Well Zimmlock, as it turns out I did face some issues eventually - mostly with overcrowded stations.
When I tried to find out the exact problem problem, I noticed that most of them had been laid out during the first initial years when I had less trains running. As a result thereof I often gave many trains a longer route than needed - just to get some action
When growing with more trains I forgot to make changes to those earlier trains!
Another issue was related to my industrial areas and particularly located station that had far to little platforms, thus causing trains to stop at main lines waiting for a free and available platform. I have found some solutions to these issues as well. I haven't been able to continue to expand my company these last few days, but have spent most time to fix all these problems - but it turned out to be quite funny to spend some time with other things rather than starting new routes all the time. And why not really; all of this is part of the game
I've attached some images below to explain what I did to solve most of my problems;
Image 1;
Billerud Industries
The largest and bussiest industrial area in the "scenario" - and often causing problems with waiting trains. A solution I've found very useful is to build "waiting tracks" before the actual entrances to the station platforms, allowing for incoming trains to avoid blocking main railroads. This station with 10 platforms have 3 "waiting tracks", which the paper trains is now leaving to enter one of the available platforms.
Crossing railroads often caused problems, and especially with lots of crossings close to one another. I've solved this by simply looking at the railroads as highways
Since I learned that I could decrease the number of processing plants, and instead increasing the raw material producing industries, thus increasing the goods produced, I've been able to make some major changes to my industrial areas. Basically I've built a lot more raw material producing facilities and put fewer processing plants together, with a much better result. Billerud was earlier a place with lots of factories, printing works and sawmills, but has now turned into a place that also produces iron ore."waiting tracks".
I've also built a new canal for which I plan to use all the ships available thanks to all the custom work that has been put into TTD by many of you! I have therefor extended the station with a dock. The heliport next to the station isn't being used other than for eye candy! I prefer to look at it as a railway control tower
Image 2;
LKAB North
One of two industrial areas located on top of the mountains. For obvious reasons both of these only produces raw material so any trains won't have to carry any of these uphills. Both
LKAB North and
LKAB South were the first stations to be built - and also the ones I laid out the routes heavily at the beginning. All of that have changed, and I've even built a new railroad that connect both these stations with "
Uddeholm" that takes care of a lot of the raw material produced.
Image 3;
LKAB South
...and the second one! Initially both
LKAB North and
LKAB South produced iron ore, but due to the changes I located all the iron ore to the south station. Instead I located all the other different raw materials produced at both places, to
LKAB North.
Image 4;
SCA
The largest forest production in the scenario. Initially here were a mix of forests, oil refinaries and steel mills - something that has changed as I've learned about the production chain a little better.
Image 5;
Boliden
One of two food producing areas - along with a paper mill and an oil refinary - something which I had more of before - relating to my previous statement. This station is yet another example of how I'm using different solutions in order to get rid of problems. Due to the industries present here, they tend to increase the number of trains needed, but instead of building a "waiting area" I've separated the platforms. This means that the two upper platforms, the covered ones, are for deliveries only, while the rest are for goods loading trains. Those waypoints sure are useful here!
Image 6;
ScanRaff
A completely new area/station - as a result of the new knowledge of production chains. I'm not sure if this is true, but it appears as if those oil rigs produces a lot more oil than any oil wells. Either way I wanted to collect this oil with ordinary trains rather than ships - although I have other rigs out there too. I can't say any of the two operating trains bought for this purpose stays any longer times at this station - and they don't have to get that far to deliver the oil either! The factory is new and takes care of the food that comes from my second food producing area - which is new as well! That particular station earlier had the same industries as
Billerud, but I moved or closed most of it, and moved trains to new assignments - or sold them off.
I like to "work" with the terrain in my scenario and uses a lot of canal pieces and stones, and it may not always be very realistic, but I like the appearance a lot
Image 7;
Hallsberg
The largest goods station in the scenario! I had to extend the station further to better fit the increament of all the new goods that arrived with all the new changes. As before the two closest platforms are for goods delivery only (unload option), while the above ones are for loading. This station also uses the "waiting tracks" which are very useful! And again, the heliport is used as eye candy only. No helicopters assigned!
Image 8;
Mountain tracks
The ability to build higher bridges is truly amazing! The environmental look they contribute with is outstanding! I have two huge mountains located in the center of the map, connected with several of these bridges - one of them even in the middle of a city, (Hallsberg), as shown in an earlier image! But this one is cool enough!
Any comments?
