Engineer Ignores Signals?

[Baldy's Boss]

At the Sesninghill & Freaway RR,I decided to try to make my 3 money-losing trains profitable.
Avonhill Wood is a long-time loss-leader,I tolerate it because it accelerates the very profitable Goods to St. Fostable line,but I switched to a lower-cost engine.
Binnfield Coal HAD been profitable,but I found that for some unknown reason the 2 trains had gone unserviced for years and were consequently breaking down constantly.
I dealt with this by removing the track section bypassing the depot right after the loading station,so that the trains MUST get serviced after loading.

And then...

This save is following on from the month-start autosave,because when I played it the moving train you can see on the loop REAR-ENDED the train loading in the station without slowing or stopping at the last signal.
Any ideas?
(The engineer is angry about having to deal with the depot crew?)

[Alberth]

Looks like a glitch in the signalling system. The train loading at the platform has no track reserved at all, so it doesn't exist according to the signals.
Simple work-around is to order it to visit the depot. When it appears again from the depot, it has proper reserved tracks at least.

Not sure how this happens. Did you change the type of signals around the platform? (From block signals to path signals)

[Baldy's Boss]

I believe I built the entire thing only with path signals.
I can look through old saves,but one train stopped getting serviced in 2000 and the other in 2001 before I took away the chance to not get serviced by removing that section of track.

Not sure when I upgraded OpenTTD to 1.7.2 in terms of game play...could the bug be version-related?

[Alberth]

No idea, it could equally well be the combination of removing a track that it reserved while the train is loading. It is very hard to diagnose these problems.

[Baldy's Boss]

Once the loading train has left the station the other seems willing to pause at the signal.
The train that leaves the station can claim to need a free path to leave the depot,and can head back to Binnfield (potentially to hit a loading train head-on) while its window says it's going to Tetminster.

[Baldy's Boss]

The currently loading train paused at the signal waiting for the other,proceeding only when the train ahead of it had entered the depot.
However,that train refused to leave the depot,claiming it was heading toward the unloading station at 0 mph,until I temporarily removed the track section heading backward toward the loacing station at Binnfield,at which point it went on its way.

[Sylf]

You need a signal between the station and the depot.