Revision as of 09:31, 16 November 2008

1.0 Mainline

This section belongs to Mainline related tips and tricks.

1.1 Signal every 2nd tile

The purpose is clear; Mainlines are designed for high throughput! Less-frequent signaling increases the spacing between trains, wasting capacity on the lines.

1.2 Avoid Mainline Tunneling

In order to keep the signal blocks at 2 tiles (as mentioned in 1.1) you should try to avoid tunneling the Mainline by default. Bridge the Sideline instead! 2-tile-signaling on a mainline is useless if there is one single point with a 6-tile signal gap. Trains will queue up right before the 6-tile gap, and the capacity of the mainline is determined by its most congested part.

1.3 Anti-Roadcross-Trackpart

Sometimes, its necessary not to let a town cross your tracks - one reason may be that you need some space later on. Basically, there are two possibilities: buy up land or build a construction as shown on the screenshot. The last option is more elegant and doesn't add ugly signs to the landscape.

1.4 Full-Speed Bend

Remember: S-bends are full-speed! It's perfectly acceptable to make bends on the Mainline, as long as there are no slowdowns. Some small bends ease up construction and may save costs.

1.5 Stepped Climbing

A so called stepped climbing means that you try to avoid a two-tile-uphill. Its not only something which slows trains down; its also ugly and non-realistic. If you construct uphills in a stepped way it looks far more like a Mainline.

1.8 Prioritized Mainline

Mainline is should be the fastest collection of tracks on the map. Therefore, you will want trains from a sideline wait a bit for a gap to enter mainline. This is accomplished using technique called Priorities.