No overlapping tracks?

[NeoKuro]

Was just trying to create a 6-way crossing (North, South, East, West all interconnected) and it seems the tracks don't allow you to cross each other directly?

I also noticed when trying to have a track go 'straight', 'turn off left' then also 'turn off right' (3-way cross?) it wouldn't allow you to do the second turn-off because it thought it was colliding with itself (tried creating a 408% gradient >.> )

Is this intended or is there a way around this because it means if I have a East-West line. To connect a Southern line is fine. But if I then want to connect a North line to the other 3 I can't (at least not with a ridiculous 100km long bridge <.< )

[Dray Prescot]

In RE 1, I would use a 4 Track Signal Control Station to do it. Doing this in RE 2 would require 4 track wide Gridirons at both ends of the Station, which take a lot of space and will slow down your trains, but then the Signal Control Stations in RE 1 also took a lot of space

Try placing 2 Y intersections side by side, in one the Stem of the Y goes Up and in the other the Stem of the Y goes down, while the left - right track connects together the 2 Ys.

But no matter what you try, you are going to have problems if the double tracks are both busy.

I would generally try to avoid such situations by laying my tracks differently.

Try experimenting with using a Station in a City for cross over traffic. This is no problem for Passengers and Mail, But would require a Warehouse to store Freight goods that you want to transfer between up-down and left-right. On one side of the City Tracks 1 and 2 link to UP double track and Tracks 3 and 4 link to LEFT double track, while on the other side of the City Tracks 1 and 2 link to RIGHT double track and Tracks 3 and 4 link to DOWN double track. This should work but only for the 6 Goods that the Warehouse can "store".

The problem will be the time lost to backups trying to get into and out of the City Station.

[NeoKuro]

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

In RE 1, I would use a 4 Track Signal Control Station to do it. Doing this in RE 2 would require 4 track wide Gridirons at both ends of the Station, which take a lot of space and will slow down your trains, but then the Signal Control Stations in RE 1 also took a lot of space

Try placing 2 Y intersections side by side, in one the Stem of the Y goes Up and in the other the Stem of the Y goes down, while the left - right track connects together the 2 Ys.

But no matter what you try, you are going to have problems if the double tracks are both busy.

I would generally try to avoid such situations by laying my tracks differently.

Try experimenting with using a Station in a City for cross over traffic. This is no problem for Passengers and Mail, But would require a Warehouse to store Freight goods that you want to transfer between up-down and left-right. On one side of the City Tracks 1 and 2 link to UP double track and Tracks 3 and 4 link to LEFT double track, while on the other side of the City Tracks 1 and 2 link to RIGHT double track and Tracks 3 and 4 link to DOWN double track. This should work but only for the 6 Goods that the Warehouse can "store".

The problem will be the time lost to backups trying to get into and out of the City Station.

I just tried this, created 2 4-track stations, 2 of the tracks handle 'East-West' as well as 'South'. The other 2 tracks handle North with a 4-track Gridiron to swap between each.

Idk why they don't just let us have signal-controlled crossings xD (I actually like the micro in other games of setting up the signals myself for intricate systems)

But something I've noticed, not just with this track I've got, but other 2-track parallel tracks is they sometimes ignore the simplest route (IE 'go straight forward') and instead go to other stations just to turn around and come back?

[NeoKuro]

Ok I've just read the tips n tricks and it says you CAN make crossings if you have them at an angle (presumably <90degrees but more than a minimum angle).

You have to first try building a tunnel / bridge, then add a track waypoint and connect it t othe crossing tracks...that seems extreme convoluted xD

[Lama]

If you start the track at some distance, then drag the end of the track to a point beyond the line you want to cross, place another waypoint on your projected track, near the line to be crossed. Drag that waypoint onto the line you want to cross, and you should get a diamond (two lines crossing but not connecting, without bridge or tunnel).

[MOK]

The angle, and therefore total space of the intersection, has to be really generous. If you try to make them in a relatively confined area, you're gonna have trouble, and it might not be possible. But if you've got wide open space for huge gentle curves, you can find a way to get crossings.

Sometimes I lay one track successfully, but the parallel doesn't want to work. I keep the 'plan' of the parallel track, but delete the first track. Then i confirm the track of the parallel. Now I go back to re-create the track that I deleted, same spot, but it works. I've laid about half my intersections this way.

[jhughes]

They have said that they are bringing back manual signals. Hopefully that also means you can create manual switches as well. Right now I can not create a simple diamond crossing. You can use a gridiron I'd connecting to a station.. We need that ability with normal tracks as well.

Also, bridges and tunnels suck going over tracks. We either need pieces you can use to create a bridge or a way to build bridges or tunnels much more easily. It is way to hard to build a bridge over another track. It should be dead simple. You should also be able to create a switch / crossover bridge without connecting to existing track. I know I want to build a bridge at location X.. I know I want a straight set of tracks in one direction and a bridge perpendicular to that set of tracks. I should be able to place down two tracks in the first direction and then create the bridge over the top of that set. I should be able to make it symmetrical. It should be easy.

Also.. If you spend a huge amount of time to get a single track connecting 2 points, the double parallel track should be identical in tunnels and bridges and slopes. I should not get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bridges or tunnels when running a parallel to an existing track that has no bridges or tunnels. I should not get a 10 slope when connecting to a 3 slope track. The freakin parallel track should be identical to the track it is built against. If it costs more money for 'earthworks' then so be it. The tracks need to be the same.

Note: I love the game.. Have more than 350 hours of time played, and am very supportive of the devs.. However, we have to get the simple things right. Like parallel tracks, tunnels, and bridges.

[NeoKuro]

In an slightly related note (I made a new post/discussion) the AI seems to be super dumb and will not adjust it's routes on the fly. 2 reasons;

1. If you create a station/town bypass track they trains won't take it most of the time because it is slightly further distance than cutting through the station (ofc you run the risk of the train waiting at the station) - Imo a train should avoid stations AT ALL COSTS unless told to stop there (or there is no other way around - within reason - the train shouldn't travel an extra 500km to bypass a station, an extra 20km though? Fine - perhaps a route-customizable setting?)

2. AI seems to just hate bypasses/parallelisation in general. I turned my 2 track into a 4 track segment where there are supply towers (to reduce trains waiting for one in front to finish topping up water etc - or to top up at the same time). But I just watched one of my trains waiting for the training for the train in front to finish supplying despite an entire track going the same direction being free :')

I really hope there are serious upgrades to the train AI/pathfinding (and dynamic pathfinding) in the near future. Also the competition AI seem to be really slow. I connected ~80% of the UK whereas the AI have only done like 3-4 towns (but maybe that's just a difficulty setting, I left it on normal iirc)

I love the early game, but I find that I get to the mid game and want to start doing more fancy stuff, but I can't because the game just doesn't seem to work like that atm :(