I'm Terrible with Trains

[Stede]

Easily the worst part of the game, for me - despite all the recent improvements. I can't seem to get around gridlock and No Path issues. I've tried for hours. If there's any guides out there that have given you guys a Eureka! moment - I'd love to know about it. But debugging trains isn't fun at all.

I wish there was some kind of baseline train logic built into the game without the need for signals - the concept of it all isn't difficult, I just don't know how to use all the signals to replicate it. I've got 3 trains on 2 parallel tracks - the 2nd train was fine, but the 3rd has caused the entire thing to descend into chaos. I'm playing all vanilla / default settings, so there's not really any way I can launch a rocket without trains, so this has sidelined everything else in the save.

[Koub]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZiL7_vfJtQ
This tutorial is what I refer to whenever I try to build trains

[aober93]

What is important is that signals (and stations) have to be on the right side of the train for it to go in that direction. And for any signal that is on one side, there has to be another signal down the line on the same side, and no signal on the other side inbetween. This is then building a oneway block. A twoway block is done by placing signals on both sides of the rail on 2 ends of the block, and no other signal inbetween.

My eureka moment was that regardless of errors i made on any part of the rail setup, if you have any adjacent working block(s) that a train can go (FORWARD) and there is a train station, it will work. Gridlocks have been solved once i realized how this works. I just worked my way down once i got a working block.

One of my error was, that i placed signals going in a train station coming from both sides. So like ---.-----°--- This doesnt work of course.

[Bushdoctor]

I blame the Wiki. It's horrible explaining trains and even refers to another game if you want to find out what the signals do.
Aober93 summed it up pretty good, but didn't specify what each signal does:
The block signal only looks at the block ahead. If there's a train in that block, it will stay red.
The chain signal looks at the signal ahead and basically copies its state/color.

What works for me and most other players is to use a chain signal in front of a crossing, and a block signal after a crossing.
This will prevent trains from stopping on a crossing and blocking it for other traffic.

Good luck and happy steaming!

[Stede]

So in the tutorials, it seems like each track only really has signals setup to handle trains moving in a single direction on each line of track. Is that a best practice for some reason or was that just done for clarity in the tutorials?

[Xenomorph]

So in the tutorials, it seems like each track only really has signals setup to handle trains moving in a single direction on each line of track. Is that a best practice for some reason or was that just done for clarity in the tutorials?

If you use one track towards your outpost and a second track back you can reach more throughput.

It's the usefull setup for a huge trainnetwork. You can made it big aswell 1-1, 2-2, 4-4, 8-8, 16-16 tracks and so on. If you have the place and need so much tracks to supply your base use this solution.

You don't need to use waiting bays along the track like you need for more than one train on a single track.

The trainsetup 1-x-1 (means a train on each end with x wagons between it) you need when you don't use turnarounds at the end of a station.
The first train enter the station and the second train leaves it in the opposite direction.

[nonstickfrypan]

I'm terrible with trains as well and I've launched 400+ rockets. I end up just wasting tracks and space by build tracks where I know I don't need them

[Xenomorph]

If i played the game for the first time i used the express belt to get the ores from my outposts. The railroad next to the belt was only for transporting me

[zebediah49]

One thing I've run into when starting out is that the train will only go forwards.

To debug train issues, manual mode is useful -- slowly attempt to do the train's route, driving it yourself. Use the following rules:

1. Never use the reverse (s) key, unless you're undoing a mistake.
2. Never pass a signal to your left, unless there is one paired with it on the right.
3. Only pass a red signal if you know why it's red (and know that it won't be red in normal use)

Whenever possible, hover your mouse over the train or track in front of you (I forget which) -- it should show colored arrows indicating where you can go. If the arrows stop at a signal, it means that signal is blocking the path. If the arrows go red, it's because the signal is red.

At this point I'm pretty good at not making these mistakes, because I can follow the track by eye. If there's an issue I can't see though, taking control of a train and driving the route myself is a good way of finding it. Additionally, you can go part way, then try setting the train to 'automatic' again, and seeing if it can drive the rest of the route. If it can, the rest is fine and the problem was earlier along.

-------

Additional note: The reason paired track is so common is that it allows trains to pass each other, which lets you have *way* more throughput than one. With a single track, only one train can be on it at once without jamming. With paired tracks, you can have many trains on each side; because they're all going the same direction they don't jam up (with some exceptions involving train stations).

[mexmer]

If i played the game for the first time i used the express belt to get the ores from my outposts. The railroad next to the belt was only for transporting me

why didn't you built transport belt in oposite direction? you know it's faster when you run on transport belt