How to make trains drive on one lane?

[Nizl]

Hello,

I'am trying to let 2 trains go on the same lane autonomously but I can't figure out why my signals aren't working like I want them to. I've read some FAQs on some basic train signal knowledge and also implemented one of them (the deadlock prevention on one lane) but even this doesn't work in my setup. Please let me elaborate further with some images of the setup I rebuild.


This is my lower section of my track. As you can see it is a circle construction which lets the trains go out and in 1 by 1. This is the only part that actually works right now.


Going upwards we have 2 lines going out/in. One of them ends near the circle as you can see to the left. The train which follows this track does not have any problems in this current setup and proceeds smoothly.


Here we have the middle section of the whole rail-system. There you can also see my attempt on the right side, where the deadlock prevention sadly doesn't work. I think it has to do with the upper signals but I can't figure it out..


This is the final image and the head of the rail-system where the one right line splits into two. The signals for coming in/out kinda work but I don't think they are right.

So yeah, does anyone know any way to fix this? What are my fundamental mistakes? Any help is really appreciated since I can't figure it out myself :/

[Shokubai]

Think about real life. Ever see two trains moving opposite directions on a single lane of track? They have to be able to stop, pass, etc...

For simplicity using 2 lanes everywhere solves a ton of problems.

If you want to fix your existing track you need to remove signals basically everywhere they cannot pass. Hit F4 and turn on "show_rail_segments" (i think thats the one). It should color code blocks of rail. One train can only ever occupy one block. By making a long single lane track 1 single block you allow 1 train to clear the whole thing before letting another train on the track.

Incidentally you sort of did the right thing by placing side by side signals but you are creating more blocks and the the trains think..."Oh heres an empty block i can enter" without regard for other trains in other blocks who might block them later.

Here is a good example where they used chain signals along the length of the rail but created a passing area marked with normal signals.

[Nizl]

I never thought of using 2 simple signals before entering the segments. Wow it works like a charm. Thank you very much for help, this saved me a lot of trial and error to do it myself )
Also yes F4 seems to be the menu where you can select a vast amount of options. Never heard or seen it before but it also helped me visualize my problem, so thank you for this too!