Smart trains? Same name stations

[skillabstinenz]

I heard you can use the same station name multiple times, which should be really nice.
But what determines which station is chosen?

Can I name all my mining stations something like „get ores“ put some trains in the network all go to „get ores“ till full and then to the ore drop off till empty. Will they use all stations equally or will they just clog the nearest one to the smelting station?

But this can also applied to smelting as well, since two ore trains a needed to fill a plate train of the same size:

ore unloading > smelting > plate loading < smelting < ore unloading

Will they use both stations equally or will they just clog the nearest one while the further one runs dry?

[Optera]

When starting on a schedule to xy trains will calculate the path to the nearest free station named xy.
Note: Near seems to mean least amount of signals passed.

Repath seems to only be called when
a) tracks are broken
b) they stand at a chain signal for x seconds
c) they come to a red circuit controlled signal (this is abused by fake chain signals to force trains instantly into a free stacker instead of waiting at block signals)
It may also be called every x seconds while they travel, but i couldn't reliably test this so far.

[skillabstinenz]

When starting on a schedule to xy trains will calculate the path to the nearest free station named xy

That should be workable.

Note: Near seems to mean least amount of signals passed.

Good to know.

b) they stand at a chain signal for x seconds

"x" like in every couple of seconds when the station got occupied along the drive, or can you specify it somewhere?

[TI-89]

Can I name all my mining stations something like „get ores“ put some trains in the network all go to „get ores“ till full and then to the ore drop off till empty.

Yes. This isn't necessarily easy to accomplish, nor is it perfect (sometimes trains wait in front of empty station while other station is full, etc.) but it can be done. The key is to always leave a path for a train to route to another station, and have enough waiting bays that trains will not clog your main roads.
Here is a piece of my factory where I have a system like this: I haven't totally figured out a system yet, but this seems to work pretty effectively. You can see at the bottom I renamed a station "Ore Scraps" when a dying mine was causing trains to pool in an inconvenient place. Here those are mainly coal trains piling up I think (maybe one or two iron) because it's the closest coal stop but not the closest iron stop.

It takes careful chain signaling to get them to stop in the right places too. Basically my rule is a train should not leave the waiting bay unless it is going to a station or repathing around the station.

Oh also I use circuit signals to close the stations unless there is enough ore in the chests to fill a train.

[porcupine]

It takes careful chain signaling to get them to stop in the right places too. Basically my rule is a train should not leave the waiting bay unless it is going to a station or repathing around the station.

Oh also I use circuit signals to close the stations unless there is enough ore in the chests to fill a train.

This is interesting... I hadn't considered using the signals to block off stations that weren't available to be filled...

Having said that, say you have a yard of a half dozen trains, in a centralized waiting yard, looking for mines to open up (and thus visit). I'm assuming as long as all mines are occupied, they can still path to the station, and thus they'll sit just outside the station, blocking the aisle, unless you have chain signals the entire way? Is this correct? (IE: making a centralized wait station effectively impossible, since you'd need to chain the entire main lines, and thus cannot have main lines after a wait station basically)?

Otherwise, how do you stop multiple trains from leaving the wait station for the same mine, all at the same time (IE: once a full path becomes open)?

Or is there something I'm missing (IE: "no path" rail signal output, instead of just red, controlled by circuit network conditions)?