How to do multiple stations to one station connections?

[The Mogician]

I finally kinda figured out the gist of how to get the signals working, but here is the problem. Even at max station capacity, it can only hold 4 rails and I normally put 2 per rail connection between stations (one for coming and one for going) so trains don't get stuck. That means each of my stations can connect to about two other stations without issues, but what about when I need to connect it to three? I can't figure that part out. I tried Y splitting parallel rails but that doesn't work properly as I cannot do my rails in parallel all the time.

Is there a solution for this?

[gardlt]

I prefer a solution like this for the middle platforms:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1595721141

This is for a drive-on-right setup, and allows a limited volume of trains to pass through the station. If the through trains need to wait they don't block other trains trying to enter the station.

To connect the other platforms for local use:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2093009132

Realistically, you wont need to connect all platforms from both ends. High volume routes such as Livestock to Meat Plant can single-handedly overload a platform in a mature game.

[Dray Prescot]

One solution as long as the traffic is not too heavy, just before you reach a major City Station narrow a double track into a single track that actually connects to the station. This enables you to connect more double tracks to the station.

You can also use Warehouses near to the Big City to deliver mostly raw materials that the City needs and gets from the Warehouses. Save your City to City tracks and connections for Mail, Passengers and Industrial Goods (after they are produced, before that they fall into the Raw Materials category).

Open up a 2nd Station in a large busy City and use it for dedicated Mail and Passenger, i.e. Express Trains on their own dedicated tracks.

You can also try using a 4 Track Signal Control Warehouse near the City to merge and split multiple rail lines, i.e. double tracks that then feed into/out of the City Station. This takes a lot of space though.

[chernobyl]

Two stations per city helps them grow and keep traffic moving. Chaney has a screenshot of a design to keep flow directional though a station and this helps a lot with station throughput. I modified it for two stations per city with 4 one way tracks at each, and use a maintenance station with signals as an interchange to connect 4 lines at one point. I uploaded a screenshot with the location (playing the whole US map 1830-1930) in free mode

[chaney]

Lots of good advice as usual from this forum :)

I typically use something along the lines of what gardlt the Great shows. This kind of setup is very good for low cost and the high efficiency/throughput that are critical as the Cities get large.

One change I *might* make would be to add another switch between Platforms 2 and 3 so trains entering could use either Platform. The reasoning evolves from a simple ideal situation to a setup slightly improved for *some* practical situations.

The first pictured setup allows trains from the right to go to Platform 2 only, and trains from the left to go to Platform 3 only. In general, that works well:
"Dedicated point to point double track" connected to only 2 Platforms tends to get high efficiency/throughput for busy situations. The pictured setup does that for Platforms 2 and 3, but adds the option for trains to continue through the Station to the other side. That seems like a good thing. Some players like to set up routes going to multiple places. I tend to stick to routes that have only 2 stops, with a few exceptions. The idea is that each Platform will approximately handle the typical route at saturation (all demand met) for a developed City. That's not always true, but often is, so the approach works well most of the time. For lower demand goods, you can combine two or more things to a single Platform, and higher demand routes can be given access to two Platforms. That is one case where the added switch is useful.

Another case where giving a double track access to more than one Platform is when that double track can handle several different routes (maybe a couple intercity trains and a low demand rural industrial good that all come from a distance.) If a single pair of rails can handle the general flow (they can handle a lot of trains) but a single Platform is a bottleneck, set up to use another Platform. This saves the cost of making another pair of tracks over a long distance. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes not. If you don't do maintenance, breakdowns may punish this setup. Do some form of maintenance.

For a route with a lot of traffic, using a Platform for NOTHING ELSE can make sense. If you keep the Platform fairly busy, adding more connections to it just adds to trains waiting which is of no value. For that reason, I often connect each Platform only on one side.
However, for lower traffic routes, it can be great to connect another low traffic route to the other side of the same Platform. You get a little magic here by reduced "swap times." How? When one train leaves a Platform, the next train has to wait for that leaving train to "clear" the tracks the entering train will use to enter. When the leaving train goes out the same side of the Platform that the entering train will use, it will occupy part of the switch network and add delay to the entering train. If the new train enters on the opposite side from the side used by the leaving train, it can start moving as soon as the leaving train clears the Platform. This increases throughput a few percent. Trains entering from alternating directions get the same efficiency boost as the flow-through setup chernobyl mentioned. Here is the referenced picture:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1297614838
And chernobyl's nice extension of the architecture:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2093247937

OK, TMI, I'll stop.