Long rail lines

[Kelderek]

When you have a long rail line between stations or other intersections, is there an ideal way to segment the rail line into blocks? I'm talking about really long lines of empty land where there's no intersections or stops for the trains to worry about. It isn't entirely necessary to split the long line into multiple blocks with rail signals, but I think that it will help with throughput and I just want to figure out how many blocks is enough or too much. Obviously if the whole line is a single block then your trains will have to wait for it to clear before entering it. Is there any downside to splitting a long line into lots of blocks, assuming that each block is at least big enough to contain your largest trains?

For example, if I have a rail line that is 30 times longer than my biggest train, is there any downside to breaking it up into 20+ blocks, or should I only make a handful of them? I would assume that the more blocks you have in your train system the more work it takes to calculate paths. How do most of you guys handle your long rail lines with respect to blocks and signals?

I should add that I am using a pair of one-way rails, one for each direction, for all of my train routes.

[sillyfly]

I'm using FARL for laying long-distance rails, with a 20-tiles between signals configuration.
I don't believe blocks with only one input and one output affect performance negatively (at least - not a significant amount), but I don't know for certain.

As for size fitting your largest train - this again is more relevant around junctions - you want the blocks just after junctions (in each exit direction) to be at least as big as your biggest train, so no train ends up blocking the junction. For breaking up straight runs it is less critical, as having the train take up two blocks doesn't really block any trains that could use this path.

[ikarikeiji]

For example, if I have a rail line that is 30 times longer than my biggest train, is there any downside to breaking it up into 20+ blocks, or should I only make a handful of them? I would assume that the more blocks you have in your train system the more work it takes to calculate paths. How do most of you guys handle your long rail lines with respect to blocks and signals?

Watching Bentham's Railworld series taught me that a very long stretch of track with no signals causes lag whenever you connect another piece of rail to it, while adding the signals every so often prevents this. So this would suggest it's better to use many smaller blocks instead of one very large block. I couldn't really comment on exactly how long they should be, but just thought I'd share this observation.

[Kelderek]

As for size fitting your largest train - this again is more relevant around junctions - you want the blocks just after junctions (in each exit direction) to be at least as big as your biggest train, so no train ends up blocking the junction. For breaking up straight runs it is less critical, as having the train take up two blocks doesn't really block any trains that could use this path.

So in that case you might have at least 3 blocks for a long line: one for the entrance following a station or junction, another for the long stretch run in the middle and then a third for the final block immediately before the next junction/station. That makes sense.

Watching Bentham's Railworld series taught me that a very long stretch of track with no signals causes lag whenever you connect another piece of rail to it, while adding the signals every so often prevents this. So this would suggest it's better to use many smaller blocks instead of one very large block. I couldn't really comment on exactly how long they should be, but just thought I'd share this observation.

Hmm, that's interesting, I can see how that might work. It looks like a difference between possible lag at the time of rail construction vs lag when trains are running on it. I'm guessing there is a happy medium somewhere.

I brought this question up after observing a train that was following another train closely and needed to stop and wait when the first train entered a very long block. That bugged me, so I knew that I needed to split the long one up, but I was also concerned with performance of having many more blocks in the system. This is why I am curious how others set their long rail lines up.

I am using RSO for the first time and I absolutely love having resource outposts way out in the boonies.

[sillyfly]

So in that case you might have at least 3 blocks for a long line: one for the entrance following a station or junction, another for the long stretch run in the middle and then a third for the final block immediately before the next junction/station. That makes sense.

Well, at least three, but preferably much much more than that. The blocks in the middle of the stretch would be about 20 tiles in length, and I wouldn't really fuss about them being smaller or larger than the largest train in the network.
However, for every block exiting a junction I'll take care to make it at least long enough to accommodate the longest train in the network, to avoid any train waiting while blocking the junction.