4 Rail Junctions

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Is there a simple way of doing this that I'm just missing?

[Dray Prescot]

I can get one rail to cross a doubletrack cleanly, see the Tips and Tricks, but I can NOT get the second rail of a double track to cross the other double track simply next to the first track of that double track. It always seems to need to be separated a little to make it work.

[Empty1958]

I've never been able to do what you want. I was hoping after some time it would be changed. What I have been doing is breaking the 2nd track of the double away a little before I get to the crossing, make the crossing, and rejoin the two tracks back to a double. Not an ellegant solution but it does work. Kinda the same as when you have 4 tracks at a bridge. With only 2 tracks allowed in a bridge you have to make a second bridge close. but not attatched to the 1st.

[rff1]

Yes, Dray & Empty are right, but I'd call that a crossing and not a junction, which means a joining. Could the OP be more specific about what he wants to do ?

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Originally posted by rff1:

Could the OP be more specific about what he wants to do ?

Sure.

Imagine you have two direct lines between Omaha and North Platte. Both double lines. One pair is freight and one pair is express.

Now imagine you want some sort of junction in the middle of that to head north to Sioux Falls such that both freight and passengers can go from any of the 3 cities to any of the other 3 cities.


Currently, the best I have come up with is something like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1611460973


I was thinking I could hack something in with a signalling warehouse, but that seems pretty janky.

[NetPCDoc]

I think, if you examine either end of a station with signalling control (the configuration of five "diamond switches"), you should be able to come up with something better than your screenshot.

I like to refer to that configuration of five (5) "diamond switches" as a Railway-Mix-Master; any trains coming in on any of the four tracks on one side can leave by any of the four tracks on the other side.

Maybe place three such Railway-Mix-Masters in a row, then do one double-track-wye between the first and second Railway-Mix-Masters - with a second double-track-wye between the second and third Railway-Mix-Masters; then setting "way-points" should allow you to do what you are asking? (This is just my first thought - it is always possible additional thought might find something better?)

[chaney]

This all really seems like overkill. Why not a standard 3-way intersection with the traditional triangle shape, and let the tracks cross where they need to? I guess if it is really busy the flyovers shown in the example improve throughput. For optimization, increasing the size of the triangle will make trips quicker ... build the flyovers/tunnels as needed to keep the connectors short ... seems like it ends up looking generic again.

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Originally posted by chaney:

TWhy not a standard 3-way intersection with the traditional triangle shape, and let the tracks cross where they need to?

I would definitely be interested if there is a way to do this simply with 4 parallel tracks. Do you know a way? That was sort of the core question.

[Empty1958]

This is not the 1st image that popped into my head. I think if high throughput is needed you are stuck with a flyover/tunnel somewhere. I think chaney's idea is the cleanest. The only way I see to do that is to combine the 4 tracks coming down into two then make the triangle to the horizontal set of tracks. Then cross tracks as needed. Depending on the traffic volume it may/not be a problem.
I do like your setup. Looks nice. I would have made my flyover straight down and circled back.

[jsb]

I just don't think its in the code. Like you said you can get a single crossover crossing 2 tracks but not make a clean 2 track, 2 track crossover -- the 2nd track will always be off to the side. Just like you cant get 4 track bridges I guess.