Trains: help with 1 lane to 2 lanes (not single rails)

[Griffon0129]

I've been using FARL, RSO, and Yuoki mods. Since resources are so far away and the Yuoki trains mod adds several new trains and cargo that have different speeds, I want a double lane rail line for the long stretches of my rail so the slower trains don't slow down the faster ones.

I have something like this:

Code: Select all

                        station
    station                ||
   /--------\              ||
>--------------->--------------->
<---------------<---------------<

and I want something like this:

Code: Select all

    /------\                            ||
   /--------\  />--------------->\      ||
>--------------->--------------->--------------->
<---------------<---------------<---------------<
               \<---------------</          ||        
                                            ||

The 4 rail lines are in the heavy use part of the rail lines then they go back to just 2 rails when the traffic isn't too bad anymore.
(obviously those aren't exactly what they look like, if you can understand them)

I don't want just pull off lanes so other trains can pass (like I've seen in train tutorials), I'd like for multiple trains to be going the same direction without stopping until the rails combine again at the ends, I just can't figure out how to implement that. Do I just have to make tons of lane switching tracks every so often?

[zytukin]

Unless one of those mods adds something to specify that certain trains will go to certain rails, the only way (as far as I know) is to just use a lot of switches.

[twepy]

Im not sure about what your trying to ask. If the question is will trains use multiple tracks to the same destination, the answer is: Yes, if the most optimal path is blocked by red signal it will recalculate its path and use alternate paths. If the question is how to run multiple trains on the same track, the answer is make multiple smaller blocks with signals like in the example below. Ofcourse in this example a faster train will be slowed down by a slower train, because there no overtake ability for the faster train. For that u need to build in a lane changing ability, but beware that could cause slow downs as only one train a time can enter such block. A faster train in the other lane overtaking a slower train having to yield to a red signal because the slower train is earlier in the block.

Code: Select all

--------------------------------->
s         s         s          s
--------------------------------->
s         s         s          s

  s         s         s          s
<---------------------------------
  s         s         s          s
<---------------------------------

[Griffon0129]

I've done a little experimenting on my own and found that chain signals and this zigzag pattern to be the answer.

4Rails.png (834.23 KiB) Viewed 2657 times

From what I understand chain signals are the color of the the signal in front of it. If there are 2 signals in front of the chain signal with one being green and the other is red the chain signal turns blue.
So if another train is coming it'll see that 1 signal is red and the other is blue (meaning there is an open block out of the many ways it could go that direction). The coming train will pick the blue chain signal and switch tracks. In the picture you can see that the bottom track is all green and the one the train is on is red. All the chain signals leading to the bottom rail is blue and all the ones leading to the top rail is red. The bottom rail is free to be traveled on even with lane switching track in each block.

FYI: I only used chain signals on the lane switching tracks, all other signals are the normal block signals.

Ironically enough if a train is already on 1 of the rails (at any distance away), then another train just entering will pick the other rail even though it could eventually switch tracks to avoid the one already on it down the lane. I did not know this last part until testing it and watching the trains move about.