Double Tracking Realistic?

[BananaStand]

The tutorial heavily pushes running double tracks between cities. Is this at all realistic in regards to how actual newly formed railroads operated?

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by BananaStand:

The tutorial heavily pushes running double tracks between cities. Is this at all realistic in regards to how actual newly formed railroads operated?

Yes, the game encourages you to double track with a gridiron, but you don't have to do it this way. You could run a single line and one train if you want, then double track it later. Have a play around with this in sandbox mode.

[Sigismund]

Originally posted by BananaStand:

The tutorial heavily pushes running double tracks between cities. Is this at all realistic in regards to how actual newly formed railroads operated?

I usually start out using single track/train for express lines, then expand express only to as many cities as I can. Once you have a pax/mail network set up (for cash flow), I then start bringing goods into cities using a single line/train for close in goods, or double track if I have to ship goods from far away. Once I am set up with a couple of profitable 3 city clusters, i ALWAYS double track all lines and add trains, especially to the express lines. When I am raking in the cash, I will expand and double track every line from the start, even if the goods are right next to the city.

[coenvijge]

I think they advise it because it's the most secure way to build track. And also tracks are cheap. For building/using singel tracked lines it's sometimes needed to build some 'advanced' infrastructure near your stations.

It isn't realistic at all. In the early days most of the main connections and all of the branches where original build single tracked. And up to today there are a lot of main lines all over the world still single tracked. It is just the number of trains (and train speed and different train types on the line)' you need to handle on a line that indicates if you have to think about a second track or not.

In real life it will be hard to find a double tracked rail line where only one train runs up and down the line. Sooner or later someone will decide to break up the second track (or at least take that track out of service).

I expect that the 'manual signal mode' (announced for the second upgrade) will give some more options to build 'real' lay outs in this game. (At this moment you will have to build a double tracked section 'to place signals' on a branch line that could be 100% single tracked
because there is only one train running).

[Tsubame ⭐]

To answer strictly the question, depends on the lines involved. Lines in the UK were often built double tracked from the beginning, while in US single track dominated, and that is still the case today.

But more often than not, the answer is no, is not realistic. Even today much of the world's trackage remains single tracked.

But due to game mechanics, with trains completing trips in a matter of a few minutes, it is better to double track everything due to emphasis in high frequencies. Not realistic, of course.

You can always build slower, lower capacity, and otherwise more inefficient networks that place emphasis on realism, especially in Sandbox, though.

[Dray Prescot]

They are single tracked BUT only because they have sidings along that single track to allow trains headed in opposite directions to pass each other. But this also because so much of what used to be carried by Railroads is now carried by trucks along highways. Much of the old local rail net inside Cities has been torn up

If we still had the roads and truck net work of 100 years ago, you would see a lot more train traffic between Cities and a lot more of it would be double tracked because of the higher useage levels.

Early in RE 2 you can use single tracks with one or two sidings along it, if you are very cash poor and the Cities are small, at least to your Rural Resource Stations that not are located along the path between the Cities. But as things get busier you will rapidly need to up grade to a double track the whole way.

Between Cities, it is just easier to build a double track connecting your Cities, IF you have enough cash to afford it.

The problem is that at the start of most games you have too much money and with a lot of early connection bonuses. If you only started with $500k and NO connection bonuses, you would see single tracks with sidings used a lot more in RE 2. With a much slower start to the game. But we do not have the ability to sell Stock to raise lots of capital to build with, with having to pay large dividens on those shares every Quarter.

But in RE 2 we do not have all of the river and ocean borne transport of good, as well as the canal network that started before the RRs did. This is a Rail Road Game, not some form of a Transport Tycoon game with those alternate forms of long distance transport of goods and people.

[gardlt]

RE1 was not intended by devs to be double-tracked. Which just boggles the mind with the volume involved. But they noticed that this is what the vast majority of players used.

What I think they didn't understand is the main reason for this is the "signals." RE "signals" are not "block signals" in the true sense of the word. One train can't follow a train down a single track with "normal" RE signals. That's only possible with the signal type that's only allows one-way traffic. So the only way for trains to follow is to use double-track or loops.

The other big thing is that train routes are reset if you do some track work. This strongly favors the most simple, versatile and least interesting solution.

[harkonian]

Originally posted by Lateralus:

Yes, the game encourages you to double track with a gridiron, but you don't have to do it this way. You could run a single line and one train if you want, then double track it later. Have a play around with this in sandbox mode.

Note that single track setups can cause more bugs than the typical double-track ones, at least in my experience. You will sometimes have two trains deadlocked, waiting on each other, for no obvious reason. Reloading the map will sometimes fix it. Other times you'll need to delete a train and re-add. Frustrating.

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by harkonian:

Originally posted by Lateralus:

Yes, the game encourages you to double track with a gridiron, but you don't have to do it this way. You could run a single line and one train if you want, then double track it later. Have a play around with this in sandbox mode.

Note that single track setups can cause more bugs than the typical double-track ones, at least in my experience. You will sometimes have two trains deadlocked, waiting on each other, for no obvious reason. Reloading the map will sometimes fix it. Other times you'll need to delete a train and re-add. Frustrating.

With a single track line you might need a short section of double track to connect it to the station or network. Or alternatively, use a dedicated station platform for that line.

[jhughes]

Originally posted by Lateralus:

Originally posted by harkonian:

Note that single track setups can cause more bugs than the typical double-track ones, at least in my experience. You will sometimes have two trains deadlocked, waiting on each other, for no obvious reason. Reloading the map will sometimes fix it. Other times you'll need to delete a train and re-add. Frustrating.

With a single track line you might need a short section of double track to connect it to the station or network. Or alternatively, use a dedicated station platform for that line.

Absolutely correct. Until we can place manual signals, you will need to either use one platform per line.. OR.. double track near the stations. But you really do need to do that anyway. You can single track if you use sidings or double tracked ends for signals. If you don't do that then trains will wait on the other end of the track for it to open up.

[Dray Prescot]

In RE 1 I experimented with, and used in some cases (games), a Loop of Track where the trains went in one direction and eventually came back to the Start, i.e. A - B - C - D - E - A without the trains having to reverse direction. But even then I still used a double track to connect the Cities in order to get the Signals along the Tracks going in their respective directions.

It can work, but it depends on the position of the Cities relative to each other. For some Maps, it was not a very practical way to connect your Cities.

You can try this on some Maps in RE 2. But maybe only in certain areas of the Map.