How to desgn your train tracks leading to your cargo station.
How to Design your Cargo Rail Network
I thought i’d share how i’ve set up my cargo stations, this is working really well for me.
Main Line
The yellow line is the main line. This connects everything. It’s a simple two-way railroad track. Trains on the main line should be able to move without stopping for any reason.
You can do this by using one-way tracks for trains that need to exit the main line. Trains joining or leaving the main line should not block other trains that are staying on the main line. Build overpasses or underpasses for trains entering or exiting the main line.
Incoming Trains
Each cargo station has two tracks. It’s important to use them both. If you only have trains coming from one direction, only one track will get used. This halves your capacity.
Yes, if you have a cargo station on the left side of your maps, most if not all trains will be coming from the right of the map. So only one track of your station will get used by incoming trains. But for most cargo stations it’s important and possible to design you cargo stations (spread them across the map) in such a way that traffic will be coming form multiple directions.
In my example traffic incoming traffic is red (coming from the right side of the map), and white (coming from the left side of the map). You can see i’m using both tracks of the cargo station.
The red and yellow lines don’t have to wait for anything! If there are a lot of trains coming split them from the main line sooner. Don’t let red or white trains stop on the yellow main line!
The incoming white line does not cross the yellow main line because an overpass is used.
Yellow traffic passing through from right to left does not have to wait for a crossing white line.
Exiting Trains
Incoming traffic from the white line uses the blue line to exit. It can exit to the left side of the map, and exit to the right side of the map.
Incoming traffic from the red line uses the green line to exit. It can exit to the left side of the map, and exit to the right side of the map.
Exiting trains do not cross the yellow main line.
Notes
This setup works well for my city with 200,000 population and significant industrial development. I import very little (600) and export a moderate amount (6,000). This approach may be less effective if your city relies heavily on imports or exports. I haven’t experienced any traffic issues, and I’m not using any traffic modification mods.
I have two main lines:
- A main line for internal and external cargo and external passenger traffic.
- I’ve found that i don’t need to seperate my internal and external cargo traffic.
- Also my external passenger trains use this main line. I only have one train station that accepts external trains.
- This really limits the number of external passenger trains.
- From that station tourists get spread across the city.
- A main line for internal passenger traffic.
Space around a cargo station comes at a premium, because industry close to a cargo station easily levels up to level 3. You’ll want as much industy as close to the station as possible. So you’ll want very little train tracks near the station.
This setup prevents train from going backwards, which I really dislike.
Great guides for CS. Simple and well layed out.