Trains ending up on the wrong tracks

[A Guy Called Pi]

Here's an issue that keeps popping it's ugly head up....every so often a train ends up on the wrong track, and if it goes unnoticed too long the entire rail network will lock up.

I always pick a "capital", which has so far always been in the middle of the map right next to a river, and then build out from there. Halfway through the game, by the 1920's-1930's, all major cities on the map will then be connected to that city's station. Those other cities' stations are then connected to the small cities. But what that means is that if one train on a main line ends up in the wrong place, which never really happened in Train Fever but which does happen a lot in Transport Fever, the whole network will end up getting stuck.

Do I really need to enforce this with one way signals and whatnot? I mean, I totally will, but isn't this an AI issue that needs fixing?

[Saint Landwalker]

It might actually be caused by upgrading your stations. There is a rather pesky bug that can cause trains heading to a newly-upgraded station to turn around (without changing tracks) and head back to wherever they were coming from, which (assuming you are running more than one train) can result in some head-to-head standoffs until you find the problem and manually switch them back to the right direction.

Hopefully it gets fixed... I suspect it's just part of the whole bundle of problems surrounding station upgrades right now (disappearing cargo, etc.). Until then, all I can suggest is pausing the game before you upgrade stations, and then hunting down any trains that may have reversed direction as a result of the upgrade before unpausing.

[A Guy Called Pi]

I rarely upgrade my stations, yet these trains ending up on the wrong tracks (and even the wrong) lines is a constant thing. Just minutes after fixing the issue of the train that made me post this, I discovered another one on the wrong end of the maps, miles away from it's route. And once again, on the wrong track. There's mental gymnastics involved in figuring out how it's planning to get back to it's intended destination.

[Neighbor Kid]

It is an issue with station upgrades.. my entire mapo stopped when i decided to electrifiy 2 stations.. rather annoying.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by GrijzePilion:

I rarely upgrade my stations, yet these trains ending up on the wrong tracks (and even the wrong) lines is a constant thing. Just minutes after fixing the issue of the train that made me post this, I discovered another one on the wrong end of the maps, miles away from it's route. And once again, on the wrong track. There's mental gymnastics involved in figuring out how it's planning to get back to it's intended destination.

Ah. Well, without looking over the system first-hand, it's only possible to speculate. It sounds like a simple signalling issue. (I say "simple," of course, meaning "not a simple mistake, but perhaps less simple to find.) I've at least never had my trains spontaneously or mysteriously head down the wrong tracks or reverse directions except as a result of station upgrades, so I don't know for sure.

[Nicky]

Every time you change your network, the trains on the same network get their path recalculated.

Assuming you connect everything (like i do) that means all your trains will get new paths. And some of them end up on the wrong line.

[A Guy Called Pi]

I suppose it also has to do with the way I lay out my lines....I tend to build giant loops that go halfway across the map. So while the Bridgeport / Laredo train was supposed to go in a straight line down south, instead it took the giant counterclockwise loop up north.

What I'll just do now is make sure that there are plenty of signals set to one-way so that they'll at least not try to cross the entire map while on the wrong track. One train in the wrong place at the wrong time and my entire network locks up.

[moron_with_a_gun]

Another thing to keep in mind is avoiding putting cross overs too close to the station
As time goes on the trains get longer and they may no longer be able to use the cross over because the train extends past the point of switching to the correct track

[A Guy Called Pi]

That won't be a problem. I always keep my trains within the station lengths, and also because steam engines really don't like pulling long trains.

[dogwalker1]

It doesn't solve the issues with station upgrades entirely, but remember you can use waypoints to force the train to take a certain path...

[A Guy Called Pi]

Originally posted by dogwalker1:

It doesn't solve the issues with station upgrades entirely, but remember you can use waypoints to force the train to take a certain path...

I use plenty of waypaths, but sometimes the trains seem to completely disregard them.

[neldot]

This happens to me frequently when I share a trains depot between several lines. After assigning the train to a line, it often reaches the wrong station platform. Usually re-sending the train to the depot and then re-assigning the line solves the problem (even if it's a bit of a nuisance),

[SBGaming]

The only time I've tended to have trains go the wrong direction is when I make cross over tracks, usually to allow a train to go back in the opposite direction. I had previously done this by having the train cross over before entering the station, but I found that through trains would take the crossover and then ride that side of the rails to their destination, which caused some issues. I prevented this by building the crossover so that the train is only able to cross over if if it's leaving the station in the opposite direction from which it came.

I don't often upgrade my stations though, and when I have it was early enough in the game, and I didn't have many trains on the network as it was, so not something that I had to deal with.

It really annoys me that upgrading a station does the equivalent of basically destroying the station and rebuilding it, tossing out all the cargo and passengers, as well as costing full price as though you're building the station from scratch, rather than just a partial price for adding a new bit of rail and a new platform or two to the station.

[Wingtip]

its all in your track layout, routing (via waypoints), and signals... it took me 3 playthroughs before i got a grip on things to make trains do what i want

[GeneralGeldenhuys]

Please post screenshots of your system and we can help you troubleshoot.

[Gregorovitch]

I had a situation like this that I could not understand at first but I evenurally solved it.

The situation was a double track between two towns withh a depot in the middle. The depot was connected both ways to it's near track and there was a point avaiable in both directions to transfer to the far track.

Trains running on the far track where using the depot's line transfer point to cross to the near track even though I had placed signals outside the stations to designate the correct trackk ofr them to use out and back.

I placed a new signal between the depot and the desitnation station (in fact very near the desitnation station) and the problem instantly rectified itself.

My conclusion is this:

* A train will try to arrive at the platform at it's destination station directly connected to the line it will then use when leaving it on it'sd return journey (so on a basic double track line it will want to cross over)

* To do so it will use the first point available that does not have a path signal further down the line instructing it otherwise. In my case this was the line transfer point by the depot half way between the towns.

* The train only seems to look at the signals facing it on it's own track - it does not appear to consider signals on the other line even if logically it should do so.


In this diagram thhe train should use the cross over points to arrive at plat form 1 (unless plat 1 is occupied).


<-----
=====================================||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Plat 1
..........................\\.//. (points)
..........................//.\\.
=====================================||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Plat 2
------>....X (signal)

In this diagram the train should pull into plat 2 and cross over after leaving the station (unless plat 2 is occupied)

<-----
=====================================||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Plat 1
..........................\\.//. (points)
..........................//.\\.
=====================================||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Plat 2
------>.....................................X (signal)