Confused myself on train stations (multiple same name, limit enabled)

[Jeffreyac]

Hi folks,

Well, I thought I understood the 'enable train limit' option, but not sure I fully understand it when you have multiple stations with identical names.

For example, I have in my smelting setup multiple destinations named 'Iron Ore Unload'. The smelter is set so there are 4 stations, each reachable from the main rail line. I had set the limit for each 'Iron Ore Unload' station to 1.

What I had expected was that as long as there were open stations, a train going to 'Iron Ore Unload' would select an available station without a train, but all 4 would be viable (i.e. I could have up to 4 trains unloading at once).

What happened was as soon as a train occupied one station, the rest of the unload trains said 'destination full' and wouldn't leave the mines.

I removed the limits set on the unload stations, and it now seems to work as intended.

This seems to lead me to believe that identical stations all use the same limit - i.e. if one is occupied and the limit is 1, no other trains will go to other identically named stations. Is this right?

If so, I'm going to have to rethink my system again - I liked the limits there, as I did eventually plan to add more trains, and having them wait at the mines for an open station would be what I wanted; I just also wanted all 4 stations to be useful.

If it's not true, then I'm at a loss to explain the behavior I saw from my trains...

So, do train stations with identical names mess up the train limit feature?

[Fel]

I know what you wrote sounds like it's enough to understand the whole situation, but it's really not.
Screenshots of the stations (their settings specifically) and possibly one of the map to see where everything is would be very helpful to have a better idea of what is happening (and of what you could do to fix it).

[Jeffreyac]

Yeah, sorry - I know there's a lot of variables involved.... I'll have to see if I can grab some screenshots. (even then, though, I know with train networks it can be hard to show the entirety...)

[Premu]

One thing which I can think of right now: Are the other three stations really reachable on your train network - perhaps you forgot a small piece of rail somewhere, and it is only connected via ghost.

But best you show some screenshots which allows for a more detailed analysis.

[AlexMBrennan]

This seems to lead me to believe that identical stations all use the same limit - i.e. if one is occupied and the limit is 1, no other trains will go to other identically named stations. Is this right?

Nope.

I would imagine that the most likely cause of this confusion is that train limits have an effect at a distance - a train 500 miles away can "block" the train station until the train 500 miles away has arrived and finished unloading. This is the correct behaviour (it stops extra trains from blocking the rails if there is only space for 1 train) but possibly not what you want.

You probably should add stacker stations where the trains can go if there are no valid destinations if you don't want them blocking the loading/unloading stations.

One thing which I can think of right now: Are the other three stations really reachable on your train network - perhaps you forgot a small piece of rail somewhere, and it is only connected via ghost.

That cannot possibly be the case here - if there were a missing rail then the train would flash the "no path" error instead of the "destination full" error.

[knighttemplar1960]

You have some situation existing that is causing your problem. The smelter set up I am using on my current save has 3 unloading stations for ore each set to limit 4 and a stacker that holds 9 trains and it works exactly as it should.

Likely you are missing a rail somewhere (I would look at the path to the other stations).