Can somen please help me out. I simply don't understandmy trains. I have a standard layout for small station, that include three waiting bays for the trains.I have used this layout hundred times before, but out of the sudden (well, I haven't played factorio for over a year now at least) this setup is not working. My trains ignore the waiting station and simply pass trough it, just to either return to the very same station and WAIT, or they proceed directly to the (un)loading station.
The Waiting Bay Station has a rail chain signal after the train stop.
Here is the train schedule: "WB" denotes the Waiting Bay Station, where the train should wait until the (un)loading station is free.
And here is the strange pathfinding of the train when approaching the Waiting Bay:
I simply cannot figure out what's going on here ...
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2025 7:25 pm
by eugenekay
A copy of the Savegame file would be nice. There is simply not enough Detail in the Map view to tell what is going on here.
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2025 7:28 pm
by Nosferatu
Try if the problem goes away if you put a wait 1 second condition onto the waiting bays.
It is also possible to set no wait condition, this causes the train to simply pass by the station without stopping.
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2025 7:45 pm
by Loewchen
Quax wrote: Tue Sep 30, 2025 7:01 pm
My trains ignore the waiting station and simply pass trough it, just to either return to the very same station and WAIT, or they proceed directly to the (un)loading station.
You are saying they drive through the WB station just to loop around and return to it? That would make no sense to me. The drive through and wait at the loading/unloading station is what should happen with the schedules you have given them.
Without save file it's speculation, but I bet you did not set the train limits in the loading/unloading stations correctly if at all.
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2025 9:04 pm
by Quax
So here's my Savegame. As for the schedule: with the final station occupied by another train, the chain signals for this path are all red. Hence, once arriving at the Waiting Stop, the train should come to a halt until the signals to the final station turn green again. At least that's how I understand this to work, and how it worked last time I played
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2025 9:15 pm
by Loewchen
Quax wrote: Tue Sep 30, 2025 9:04 pm
with the final station occupied by another train, the chain signals for this path are all red. Hence, once arriving at the Waiting Stop, the train should come to a halt until the signals to the final station turn green again. At least that's how I understand this to work, and how it worked last time I played
No, the status of rail signals has no bearing on the train leaving the station or not. The train will leave the station when the wait conditions are met and the next station in schedule has a stop with a limit >0. There are no wait conditions on the WB stations and there are no train limits set on the load/unload stations, so the train will always drive through.
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2025 10:14 pm
by Quax
So this has obviously changed over the years ... ok ...
Found out that this problem seems to be solved by setting the train limit of the destination station to 1.
Thanks!
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2025 6:55 am
by Kyralessa
As a side note, it looks to me like you have way more signals than you need.
The fundamental rule is:
Chain signal at each entrance to a shared section.
Regular signal at each exit from a shared section.
This ensures that a train doesn't enter a shared section unless it can also exit that section, to keep it from getting clogged in multiple directions.
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2025 7:16 am
by Tertius
It seems you don't (or didn't) use train limits. This is a very important configuration to make sure there will never be more trains driving to that station than intended, so any waiting area in front of the station cannot overflow. This function is crucial for automatic train operation and available as of game version 1.1.
You don't need these waiting area stations and schedule entries, because you're able to make the trains wait just with the use of chain signals. In case you have a waiting area with 2 lanes, you have space for 3 trains: 1 in the station and 2 in the waiting area. So configure a train limit of 3 in the station and remove the waiting area stations. For signals, put a regular signal at the end of the station (where the end of the train is supposed to be) so it's red if there is a train in the station. Put chain signals before it up to the waiting area, so any train in the waiting area is waiting at a chain signal as long as the signal at the station is red. As soon as the train in the station leaves, the chain signals get green and one of the trains in the waiting area is able to proceed to the station. So no station required for that waiting area.
Such a stationless waiting area can be used in front of the unloading stations as well.
Where you still might need a waiting area with station and schedule entry is after the unloading stations, a global area where empty trains can wait until one of the loading stations get at least 1 free train slot restricted by the train limit.
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2025 11:12 am
by Quax
Kyralessa wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 6:55 am
As a side note, it looks to me like you have way more signals than you need.
The fundamental rule is:
Chain signal at each entrance to a shared section.
Regular signal at each exit from a shared section.
This ensures that a train doesn't enter a shared section unless it can also exit that section, to keep it from getting clogged in multiple directions.
The amount of chain signals is a result of trying to reduce the rail segment length that is blocked by a train crossing the main line:
Over all, it might be an overkill, but it's working
Tertius wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 7:16 am
It seems you don't (or didn't) use train limits. This is a very important configuration to make sure there will never be more trains driving to that station than intended, so any waiting area in front of the station cannot overflow. This function is crucial for automatic train operation and available as of game version 1.1.
You don't need these waiting area stations and schedule entries, because you're able to make the trains wait just with the use of chain signals. In case you have a waiting area with 2 lanes, you have space for 3 trains: 1 in the station and 2 in the waiting area. So configure a train limit of 3 in the station and remove the waiting area stations. For signals, put a regular signal at the end of the station (where the end of the train is supposed to be) so it's red if there is a train in the station. Put chain signals before it up to the waiting area, so any train in the waiting area is waiting at a chain signal as long as the signal at the station is red. As soon as the train in the station leaves, the chain signals get green and one of the trains in the waiting area is able to proceed to the station. So no station required for that waiting area.
Such a stationless waiting area can be used in front of the unloading stations as well.
Where you still might need a waiting area with station and schedule entry is after the unloading stations, a global area where empty trains can wait until one of the loading stations get at least 1 free train slot restricted by the train limit.
Yes, that seems to have changed since I last played Factorio, which is some years ago now. Or Maybe the train limit was set to 1 by default back then .. but whatever, I understand the logic now.
The reason for having the Waiting Station is to avoid the trains waiting on the main line. But I gues this could be achieved by skipping the direct access route, so the trians are forced to take their route through the stacker area. I'm gonna give this a try to imporve/simplify my build, which would also make the crossing less complicated
Re: Train ignores waiting bay
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2025 1:22 pm
by Tertius
In case you need inspiration, an example from my latest ore mining outpost iteration. I try to make an outpost as simple and lightweight as possible.
The blue part and intersection isn't part of the outpost blueprint, it's there to show how it's connected to the 2-track main line. The blue part is a freeform bidirectional line from the main track line to the outpost. This way you can have a longer distance between the fixed main tracks and the ore mine somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
The waiting area is simply part of the loop. The station has train limit of 2, one train for the station and 1 train waiting directly in front of it. If you need 2 trains waiting, you can add another signal somewhere near the middle curve to divide the waiting area into 2 places and increase the train limit to 3.
And yes, no buffer chests. If there is a waiting area, a waiting train is replacing the leaving train so fast there is simply no need for buffering anything - the train itself is the buffer. Trains are 2-4.
(It's all red belts and fast inserters since the map is in its starting phase, can of course be 1:1 upgraded to blue/green and bulk/stack inserters.
10-01-2025, 15-09-20.png (779.64 KiB) Viewed 159 times
