by XeryusTC

General

2 lanes joining a mainline

LRxLR mainlines are the newest idea from my idea-o-factory. It was born from the idea to have a LR mainline on each long side of a 256x1024 map but then I liked the idea of a 4 line ML more. And of the idea of some realism ;).

Practical appliances

Pros:

• Joiners which allow a choise are quite easy to make.
• Multiple trains passing each other on a close distance look awesome.
• The biggest part of a hub is in between the two sides of the mainline.

Cons:

• Everything becomes quite big.
• Tends to be confusing sometimes.

Load balancing

I dedicated a section to this because Mucht wanted to know if load balancing has become easier with LRxLR mainlines. I will first sumarise the differences with a normal load balancer. One of the main differences is that it is actually easier to come between the two lines you want to put a load balancer between as you've got quite some space between the mainlines usually. This space also has a negative effect: the lines of the chooser need to become quite big (see the big V-shaped things in the north east of this backbone hub), this makes it more viable that trains will enter your priority line in the meanwhile and thus stopping your joining train which blocks the line behind it. I developed this priority for that, it is only used once in the entire sandbox game now. There is also the problem that you have to cross an opposing line, this can be solved by adding tunnels to the whole situation but that makes the joiner a bit more complicated.

I personally think that it is easier to load balance, you still have some of the main difficulties of load balancing on a LLxRR mainline, but it has the benefit of using the space in between the two sides of the mainline so you don't waste space on it's outside.

Research

A LRxLR backbone hub

A LRxLR sideline hub