'Station Unreachable'?

[BlackDragon]

I just finished my first railroad connection - a simple, single rail connecting two stations, with the train having an engine at each end. So, the train is Locomotive-Freightcar-Freightcar-Locomotive, and the stations are Station-Loadingdock-Loadingdock and Loadingdock-Loadingdock-Station, respectively. By all accounts, this SHOULD work. And yet, somehow, it doesn't. When I tell the train to automatically move on to the next station, it just flashes a 'Station Unreachable' warning, and refuses to move. If I run it MANUALLY, I can drive up to the other station without any kind of issue, though for some reason, the loading-docks there refuse to actually LOAD the train with goods... I don't see any button to do it with, at least, like you do with trucks and truck-stops.

Weirder yet, if I hand control over to the autopilot from that point, the train will cheerfully drive back to the FIRST station... and then, once again, refuse to move, insisting that the station it just arrived from is 'unreachable'. I was first afraid that the issue simply was that you couldn't move 'beyond' each station - each represents the end of the track - but since that's true for both stations... guess not?

Or... wait. This just occurred to me. Does the autopilot somehow designate one of the locomotives as the 'primary' and insist that this one be given a chance to land in a station at both ends? Because that would explain it, I suppose, though finding room to extend either station will be a pain...

[Vectorspace]

It does work, having one line, two stations, and a train with a loco at each end. Can you screenshot the setup?
From your description it sounds like it should work.
Best I can suggest is dismantle the station that's not working, dismantle the last piece of track before the station, then rebuild in the order station, platform, platform, track

[BlackDragon]

Well, that IS the order I built them both in in the first place... I'll try to grab a screenshot next time I play.

[xxCOOPSxx]

Do you have something for the back locomotive to stop in either another station piece or a blank piece. Or is the back of the train hanging out the actually station

[aRPeaR]

For a single line a station must point towards the next station, so I believe it must be: empty platform-loading dock-loading dock-station-rail track-station-loading dock-loading dock-empty platform.

[Vectorspace]

Other way round. With a single line, the end stations past point away. Because a train can only stop at a station that's pointing the same way as the train is travelling

[aRPeaR]

You're right, I remembered it wrong, it's been a while since I built a single line system.

[BlackDragon]

Originally posted by Vectorspace:

Other way round. With a single line, the end stations past point away. Because a train can only stop at a station that's pointing the same way as the train is travelling

Well, if that's accurate, that rather nicely cuts the legs out from under the only theory I had - namely, that I needed to 'flip' one of the two stations to make it work. I mean... it's not as if you NEED an empty platform for the last locomotive, is it? At least, the train seems to do just fine without it at ONE end of the track.

'cuz, yeah...

Originally posted by xxCOOPSxx:

Do you have something for the back locomotive to stop in either another station piece or a blank piece. Or is the back of the train hanging out the actually station

...it's absolutely hanging out of the back of the station at both ends of the track. Like I mentioned in my original post, finding room for a blank station-piece at either end could be difficult... not IMPOSSIBLE, but enough of a headache that I don't particularly want to go to the trouble if it isn't going to HELP. (And again, the train is able to recognize ONE of the stations just fine...)

[Vectorspace]

I only set up a single track line with a double ended train once, a while ago. And I quickly changed it to double track because I had to add other stations for other trains. But I do remember, I did not need an empty platform for the rear loco

[michaeljhuman]

I ran into this problem. All of this has to be correct... ( SUCH A PAIN, I HATE HOW THEY DID RAILS...)

* Ensure the station's "arrow" is pointing away from you, when you are standing at the "end of the line". Both station's arrows must point away from each other like <------->
* The order of the depots, is reversed at one of the two stations, because the train flips around. Start with a solid and a fluid car to test you got it correctly.
* Make sure you properly set load/unload
* Make sure you have loco at each end and they must point in the correct direction. Just check the "window" looking thing on the locomotives. It's a bit hard to tell which end is which, but something sort of looks like the front. If your locos are not pointing the right way, you will fail

I am probably an idiot, but it took me a making every mistake and figuring out what the game wanted before I got it working.

It's easier IMO, to simply put a loop after each station, so that your station depots are in the identical order. Just extend the line after the station, and loop it back to the station. If you do this on both ends, you can simplify the setup. Only one loco is then needed, and the order of depots in each station can be consistent. The cost is more real estate for the tracks.

IMO, the rails in this game are unnecessarily painful and non intuitive. Stations are also huge, so I suggest considering elevated stations. At least they are fast, and carry a lot of goods, and power consumption seems reasonable.

[BlackDragon]

Originally posted by michaeljhuman:

I ran into this problem. All of this has to be correct... ( SUCH A PAIN, I HATE HOW THEY DID RAILS...)

* Ensure the station's "arrow" is pointing away from you, when you are standing at the "end of the line". Both station's arrows must point away from each other like <------->

...well, ♥♥♥♥. I THOUGHT I'd done exactly that, but while trying to take some decent screenshots of the offending station... well...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2709084322

I flipped it. Everything works fine now. Well, the RAILROAD works fine now, anyway - there's a bunch of other fires I need to go put out due to a bunch of stuff happening while I was busy scratching my head over this. :P