Railway must haves

[OfficialRyan]

Hey guys and gals

I'm more into my railways and passenger service than I am goods etc, and was wondering what you consider 'must haves' for an intense, late game network.

High density?
Longer trains?
Maglev?


Also, another question.

Part of my central rail network is booming at capacity. There isn't much room for an increased number of trains on the line, nor is there space to create longer stations for longer trains.

What can be done here?

[CrossSide]

My advice is to take a look at the screenshotforum and use your imagination. Decide before you start a game what suits your style and what you want. Test some different train and station sets (our load all stationsets) and go for a big map with no industries and normal towns.

[Emperor Jake]

Part of my central rail network is booming at capacity. There isn't much room for an increased number of trains on the line, nor is there space to create longer stations for longer trains.

What can be done here?

Double deck trains? Perhaps even metro? (edit: both of these can be found in the 2CC trainset, NuTracks also required for metro) Unless the area is really crowded, I can always cram in a few extra tracks or platforms by rearranging a few things, removing a few buildings there etc. The challenge of building in very limited space in late, busy games is one of my favourite parts of OpenTTD gameplay

I personally only use maglev rarely, for busy intercity connections, and then it is always as a supplement to a normal rail network. Longer trains is usually not a solution for me, as I set standard platform lengths and extending them all is a nightmare. However, earlier in the game where there is much less traffic, I always try to leave room for my max passenger trian length (usually 7-8 tiles)

Of course, your playing style might be different to what I prefer, but hey, you asked

[DeletedUser17]

Start with a simple line midway in through the game's timeframe ('bout 1950-60) and see what you can do. Start by figuring out how signals and blocks work on the wiki, and once you get that down, you create your own strategies. As for maglevs or monorails, you always should convert to one or the other- probably maglev- but I never really do. If you're the perfect player with no originality, that takes some of the fun out. Plus, if you're using 2cc or some similar pack, maglevs and monorails can't always take many types of cargo except for mail and passengers.

As for crowding problems, I would use the following system. Set up a four-track mainline as you would with two tracks, with 2 on one side devoted to one direction and vice versa. Then, block them into one-way path signals (they do need to be path signals for this to work) as usual. Once you've done that, add crossovers every x amount of blocks (not too many, or there will actually be new problems that arise) and make sure they're in their own somewhat small block. If a train breaks down or is travelling too slow on one track, then trains on the same will usually have time to cross to the other and keep right on going. You can add more tracks for real messes, but if you do a good job, this rarely fails.

Another solution for crowding problems (if you have much less space, as you described) is to build a heliport or very small airport to handle some of the overflow. There are a couple drawbacks, though: helicopters can't be purchased later with the standard aircraft set, and this might actually have the repercussion of increasing the station's ratings, which you might not want in your situation. That's usually good, though, obviously.