DECKELEVEN'S BLOG

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Routes, Schedules & Signals

In Railroads 2, routing, schedules and traffic lights work together to give you control over your trains.

Routing let you decide the paths that your trains will take.

You can route your trains by marking waypoints on the map. For instance, the first waypoint can be a pick-up station and the second waypoint a drop-off station. The game will automatically choose the best route between the two waypoints.

Schedule let you give orders & actions to your train.

For instance, you can choose if a train will refuel at a station, or how much time a train will wait before leaving the station.

Train Routing and Schedule

Signals let you control the traffic flow and are useful to avoid train collisions.

Railroads 2 uses block signalling.
A block signal will divide a railway line into a series of sections, or “blocks”. Two trains cannot use the same block at the same time.

For power users

Train routing and signalling have been considerably reworked in Railroads 2. If you are a power user, you can now play with much more advanced traffic controls, like multi-platforms stations, overflow management, advanced junctions, refueling optimization…

A little video is worth a thousand words…

A multi-platform terminus

A multi-platform terminus is a terminus station that can serve multiple train simultaneously. Note the switch signal just before the station. It switches incoming trains to an available platform.

A ro-ro station

Ro-ro stands for Roll-on, Roll-off station. Trains enter at one side and leave at the other. Trains entering the station are not slowed down by trains leaving. This makes the Ro-ro station an efficient design. Note the switch signal just before the station. It switches incoming trains to an available platform.

A double sided terminus

A double sided terminus is the combination of two terminuses back to back. Trains can enter from both side, but leave the same side they entered. There are switch signals on both sides.

A simple t-junction

A junction is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This example shows a simple t-junction: a branch line is merged into a high speed double track line. Observe the red train!

A flyover junction

The simple t-junction has a major drawback: the returning track crosses the high speed line. This creates a common signalling block. As a result, green trains can’t pass each other at the junction, and the high speed traffic is slowed down. The flyover junction improves the situation by crossing the high speed line with a bridge instead of a cross junction.

46 thoughts on “Routes, Schedules & Signals

  1. Hello, great work with the game. Love it!
    But I cannot figure out how to get the switches to work and also the route planning for such trains.

    1. Basically, signals split the railroads in blocks. Only one train can use a block at a time. If a block is in used, other trains will wait at red signals, before entering the block.
      Did you try the new tutorial is the 1.0 release? It explains signals better than before.

  2. Love the game. I’ve been looking for something like this for android. I used to play games like this on PC when I was younger. I went ahead and got the first expansion pack but haven’t started it yet.

    I do have one question, is there anyway to turn off the trains abilities to pick their own routes after I set them? Even if I click every single point and Ober specify the route, it will run the route once, the do whatever it wants after that. It may be that it is picking a shorter route but that is not always the most ideal in some situations. It would be nice to have a “turn off auto routing”… Also what are the differences in the line colors when selecting a route for a train? (light blue, blue, purple, light purple, etc)…

    Thanks and great job on the game.

    1. To be more specific regarding my train auto routing issue, let’s say I have 4 different stations/resource stops, let’s say they are 1 north, 1west 1 south and 1 east. If I run a dual track all the way around in a circle, and I want all trains to always go “clock wise” around the track, but I am sending the north train all the way around to the east station, bypassing west and south on the way, and then from the east station go back home to the north, it will work the first time, then auto reroute itself directly to the east station the second time… I’ve only been playing a few days so maybe I’ll figure it out but it is getting frustrating. Anyway, great game. Thanks again.

      1. Yes it’s possible. You can use the path selector tool. It’s the clipboard icon on the left side of the screen when you create your train route. This tool allows you to finely select which route are active.

  3. Great job on R2! I thoroughly enjoyed Coal as a Cucumber. Question, Is the Switch Signal automatically placed when you have a choice of Entrances? EX: your Multi Platform Terminus example? I have tried to recreate multi platform receiving from a Two Track set up.
    If not how do I manually place an actual ‘Switch Signal’ as opposed to a standard signal?

    1. Yes the switch signal is placed automatically. You just have to create route going to more than one track.

  4. I have created 3 bridges for one-way traffic, but the trains are choosing only one track all the time. The switch signal is not getting placed

    1. Switching occurs when you select a destination with more that one platform (like a station or a fuel depot).

  5. A very Nice Game Intelligently planned… I am stucked at one place ,,, How to form and Supply Power from Coal Power plant.?

    1. Thanks for the kind words πŸ™‚
      For this mission, you have to deliver coal at a very high rate. A good solution is to use one way tracks for high traffic. Another solution is to use warehouses to concentrate to coal. Check the Railropedia for examples.

  6. Can’t seem to get my trains to set off from a different platform…. So I set A and then where I would like to be B it isn’t the same track in the end it just wants to be the first track laid at the station with the A..

      1. This function does not work for me. I cannot choose another path or re-route no matter what I do. And the recalculate button does nothing

        1. The recalculate route button is useful when you have changed your tracks layout and you want the game to recreate your routes with it.

    1. You set up one-way tracks by forcing your train to use a different return route. To do that, you can use intermediary waypoints.

  7. Help. I’ve tried everything, can’t get switching signals to place. And the recalculate routes does absolutely nothing. I like the game, but its really annoying with some functionality.

    1. The switching signal only appears when you route your train to a station with multiple platforms.

  8. Game yang sangat bagus…. Di Android ini game kereta terbaik.. saya selalu memainkan nya dan berkreasi untuk membuat rel nya…
    Pertanyaan saya bagaimana cara buka locomotive uap,diesel dan elektrik lainnya?? Terimakasih
    (Very good game…. On Android this is the best train game … I always play it and I am creative to make the rails …
    My question is how to open steam, diesel and other electric locomotives ?? Thank you)

    1. Steam locomotives are part of the Steam DLC. Diesel and Electric campaigns are currently under development.

  9. Hi
    When I create a pass track, the train does not use it on its own. If I place two trains on the route, with proper signals, they’ll still use only one track and stop facing each other, instead of using the parallel track. Also, as you’ve mentioned, the switch isn’t placed automatically when I create a double track split.
    How can I resolve this?

    1. Signal switches are only placed automatically when you route to a station with multiple platforms, not on track splits.
      For track splits and passing loops, you have to create intermediary waypoints to make the train choose a track.

  10. Why does the message ” your route is incomplete, make sure your train can pass each point and then come to A” pop up ???
    I am sure tho the route is perfectly complete.

    1. There are three possible reasons that you see this message:
      – One of your waypoint is inaccessible from the previous waypoint
      – One of your waypoint is not on a station and it requires that the train turns around to get to the next waypoint
      – There is no route to get from the last waypoint to return to A (if the last waypoint is not a station the train cannot turn around)

      There is also a bug in version 1.12. In some rare cases, double tracks are not properly connected when going uphill. It will be fixed in the next update.

  11. Ok, have to say im enjoying this game, it’s a bit of a geek thing to say as I work with trains, the block work system is great, all it needs is to allow 2 signal separation to be real life safe LOL also was a fan of RRT in another lifetime and this is up there. Do the towns get larger as services improve? That would be a great addition along with resource requests from towns, keep up the good work!

    1. I’m glad you like it πŸ™‚
      Given the number of requests for the possibility to edit tracks while trains are using them, it would be hard to make the game real life safe πŸ˜€
      More seriously 2 signal separation would not be possible because of the scale of the maps. The traffic would be too slow.
      Towns do get larger and have more requirements as the traffic improve.

  12. This game has ruined my sleep LoL
    I’m having this problem; lets say this town X has a large station. If multiple trains enter from a single side at the same time, the system auto pick the remaining empty lanes: no prob. But shit happens when trains are coming from both sides whereby both imcoming trains will always pick line #1 (the lane nearest to the station); instead of choosing the other empty lanes.

    Pls solve this bug..TQ!!

    1. I’m so sorry for your sleep! This game also ruined mine πŸ˜€
      This shouldn’t happen if you place your switches and signals at key positions. Please have a look at Railropedia: double-sided terminus for an example.

    1. You can create it like any regular bridge. Make sure to make enough room for the bridge approaches and that the terrain is leveled.
      You can practice building bridges on a empty flat terrain first.

  13. Awesome game.. I’m thoroughly addicted! Would love a console version so i can play on the big screen πŸ™‚ no real critiques, maybe just that I always forget to select auto-signals when I reload the game and build tons of track before I realize it.. I wish it would remember from one app use to the next and keep it selected for me. But overall you’ve got a fan in me and I’ll be keeping up for updates and new devs from you guys!

    1. Thanks for the feedback πŸ™‚ That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll set in on by default

  14. i am having trouble getting my waypoints to go onto a different track it keeps saying fix the track

    1. It’s probably because you have an issue with your tracks and/or waypoints placement. Please check that all paths between waypoints are actually possible (no false track connection for instance).
      Check also that your train can return to waypoint A once it has arrived at the last waypoint.
      Keep in mind that trains can only turn around at stations.
      If your track is not a loop, the last waypoint must be on a station.

  15. Love the game guys! Do you have any tips on level 6 in the oil aboard level on how to pass it? How do I unlock the electric trains??

    1. Thanks πŸ™‚
      In this mission, you need to balance supply and demand: Make sure you send just enough dates to cities, but not more, or other cities won’t have enough.
      Also, if a Date farm produces wood and dates, make sure to transport everything or the warehouse will get full fast.
      We are currently working on the Electric campaign. It should be available in a few months.

  16. Iv lost countless hours of sleep playing this game lol. Very addictive Haha. But since I Finnish the first 3 campaigns I’m now getting more sleep. 🀣 Now I’m just trying to be patient an wait for the electric campaign to release. Any ideas on expected release dateπŸ‘€πŸ€ͺ

    1. Sorry for your sleep πŸ˜€
      Development of the electric campaign is in progress. It should take between 3 to 6 months.

  17. Hello – and many thanks for an engrossing (addictive, even!) game.
    Haven’t lost sleep yet, but the break time during work-from-home has extended 😐

    I have the peculiar situation on the Sandbox in the Small Map, Railway Designer scenario – where the coal and iron trains travel in the reverse direction (opposite to the planned route).
    I’ve built a large station at the city, with medium track set (3 tracks) to handle the incoming traffic, while the exiting traffic is a single track. All stations have loops.
    It works for a minute or so, and then one of the trains decides to change direction at the source station.
    This immediately causes a logjam πŸ™
    All kinds of re-routing, selling the trains and buying fresh ones etc. have failed to resolve the situation – the only thing I haven’t tried is bulldozing the entire coal and iron routes and starting over…!
    Oddly (is it?) the wood trains run just fine.
    (if even they ran in reverse direction, I might still have had an empire πŸ˜‰ )

    Any suggestions to resolve the directional issue?

    1. Hello. This usually happens when you create a route with multiple possible paths. For instance when routing between two multi-platforms stations. All the possible paths are displayed in different colors in the route mode.
      When multiple paths are possible, a train will keep all the paths in its route, and will choose what path to follow dynamically, depending on the traffic conditions and blocked paths.
      This is how switching works (see: http://www.deckeleven.com/post-how-switching-works)
      Sometimes, one of the paths is unexpected, and seems wrong, although it is actually valid. For instance if you create a route on a loop, the longer path can be occasionally selected.
      To fix this situation, you can use the “path selector” tool. It’s the clipboard on the left.
      Carefully inspect the paths between all waypoints, then unselect the unwanted paths.

  18. Ciao, sono bloccato nella campagna elettrica missone 10. La centrale nucleare continua a scoppiarmi.
    Quanti reset fa? Posso bloccarlo diversamente?
    Aiuto. Ho gia rifatto 4 volte

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