown aggregated for all line services under a particular line (and also shown individually).So it may be worth a one-time effort to replace your lines with line services.

There are different ways to use line services too. For example, (1) Line service that runs the full line and deviates from the parent e.g. by using a siding at a particular station or skip a station. (2) Line service that runs all stations in one direction only (and a different line service goes in the opposite direction). This way you can name line services with the destination name. You can also easily have different length stops at terminals as you would be setting up manual orders for each run. And when you add orders, you just add a line service and don't need to worry about choosing first and last stations. On the other hand you cannot use looping orders. I use this technique where the timetable is very complex and full of irregular patterns.

(3) Line service that has one station only - e.g. a siding at a terminal where occasional trains go for a lunch break or a longer layover.

(4) Short run turning back at an interim station. This may mean the train may need an extra stop where it turns around. You can set up the parent line as A-B-C-Cx-D-E-D-C-B-A (Cx being this extra siding). The trip from Cx to D will likely show as a long convoluted trip, but in this setup you would not run any trains on the parent line. Instead, set up two line services - full line goes A-B-C-D-E-D-C-B-A (skip stop Cx) and the short line goes A-B-C-Cx-C-B-A.

(5) Extending this rationale, if your line splits into two branches (A-B-C-D-E and A-B-C-F-G), you can also set this up as a single line and operate two line services (or two sets of line services). For example, the line can be set up as A-B-C-D-E-D-F-G-F-C-B-A. One line service skips stations D-E-D, and the other line service skips stations F-G-F. Again, no train operates the actual line. This allows to manage stations A,B,C in one place (at the parent line level), e.g. stop durations, speeds, etc. if you want to change them, and also have fewer lines in the list and aggregate both branches for reporting purposes.

[StetsonTuba]

You can create new tags in the tags menu in the upper right corner. Then you can apply these tags to lines, and then Group by Tags in the Lines Menu. You can also use these custom tags on No Way signals to edit who obeys them