Help with track optimization.

[Steve]

Alright so I do really like this game and the first one as well. Bought it on sale and I knew there wouldn't be many differences other than some convenience things like station warehouses and things like that.

I guess I'm struggling to determine what was intended by the devs in terms of the best way to handle track layout. I know they took out the manual signal placement in favor of just changing track directions with a click, and they plan to re-implement that in a later update. I know you can setup gridirons outside the cities as well. But even with all that I still find some trains getting held up sometimes.

Setting up the short bypass sections outside of the cities gets a little messy, and opening platforms all the time gets expensive in the early game, so is there a solution to all that or is it just the nature of railroad design?

[Dray Prescot]

Do NOT use really wide (more than 4 tracks) Gridirons at the Stations, they slow down how many and how fast trains get into and out of Stations. I generally will have a double track between Stations/Cities linking to ONLY 2 tracks in the Station with 2 wide Gridirons. Occasionally I will link a double track to 3 or 4 tracks in the Station. But even with just 4 tracks in the Station connecting to a double track, I start getting a lot of trains waiting to get out of and into the Station.

You will do better to add a 2nd parallel double track to the first double track between the Stations, with each double track linking to only 2 Tracks in the Station with 2 wide Gridirons. Then divide up the Freight Trains between the double tracks. There are more than enough Freight train cargoes to keep 2 double tracks dedicated to Freight Trains busy, once the Cities start growing towards 90k populations, and additional manufactured goods start being demanded by them. Really large cities will need even more Freight double tracks connecting between them.

You can also have a 3rd double track between Cities that is ONLY for Express trains. At some point, many Players, will set up 2nd Stations at Cities that are dedicated to Express Trains. This enables those Stations to have both Station Extensions (there are 3 choices) that benefit Express Trains, i.e. generate more Income from the Express Trains, i.e. Passengers and Mail.

Many players will do the dedicated Stations and tracks for the Express Trains fairly early. The problem is getting the cash to pay for it, since you will also have come up with the cash to build the new 2nd Industries that the Cities get when they grow to 40k populations. In addition to the cash spent to accomplish the first sets of Required Tasks quickly, which will often open up new Territories to expand into.

If you let the local private Investors (i.e. the RE 2 computer program) build on the new additional Industrial Sites, they will often not be the ones you want built there. Building new Industries is Expensive and will take a lot of cash.

Since you often have tasks that require larger populations in one or more Cities, you really do not want to slow down the growth of those Cities, which means that you will have to make a choice on how to spend your cash, i.e. will you spend a lot of cash building those Industries or let the private Investors do it.

[Oakshield]

This may start a debate, but it's actualy OK to use the 6 track grid irons for certain stations as it would make trains switching tracks a lot easier.

Most players use a setup where they have two Express tracks and two Freight tracks entering and leaving the station. Thus using a 2x2 or 1x4 track gridiron at both sides would suit their needs pretty well. It also leaves 4 platforms for other requirements. Like later expansions of the station.

However, when you want to have a rural station at the "wrong" (read: Express line) side of the tracks being connected to your freight line; you may actually consider to build a tunnel under the tracks or a bridge over the tracks before using switches to connect those two tracks to your Freight tracks.
You could also build double switches, making that particular freight train enter / cross the express tracks, before moving over to the freight tracks. Disadvantage of that: All trains approaching that switch, will stop when a train is on the switches. And with a set of tracks where you got lots of trafic, the holdup is becoming a big one pretty fast.

Or you simply build a 6 grid or a 1x2 + 1x4 grid iron setup combination to make sure the train enters the station and is able to choose a free platform.
Also meaning that you need a similar setup at the other side to make sure the trains are also able to leave the station.
Funny thing about the 6 track grid iron, if you use the four central tracks, you can later use the two outer tracks to be turned into a switch and move to other locations as well.
Or you can lead them back to the main tracks and use switches to connect to them.
The advantage of that method is that you're able to use all platforms; while the trains actually are able to line up for the right platform before entering the grid iron.

I've quite often used a 1x2, 1x4, 1x2 grid iron combination at one side to have two different kinds of freight enter the station from the side, with the main express and freight lines in the center. Occasionally those 1x2 grid irons immediately used a switch to turn into a 2 Express / 2 Freight track leading to a city.
Just to use a 2x4 track grid iron at the other side of a station to move the cargo to two different cities.
That way all platforms were used, meaning I could deal with 8 trains at the same time.

The main reason for using the larger grid irons - if there's room for it - is simply that it makes it a lot easier to deal with tracks branching off into other directions; while still being able to give your trains the choice to pick a free platform.

Thorin :)

[Dray Prescot]

I tried a double track between Cities connecting to 4 tracks in the Stations with a 4 wide Gridirons in several Cities, and I ended up with lots of trains in the Stations waiting to leave the Stations, and lots of trains on the double track waiting to get into the Stations.

The double track was for my Freight trains. Switching over 2 side by side parallel double tracks between the big Cities, for the Freight Trains worked a lot better.

I was using a separate double track and 2nd Stations in the big 3 Cities (Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City who were 90k plus each) for most of my Express train traffic. This was in Chapter 3 of the Campaign Game.

[Oakshield]

Trust me, using a 2x4 track grid iron works.

I got this with that setup and using a single station.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026119398

Thorin :)

[Steve]

Originally posted by Oakshield:

Trust me, using a 2x4 track grid iron works.

I got this with that setup and using a single station.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026119398

Thorin :)

That looks pretty sick. Trouble is I gotta pay for it! I actually haven't been playing the campaign and instead have been playing some custom games against the AI. Should I even bother with the campaign?

[Dray Prescot]

You are doing a different case than I was. You have 4 Tracks between Stations linking to 4 Tracks in the Station with 4 wide Gridirons, with another 4 Tracks between Stations next to the first set of 4 Tracks, linking via a 2nd 4 wide Gridiron to the additional 4 Tracks in the station. I was looking at an earlier stage of development of the Cities and Stations, when they were smaller with less traffic.

But how are you controlling which tracks are taken by the trains leaving the Stations? Are the tracks 2 double tracks next to each other, or two in one direction next to 2 in the other direction?

(I am not trying to be hostile or too critical, I am trying to understand the pros and cons of different ways of arranging a player's tracks and Stations).

Two 2 wide Gridirons next to each other linking to separate double tracks should get greater through put of the trains in the Station than one 4 wide Gridiron linking to 4 tracks outside the City, because the 4 wide Gridiron is twice as long as a 2 wide Gridiron, and there will be fewer trains getting in each others way trying to get in and out of the Station. That is how I see it.

[Oakshield]

That particular part was giving me lots of headaches at the start.

My usual setup is 4 tracks in an ABAB setting. With one side being assigned to freight and one side to express.

Problem with Paris was that I had focussed at getting into another part of France first; as my tasks required that:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026213638

So by the time I got there, the AI already had a station, but not at the nearby grain farm. Meaning the best approach for me was to connect the grain farm to the city. Only to find out the room between the two was quite small.

I'm also using rural stations for warehouses - even for first grade goods, although I think you're right about not doing that - so I turned that station in a warehouse to serve the area north of Paris.

Over time I expanded my routes, but as result of that I ran into problems with Paris becoming a bottleneck for the routes visiting there.
Eventually "forcing" me to use all eight tracks and using both stations to split the routes. To do that I had to extend both stations to 8 tracks and having a 1x4 grid iron already, turned it into a 2x4 grid iron for both sides at the Paris station and Mercier Terminal. One of the 4 track gridirons of Mercier goes back to my main line with the double freight and express tracks.

Some of the trains coming in from the West have waypoints to "force" them to move into platforms 5-8.
Those platforms are also used for trains heading to the South, while the East and South-West are covered with platform 1-4.

But all in all I think I've reached the maximum this station can handle, as the screenshot shows as well.

Thorin :)

[Timixa]

Originally posted by Steve:

Alright so I do really like this game and the first one as well. Bought it on sale and I knew there wouldn't be many differences other than some convenience things like station warehouses and things like that.

I guess I'm struggling to determine what was intended by the devs in terms of the best way to handle track layout. I know they took out the manual signal placement in favor of just changing track directions with a click, and they plan to re-implement that in a later update. I know you can setup gridirons outside the cities as well. But even with all that I still find some trains getting held up sometimes.

Setting up the short bypass sections outside of the cities gets a little messy, and opening platforms all the time gets expensive in the early game, so is there a solution to all that or is it just the nature of railroad design?

I would play the tutorials and the campaigns and the scenarios.

The Campaigns are an extension to the tutorials.

There are "Adekyn" videos on Youtube that are very informative especially his RE2
fundamentals series of videos.

[Steve]

Alright I think I see what's going on now. It looks like the intended method was to use parallel tracks, set them to go one way, and then set up a gridiron outside of every city. Doing that it places signals on the rails along the entire stretch. As long as you're doing that for your city to city connections they seem to pay for themselves alright.