Can't build a Rail Station in my Capitol

[Bananapie]

I'm not sure at this point if it's me (probably) or a bug, but I can't seem to build a Rail Station in my Capital. I have my entire civilization connected with railroads and ports except my Capital. So I can't even use my railroads to transport units since I guess the capital needs to be in the connection for them to work at all?

Is there anything I can do to fix this? Or do I just have to start over? And if I do start over, how do I make sure I have a building slot open or w/e so I can not find myself in this mess again?

I'm kinda sad cause I was doing really well and grooving with the game but then ran into this obstacle.

Thanks for the guidance.

[Rhapsody]

Simply leaving one tile open or possible to overbuild completely will do the trick. Specializing the city and not spamming all the ageless warehouse buildings in the same place will help avoiding that as well.

[TheNightglow]

urban districts can only be build adjacent to other urban districts, the city center you start of is your first urban district
typically 2 buildings can fit in an urban district, the railroad is the exception, it needs a full tile for itself

this means depending on how you build your city you can easily accidently ruin it, making it impossible to build railroads, as you can not demolish and move any buildings

what you might be able to do to save your current run:
- If your city is at a navigateable river, see if you can bridge the river with a fishing quay or any mill type building, those all count as urban districts, allowing you to place other urban districts like the railroad on the other side of the river afterwards (if there is an empty tile on the other side)
- If your city is at the coast, see if you can bridge the coast water to an island using a fishing quay or any harbor type building, as those count as urban districts allowing you to place other urbans like the railroad on a connecting island (if there is an empty tile)

if neither of those are the case or you already build your mills/ quays/ harbors somewhere else, then I dont think there is anything you can do

I would suggest being super picky with buildings you place in your cities, especially those which are marked as "ageless"
For instance the granary you can build in the ancient age is actually super harmfull, as later in the game it is a very useless building that will permanently destroy a tile in your city that can no longer be used for anything else and can never be removed
if an urban building is ageless, think twice before building it, as the way the game is designed right now, ageless is a mali you want to avoid at all cost (unless it is an absolutely incredible building like a wonder or your civs unique district)

[sn00ze]

Originally posted by TheNightglow:

urban districts can only be build adjacent to other urban districts, the city center you start of is your first urban district
typically 2 buildings can fit in an urban district, the railroad is the exception, it needs a full tile for itself

this means depending on how you build your city you can easily accidently ruin it, making it impossible to build railroads, as you can not demolish and move any buildings

what you might be able to do to save your current run:
- If your city is at a navigateable river, see if you can bridge the river with a fishing quay or any mill type building, those all count as urban districts, allowing you to place other urban districts like the railroad on the other side of the river afterwards (if there is an empty tile on the other side)
- If your city is at the coast, see if you can bridge the coast water to an island using a fishing quay or any harbor type building, as those count as urban districts allowing you to place other urbans like the railroad on a connecting island (if there is an empty tile)

if neither of those are the case or you already build your mills/ quays/ harbors somewhere else, then I dont think there is anything you can do

I would suggest being super picky with buildings you place in your cities, especially those which are marked as "ageless"
For instance the granary you can build in the ancient age is actually super harmfull, as later in the game it is a very useless building that will permanently destroy a tile in your city that can no longer be used for anything else and can never be removed
if an urban building is ageless, think twice before building it, as the way the game is designed right now, ageless is a mali you want to avoid at all cost (unless it is an absolutely incredible building like a wonder or your civs unique district)

You Sir are a Hero. Building a Port counts as Industrial District - so I was able to build the Railroads on a distant Island in my crowded city. Thank you.