Hallo!
Post by Graham MooreI've got a very busy route and I'm trying to double up the amount of tracks
(double the capacity, right?), but the configuration isn't going too well.
Has anyone seen a tutorial about with a 4 track system? (2 in each
direction).
I had created a setup with four tracks on a specially crafted map. The
map consisted of a huge donut-shaped island and a little round island in
the middle. On the donut part I built four tracks in parallel forming a
huge ring. Every 10 or 15 squares I created crossing tracks with normal
signals[0]. Let's try an ASCII graphic:
H
S
====SXS====
====SXS====
====SXS====
====S^S====
(If there is no station, I usually built a depot instead of the "H")
The "="'s and the "H"'s are normal straight rails. The "X"'s are
fields with every buildable track in one field. The "^" is a reduces "X"
with only one straight track going trought (so a track on the lowest
rail can pass over to the lowest track on the other side of the signals.
The signals are marked with the "S". There are no stations in the ring.
The only chance to get to a station is to leave the ring on one of the
"H"-rails to a station connected to them (I tried to build the shortest
path to the stations).
At big station connections I had sometimes two or three "X"-rails next
to each other, somehow looking like this:
HHH
SSS
====SXXXS====
====SXXXS====
====SXXXS====
====S^^^S====
Yes, in reality, trains may crash if the are driving in circles on
such a construction, but in Transport Tycoon (till deluxe) and in
OpenTTD it seems to be no problem when an engines goes through another
wagon. You even can wind up a train on a construction like this one:
/\
___/\/\s_
(I never played the patch, so please save the game before you may kill
your trains.)
The train will wind up in the circle when the signal is red. But it
may finally leave it if it's red too long.
Ok, let's speak again about the large ring contruct. It's not a
high speed train collider, as you may think. And it worked fine. Trains
come to the ring, select a free block and go round till the leave to
their next station. The only difficulty are breakdowns one X-fields. The
whole ring part will be blocked before the train will go on.
There are two solutions:
1. Only create a few full-featured rails to stations. Try constructions
like this one instead:
H H H
S S S
====SXS==== .. ====SXS==== .. ====SXS====
====S^S=a== .. ====SXS==== .. ====S^S====
====SvS==== .. ====SXS==== .. ====SvS====
====S^S==== .. ====S^S==== .. ====S^S====
So, a breakdown on the way to the seconds station may still cause the
old problems, but at station one and three only the half ring will be
influenced. Trains that won't need to go to station one or three have a
chance to select a free block if they are not to close to the breakdown
(i.e. waiting at the point marked with "a" while a train broke down at
the signals while traversing to station one.
2. You may use two rails in every direction. Then you may build
something like this:
H The "<"'s and the ">"'s are one way signals. "B" means that
H==\ there is a bridge or a tunnel. As you may notice, the rails
S B in the middle aren't connected to each other. The trains
====>X>=B== may go through the this as above, but only in the given
====<^<=B== directions. You can have the advantages of (1.) one every
====<v<=B== branch to a station, but you have to deal with the brigde
====>^>=B== workaround.
H B
\==/
If you combine variants (1.) and (2.), you could live without the
brigde:
H H H
S S S
=a==>X>==== .. ====>X>==== .. ====>X>====
=b==<X<==== .. ====<^<==== .. ====<X<====
=c==>X>==== .. ====>v>==== .. ====>X>====
=d==<^<==== .. ====<^<==== .. ====<^<====
Think of a train on rail "c" which wants to go to station 2. It may
travel at the branch of station 1 to rail "a" and finally reach its
station. If it breaks down at the branch to station 2 and a train on
rail "a" tries to get to station three, it can easyly use rail "c" to
pass to its destination. But again, breakdowns at station one or three
are still a problem.
But, as no stations are directly one the ring, there are no problems
with waiting trains in them. And it works fine with long trains.
In a special litte city getting goods from a factory in the next
valley, I found the following construction working best:
Factory City
D D
TTTTTTTSX>=====>=====>== .. ==>=====>=====>XTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTSX<=====<=====<== .. ==>=====>=====</
TTTTTTTS/
In this example, the "T"'s are stations, "D"'s are depots. Three
trains may load at one time, head one after each other to the city
station and unload one after another. Yes, breakdowns are a problem,
but the station in the city can't be enlarged without definitly
disgusting the authorities, and the track to the city on the mountain
is even complicated enought.
But, with five or six trains on it, it's my best line in this
savegame (at least if I use the train incomes as relation). So, the
breakdowns seems not to be a large problem. But i think you may build
something like this:
Factory City
D D
TTTTTTTSX>====v>====v>== .. =v>====v>=====>X>TTTTTTTSX
TTTTTTTSX S S S S X>TTTTTTTSX
TTTTTTTSX>====^>====^>== .. =^>====^>=====>X>TTTTTTTSX
TTTTTTTSX H
TTTTTTTSX<=====<v====<v= ............ ==<v====<v====<X
TTTTTTTSX S S S S H
TTTTTTTSX<=====<^====<^= ............ ==<^====<^====</
Ok, the station mustn't be _such_ big. But now the small trains may
switch to the parallel rail if there is some breakdown. It should still
work, but the authorities would surely get very angry if I try this.
HTH,
Christoph
[0] This was and old version of Transport Tycoon with the World Editor
(DOS), so the new signal types were still missing.
