Railroad Layouts

[Night_Ange1]

Hi all,

I am at endgame of my 2nd game played and I find its now mostly outpost building and making your territory larger, which leads to my favorite part of this game. TRAINS!!!!

So with new outpost going up and seeing this awesome post (https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=8&t=6970 +1) I was wondering what junctions people like.

My first junction

FirstJunction

1stJunction.png (796.89 KiB) Viewed 18124 times

This is what happened when I placed tracks as needed.

New Mega 8 way junction I will blue print and put at all major intersections

8 Way Junction

8wayRailroadJunction.png (781 KiB) Viewed 18124 times

I have extra room between each direction lines so I can drive my car safely between them

What has the community made as their junctions/stations/anything cool with track layout

[AlphaRaptor]

Hi all,

I am at endgame of my 2nd game played and I find its now mostly outpost building and making your territory larger, which leads to my favorite part of this game. TRAINS!!!!

So with new outpost going up and seeing this awesome post (https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=8&t=6970 +1) I was wondering what junctions people like.

My first junction

FirstJunction

1stJunction.png

This is what happened when I placed tracks as needed.

New Mega 8 way junction I will blue print and put at all major intersections

8 Way Junction

8wayRailroadJunction.png

I have extra room between each direction lines so I can drive my car safely between them

What has the community made as their junctions/stations/anything cool with track layout

Pretty Interesting , the 8 Way Junction looks cool

[starxplor]

In the 8-way junction, you have all the crossing track sections blocked by signals as needed, but be careful you do not have any trains longer then the distance from one of the inside 90degree signals to the signal on the inside of the outside rail cross. If you do, a stopped train here can cascade into a complete gridlock of the entire hub.

Otherwise, looks awesome.

[Night_Ange1]

I have short trains due to the main off loading area so I've made sure they work. Thanks for the support! What intersections have you made?

[starxplor]

I primarily use the 4-way small circle, dual-track with trains on the right track, with a main station using using a single unload area with a set of 3 or 4 holding tracks for incoming trains. I also love the Wagons mod and still mostly play on the 0.10 line because the electric loco and logistic carts are both available.

Since I usually do not have a tonne of trains running through the same intersection(except the first junction outside the drop off station), trains rarely have to wait long for others. Most of the time, they only wait a half turn so they can continue in a different direction than the train that just passed.

[Cdr.MaS]

the circle can be smaller, even the smallest possible circle is capable of handling all eight directions

[Smarty]

the circle can be smaller, even the smallest possible circle is capable of handling all eight directions

does that matter?
we are talking about factorio everything in this game needs to be big especially the rail systems
plus this is a lot more fun to watch the trains to go everywere

[Cdr.MaS]

I was wondering what junctions people like.

I just answered this point

[The Lone Wolfling]

I use the small 4-way circle, and occasionally this modification for high-traffic areas:

High-traffic

(And/or including straight sections too.)

Note that you don't need large parts of the circle if trains won't be turning around.

[Night_Ange1]

Awesome thanks Wolfling.
I think Im gunna use this design for my jumbled mess intersection

[Asero]

Looks pretty neat! Going to try them out tonight...

[Neotix]

Looks pretty but is not efficient.
First. It need more space than normal round cross because of space between rails.
Second. You need more resources.
Third. Only one train can cross it at once.

While ago I designed round cross with signals between.


Entire round cross is divided on 8 segments and max 4 trains can pass through at once.

[Cdr.MaS]

Looks pretty but is not efficient.

it's a game, one is not forced to be the most efficent
no offense

[Neotix]

Not taken.
Of course that it's a game and I didn't force anyone. If you want to use it, use it, if you don't want than don't. I just commented about The Lone Wolfling's design, nothing less, nothing more.

[starxplor]

I use the small 4-way circle, and occasionally this modification for high-traffic areas:

High-traffic

(And/or including straight sections too.)

Note that you don't need large parts of the circle if trains won't be turning around.

Just make a blueprint of this and paste all over the open space and it will look like one of those old spirograph drawings(also doable with a compass alone).

[ssilk]

Entire round cross is divided on 8 segments and max 4 trains can pass through at once.

I tried out a couple of those layouts, also exactly this. They have a good chance to go into deadlock. To avoid this, the whole crossing needs to be locked.

In other words: the signals in this circle are a problem. See down for a bit more explanation. To stop this chance of being locked, the signals in the circle must be removed. That won't any longer let pass multiple trains at once, of course. And then the first layout makes suddenly sense, cause the train has shorter ways inside the crossing, and the lock is then shorter.
There is also a good chance to not go into deadlock for the whole game. It depends on so many factors, especially train lengths.

See also https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ock#p54689

[Neotix]

You're right ssilk. With long trains and with high traffic density it can cause deadlock. Everything depend on what you want to build, how many and how long trains you want to use, how dense the network is, how many crossroads you have, how they're connected etc. Sometimes round cross is not enough or it's more than enough. Thats why that game is so awesome because there is no only one solution for anything.

[DerivePi]

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 5408&start - repost

Some of my "rules of thumb" regarding trains:
- Pick a rotation and stick with it. Either run trains counterclockwise on loops (the right way ) or clockwise. When you lay down 2-lane tracks, the signals will all be to the outside (or inside).
- Every decision point should have a signal before it. Ie when a track splits, provide a signal just before the split. If desired, provide another set of signals a full train length after, on both branches.
- For multi-directional circles, let trains own the circle until they leave it. https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =18&t=5434 for further discussion and speculation.
- For multi-lane tracks, pick a line of demarcation and put a signal at each track on that line. For instance, if you have 4 lanes of tracks, provide at least 4 signals (8 if you allow trains to travel in both directions).
- When you have multiple tracks, don't allow trains to travel in both directions.
- Leave space for signals. Especially at spots where space is limited.

[The Lone Wolfling]

There is, in fact, a reason for going beyond the standard circular intersection.

A standard circular intersection has a rather low throughput, and also makes trains do many more turns than is necessary, slowing them down further. This is also the case with your design, Neotix. Look at a train going straight, for example. It'll have to make 4 turns, whereas it doesn't actually need to make any.

Also, Neotix, your design is / will be prone to deadlocks with multiple trains. (Almost) any loop with multiple signal sections will be, which is why we don't do that. And the reason I don't put tracks right beside each other like that is because it becomes very annoying to a) try to put signals in, and b) to run belts / etc across the tracks. (Underground belts stretch 4 underground, which leaves you no leeway in that design)

The below is my standard high-traffic design. (You can compact it slightly if you don't mind trains not being able to turn around. Ditto, you can move the center turns as needed.)

OK.png (508.32 KiB) Viewed 16411 times

[immibis]

Both of your (OP's) intersections look over-complicated, but that is what makes them look awesome