Magic roundabout

Smart setups of railway stations, intelligent routing, solutions to complex train-routing problems.
Please provide - only if it makes sense of course - a blueprint of your creation.
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Khagan
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Magic roundabout

Post by Khagan »

Prompted by the post on unloved junctions, here is a Factorio rail junction inspired by a real-world road junction that is not merely unloved, but actively feared and hated: the notorious magic roundabout.
MagicRoundabout.png
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This is signalled for left-hand drive; to see it signalled for right-hand drive, turn your eyeballs inside out. Any resemblance to the temple of Bel-Shamharoth is completely coincidental.
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mmmPI
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Re: Magic roundabout

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In 2009 it was voted the fourth-scariest junction in Britain
isn't there one called the "spaghetti junction "? amongst the 3 worst x)

At least it says on the wikipage that it makes traffic too slow to allow collision to have serious impact which is good :).

Generally speaking ( for road design) higher throughput is better achieved with more dense traffic, which implies slower traffic due to braking distance being ² of the speed. ( not counting adding more lanes to buffer trains like in factorio ). But i'm still surprised this kind of design achieves it in real life. I'm not too sure about it in factorio :D


I think to make it RHD one could use the blueprint flip mod, and then mirror it once, then place all signals on the other side of the track. ( while keeping the eyeball normal). It would be a shame to miss the opportunity !
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SoShootMe
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Re: Magic roundabout

Post by SoShootMe »

Khagan wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 3:08 am Prompted by the post on unloved junctions, here is a Factorio rail junction inspired by a real-world road junction that is not merely unloved, but actively feared and hated: the notorious magic roundabout.
Nice... you describe it as "inspired by" so not a criticism but it would be closer to The Magic Roundabout if you removed the central circle, so the rounded square becomes the innermost part (which trains travel around in the opposite direction).

The other bit of realism would be to expand to 3-4 lanes each way everywhere, with the possibility of changing to an adjacent lane between each roundabout.

I am familiar with Swindon's Magic Roundabout. Its "charm" is that the combination of the number of lanes with the size of the actual roundabouts (about a car's width) and space between them (a few car lengths) means that - when busy - you find yourself in a sea of cars on every side, seemingly going in every direction. Yet somehow it is less of a problem than you might imagine.
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Khagan
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Re: Magic roundabout

Post by Khagan »

SoShootMe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 6:40 am Nice... you describe it as "inspired by" so not a criticism but it would be closer to The Magic Roundabout if you removed the central circle, so the rounded square becomes the innermost part (which trains travel around in the opposite direction).
Yes, when I did this I was under the impression that the Swindon one did have an additional mini-roundabout in the centre. In my defence, I have only travelled through it once: it was at night, in the rain, and I wasn't the driver. I did become intimately familiar years ago with the Colchester Greenstead version; in fact, I once broke down in the middle of it!
The other bit of realism would be to expand to 3-4 lanes each way everywhere, with the possibility of changing to an adjacent lane between each roundabout.
I would rather consider that a natural difference between a road version and a rail version.
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Re: Magic roundabout

Post by SoShootMe »

Khagan wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:31 am I did become intimately familiar years ago with the Colchester Greenstead version; in fact, I once broke down in the middle of it!
Yeah, Swindon's Magic Roundabout is conceptually similar to the Colchester one (and others) but with more lanes and a smaller, completely circular centre (10m or so diameter, about the size of the centre of a "medium" roundabout). I think it's in a class of its own.
SoShootMe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 6:40 am The other bit of realism would be to expand to 3-4 lanes each way everywhere, with the possibility of changing to an adjacent lane between each roundabout.
I would rather consider that a natural difference between a road version and a rail version.
A Factorio version could buffer a train per lane between each roundabout for increased throughput, similar to the real thing. It would be a bit of a monster though! (Sadly not one I think I have the skill to create in any reasonable amount of time, though I am very tempted to try anyway...)
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