Double locomotive trains with rails signal

[Treeeop]

Hello there

So i'm playing factorio and i'm at the point where i can't do anything without trains, but i have kind of a problem i believe?
I'm currently using double locomotive trains, one for each side like a regular train in real life. The problem is, it's a HUGE mess to deal with rails signals and chain signals, like it's barrely impossible to deal with double locomotive setups with these two items.

My rails setup are just a straight line, my train goes from my base to where my oil is dug and then comes back, it's not like a round-shape rail system, it goes with the front loco, then the front loco become the back loco, and the ancient back loco become the front one, damn it's a mess!

Anyway, if someone knows how to deal with those kinds of rail setup, i would really appreciate it. btw I don't change it to a "round" setup because it's way easier with my map and all..
Thanks in advance, and sorry for my bad english (i'm french)

[Fel]

The only place where it even changes anything is around train stops because your entrance and exit can be the same.

No matter if you are using a single 2-way rail setup or a couple 1-way rails, how those parts need to be handled and signaled doesn't change at all.
WIth a bit of work, you can even separate the "entrance" and "exit" rail from each stop, even if you put them on the same side, removing the biggest problem caused by this type of trains usually.

Signals do not change how they act based on how the train is made, you can have as many locomotives you want, in both directions if you want, you can even have your locomotives at the center of the train and wagons on both sides and everything will still work properly as far as signals and train stops are concerned (you will need to adapt your loading/unloading stations a bit if you do weird trains like that but that's all).

This guide fully applies, as I said you will just have to rework how the rails to-from the stations are laid out to connect it to your "main" rails.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875859174

[Treeeop]

thanks a lot it really helped!

[Impatient]

I just had a look at that guid and it is a really poor one. There must be better ones which explain signalling by starting with the basic concept of track sections.

[Fel]

To each their own I suppose, but it is the guide that explains the signals and how they work the best.


The runner-ups would be the locomotive guidebook:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1265592294

And the wiki's guide (it does fixate more on blocks so it might be better for you):
https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Train_signals

I have a beef with these two guides because they purposedly do not follow the basic rule that makes everything signal-related much easier to follow ad understand for newer players:
"Always put a chain signal before and during intersections or shared 2-ways sections and always put a normal signal after it".

The vast majority of issues encountered by players when dealing with signals is when they don't follow that rule (and the majority of the remaining issues are "pair every single signals that are on 2-way sections" or "trains only look at signals on their right hand side compared to their current direction").

EDIT: funny enough uglyduckling81 posted a link I completely forgot about that is both up to date and very good (open the "pdf" file in there):
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B22HAM7WzR-RdjFYZHZlX29pSVE