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Someone in this forum suggested to make a train stop the same name as another train stop.

I tried that now out. I gave two train stops the same name. What I awaited, was that a train chooses another stop, if the first is occupied, but that didn't work.

Has anybody an idea how that could work? Or is that just not finished yet?

Afaik that's signalling issue. I've had similar problem with trains magically ignoring other stations but closest one until I've removed 1 signal at the rail split and placed them after.


Edit: Here are the locations of removed signals:

ssilk wrote:Someone in this forum suggested to make a train stop the same name as another train stop.

I tried that now out. I gave two train stops the same name. What I awaited, was that a train chooses another stop, if the first is occupied, but that didn't work.

Trains don't recognize stations by their name but by their entity ID which is hidden from player. No two stations can have same entity ID.

This is from my test track. These stations have the same name, and trains pick a station that's free when they cross the last signal before the rail-split. Works perfectly

Sorry, I tried yesterday several combinations, all kinds of signal settings and much more. In no case the train choose the second station. Because all examples are with 3 and more stops: Do I need more than two stops?

Or is it like follows: The train looks up for the station name. A list if all train stops with that name is returned. The train then chooses one, which is free. For that the train chooses the ID and then the train will drive to it, no matter, if 3 other are already on the way to that station.

give us the picture of the stations and the rails coming to them.

AFAIK The train has no knowledge of where other trains are and what stations are occupied/reserved. It can only see if the next block ahead is reserved/occupied. So you want to build single "switch block" that has exits to all possible stops. Note also that if signal on entry side is too close to switch the train cannot choose right track when it enters to "switch block".

Is it eventually so, that the signal before the switch must be in the symmetric line of the train stops? Because all my tries where unsymmetrical. E. g. the train came from down and the stops are from right to left; one signal on the upcoming track, before the switches and then all tracks made a curve from down to left, so that the algorithm always chooses the shortest track.

Hm. I mean it would make sense, that the pathfinder searches a way thru a number of tracks, where the number of rail segments are minimal.

I think I got a working example.
But it was very hard. There is no real logic in that. For example: If I place the lower signal one tile up (at the height of the belt I draw in as helping-line), the splitting doesn't work.
The train stations must be at the same height. And other odds I really cannot point to, because I don't know, why it works sometimes and sometimes not. Here it is: I need an hour for that.

Signals placed next to curved tracks look a bit buggy yeah.. what if you place them next to straight track only?

try to remove the bottom left signal and the bottom signal in the curve and move the bottom right signal one block down. In my opinion the firt two mentioned are not needed. I often used trainstations with 4 lanes and equal names without problems, yes the signal are a bit tricky, but it's possible.

@BurnHard: I made many tries, also your suggestion. But as said it works like so.
I made many, many more tries. There is for example not much difference, where I place the stop. At some point they don't take a signal. Above I said so, that it must be in line, but I can change the placement in a wide area.

Would be interesting to make a bigger test-drive and check, if the trains check as cascade of free useable station-names.

But no idea, what's the reason, that it sometimes work and sometimes not. Maybe it has to do with some check, which slpwnd included, that the train checks the direction on a signal, but that wouldn't explain my experiences on some other maps I tried that out.

Time for blueprints, to make scientific tests, under which circumstances it works and when not.

I fear I may have to rebuild my stations, as trains first went to the right station all the time, then I rebuilt the exit track onto the mainline, and now they all go to the left station :\

The red and green stations are separate names.

Yes, the whole routing is in my eyes not really reliable yet.


I had for example a strange thing this week: two trains on a route, nearly together. At some point, they can decide the long or the short way. The first takes of course the short. The train behind chooses the long. So long, so good.

But at the point, when both tracks rejoin again, the train has the chance to drive back.

This second train makes exactly that: instead if waiting, it drives back and repeats the whole travel. Lol when I saw that the first time. Not so lol when I saw, that it happens more often, than thought...