Seeking assistance with depot parking management

[MisterFister]

Howdy. Base v0.18.x (currently 0.18.9) LTN v1.12.3.

My issue is that Depot parking spots can sometimes be over-partitioned, resulting in trains dangling out on the mainlines heading into the Depot. This is more pronounced near high-volume requester locations.

I'm aware of the possibility of assigning unique names to each individual Depot complex, and thus each depot would have its own dedicated sub-fleet of trains, assigned by their original train schedule at time of train deployment. The drawback from that is that it forces all empty trains to always traipse back to their original Depot location, thus increasing overall rail network traffic by guaranteeing that more empty trains returning to Depot will be floating around.

Is there a middle-ground option? I've seen suggestions to wire each individual Depot-stop to become disabled once a train occupies it, but won't that interfere with the ability to dispatch said-occupying train if it's sitting at a disabled stop? Is there a way to globally name all depot parking locations for a particular train length and to simply react dynamically to parking shortages at a particular location?

Will this mod allow me to use a via-stop to manipulate train pathfinding from within the depot parking complex itself (i.e. a mini-stacker)?

Thanks.

[EnderTheXenocide]

The train knows its intended depot is now occupied and will repath to a different depot on its own. Just provide an exit path from the chain signal that allows a train to repath to a new depot if the one it was headed for gets occupied before it arrives.

[jdtitans]

Based on what you described, I would recommend either bigger depots or a stacker feeding your depots to get trains off the main line.

I've found using the LTN Network ID function helps organize the train traffic immensely.

In my last base, I used a base-wide LTN network and had traffic nightmares. I had lots of big Depots all over the base (named the same) and sometimes had overcrowding, like you describe. The base was big enough where I didn't want to redesign everything, so I worked on my rail organizational skills on my 8 lane main train bus and built bigger depots.

For my current base, I modularized production, created resource outposts I needed and contained each sub-factory under one LTN network ID. Each sub-factory has 3-5 trains and 1 Depot with 3-5 parking spots. Works great. I probably have more trains than before, but traffic is insignificant, and I'm getting 9000+ SPM using only 2 lane tracks (1 each direction).