2-Way or 1-Way Trains?

[【ＣＨＲＯＮＯＳ】]

Whats more efficient for a factory long-term with many trains? The standard 1-Way + 1-Locomotive looped railroad or a 2-Way 2-Locomotive Rail system?

[KatherineOfSky]

Depends on your routing & station entrances. I prefer looped systems because single-ended stations take more time for trains to leave the crossing area before the next one can proceed.

[Boykisser_femboy]

It doesn't really matter much, honestly. As KatherineOfSky said, it only really affects the time it takes for the next train to enter the station.

The signalling and general structure of your rail system are much more important. If these work fine, then you can use either option without much of a difference.

[AlexMBrennan]

I prefer single-headed trains because two-headed trains can theoretically result in trains getting stuck if they are forced to reroute in an intersection (where trains would have to advance, stop and reverse to get to their next stop).

[Hedning]

If you are using 1 way stations half of your locomotives are turned the wrong way. I don't like that, but terminating stations look pretty cool when getting right into the middle of your production.

1 way networks are either limited to 1 train per track or you need bypass lanes. I think they are more hassle than they are worth. You can have 2-way networks but with 1-way stations.

[Name Lips]

I think single-headed trains are more elegant, and demonstrate a higher level of understanding of how routing and signaling work. This allows for pretty, curvey rail networks.

Also they are slightly cheaper.

[Jojojay]

if you have 2 way tracks, you can have a bunch of parrelel train stations for unloading goods right before your main bus like this: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1350517471 here is a close up of one of the stations: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1350517569 the main loop there is a one way track, so that trains can go around without getting jammed, and so that you don't have to deal with connecting each of the train stops to two tracks that are antiparralel, and having all of those weird intersections that leave space for traffic jamming. branching from the main loop, you can have antiparralel(two lanes, one going each way) tracks going to resource deposits around the map.

if all of your trains have only one engine, then each train stop takes up way more space, and you cannot pack them together like this.

notice that my iron pickup station uses a 1 way trainstop that takes up much more space then the two way dropoff points

if you give all of your train stations of the same type the same name (example: instead of "iron pickup1", "iron pickup 2", and "iron pickup 3", you just name all three stations "iron pickup")you can use circuit network to enable the pickup point only when there are resources to pickup, and enable the dropoff point only when there are resources to drop off. the trains will go to the closest one that is enabled. that way, your trains will automattically abandon outposts that are out of resources, and will visit bigger outposts more frequently and smaller outposts less.

in conclusion: it is often best to use a mixture, as different stops are good in different situations. for this reason, you want to give your trains two engines, one on each side

[【ＣＨＲＯＮＯＳ】]

OK great thanks a ton guys. I was scared I was gonna have to deconstruct and reconstruct my entire railway. You cleared that up for me

[impetus_maximus]

2 way trains for ore outposts, loops for everything else including smelting. having so many ore outposts in makes it really simple to build stations.

[brian_va]

Originally posted by Jojojay:

if you give all of your train stations of the same type the same name (example: instead of "iron pickup1", "iron pickup 2", and "iron pickup 3", you just name all three stations "iron pickup")you can use circuit network to enable the pickup point only when there are resources to pickup, and enable the dropoff point only when there are resources to drop off. the trains will go to the closest one that is enabled. that way, your trains will automattically abandon outposts that are out of resources, and will visit bigger outposts more frequently and smaller outposts less.

something of a hijack here, but how well or how quickly does routing get updated. my concern is if i do this then 2 trains will see a station open and both will head for it and potentially arrive at the same time, causing issues.

[Boykisser_femboy]

Originally posted by brian_va:

Originally posted by Jojojay:

if you give all of your train stations of the same type the same name (example: instead of "iron pickup1", "iron pickup 2", and "iron pickup 3", you just name all three stations "iron pickup")you can use circuit network to enable the pickup point only when there are resources to pickup, and enable the dropoff point only when there are resources to drop off. the trains will go to the closest one that is enabled. that way, your trains will automattically abandon outposts that are out of resources, and will visit bigger outposts more frequently and smaller outposts less.

something of a hijack here, but how well or how quickly does routing get updated. my concern is if i do this then 2 trains will see a station open and both will head for it and potentially arrive at the same time, causing issues.

IIRC if a train is heading towards a station, it reserves it, making it impossible for other trains to pick that station.

Or, if everything is signalled correctly and the rail system is not an utter mess, it's impossible for two trains to the same station.
Surefire way of making it work is a single entrance to the many stations equipped with a chain signal. The chain signal would even hinder a train from blocking an exit.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by brian_va:

something of a hijack here, but how well or how quickly does routing get updated. my concern is if i do this then 2 trains will see a station open and both will head for it and potentially arrive at the same time, causing issues.

Your trains are not going to stand still recalculating the route. It's pretty immediate, but you need to have a chain signal before a fork in the track so they can recalculate before the turn and not after.