Your favorite junction/station layouts? Pros and cons!

[Cadde]

Hi there.

I've been looking through a lot of diffrent junction designs but i wounder witch one YOU think is the most beutiful, simple, cost effective and best combination for your trains to use?

Im looking at how fast a train can pass trough a junction!
How many trains can use it at the same time?
Is it easy to remember and build?
Is it cheap?
Does trains have to wait extra long because of long tunnels or bridges?
Is it beutiful?


Here are some of those i use on a daily basis:



It's a basic t junction... Trains can travel both left and right without disturbing eachother more than neccisary...

PROS:

• Easy to build
• Cost effective
• Handles the most trains possible
• Compact

CONS:

• The tunnel cant have trafficlights
• Trains turning left must go up a slope

It's the famous clowerleaf...
Trains can go through or turn in any direction, eaven back to where it came from.


PROS:

• Quite easy to build
• Cost effective (For a 4 way)
• Can handle up to three trains at the same time
• "Small" size

CONS:

• The bridges cant have trafficlights
• Trains traveling over bridges goes up a slope
• Not a direct path for trains to travel
• A train has to turn three times when turning left resulting in reduced speed

This "Spaghetti junction" is the best sollution i could come up with for a four way SIMPLE junction.

PROS:

• The price meets it's expectation for functionality
• Can handle up to 8 trains at the same time

CONS:

• The tunnels cant have trafficlights
• Some trains has to travel up a slope
• Takes mutch space to build
• Takes some time to build and is quite hard for the first time builder

This station is good if you have to have a terminous station and trains tend to be in the way of each other most of the time.


PROS:

• It's cheap to build
• Better layout than a "normal" terminous station

CONS:

• Unrealistic

PROS:

• Easy to remember layout
• Can handle as many tracks as you want it to. both on station and mainline.
• Trains dont have to wait extra long time to enter the actual station

CONS:

• Takes time to build (especially with 16 station tracks)
• Costly (but effective)
• Trains leaving some times leave at the same time creating queues (the more tracks on the main line the better for this station)

I just thought of this layout all the suddenly and it totally blew my mind.
This probably the smartest sollution for a factory and steel mill that will take s*** from all directions...
The thing is you dont need a mainline and connect it to this station since every corner is a dead end main line by itself.

Then if something just had to go "trough" this station you could leave it there and pick it up at the other end with another train or build a mainline around this station instead...


I think of this station as the ultimate stash design as well... Just pump in all the s*** you have a side of a big map an shuttle it over to a factory and so on from there...

There's only two problems as i can see...
It's easy to miscalculate it's size and build a corrupt layout, having to remove the COMPLETE station... (Thats not cost effective)
Also if you manage to build it without problems it's still costly and those "connector 4x4 stations is just a useless chunk of metal but they still connect the station up so they are needed...



If anyone have a good junction or station layout that can handle lots of trains with the least interference or slopes could you post an image?
Im most intrested in simple but effective designs.. Thank you!

Feel free to comment my designs...


//CADDE[/list]

[spaceman-spiff]

Your basic t junction misses something, here is mine so you can figure out what

[Grolsch]

There's only two problems as i can see...
It's easy to miscalculate it's size and build a corrupt layout, having to remove the COMPLETE station... (Thats not cost effective)
Also if you manage to build it without problems it's still costly and those "connector 4x4 stations is just a useless chunk of metal but they still connect the station up so they are needed...

Why's that? You can just remove the sections of the station that are not right, and you can also remove the connector stations once you've build the roro stations, they still count as one station, even when they're not connected anymore.

[Bernhard]

my newest version.
Prob: 50 Trains have to go round this station and should be served automaticly, but don't obstruct each other to much.

[Moriarty]

You know, the wiki contains a nice category for junctions.

http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Categ ... _Junctions

It would probably benefit everyone more if you placed your junctions there. Though i'm not saying get rid of the topic.

[DeletedUser21]

WOW I like the last one!
I'm an idiot in making junctions and stuff, I find some of them unrealistic, but I'm very impressed.

(1 Minor question a little OT: how did you manage to get that many pictures in your post?)

Well, I want to see more of those last ones!!!

[Sionide]

heh they're decent junctions apart from the signals every square, put them on the wiki though?? they're most excellenté. well done.

[Cadde]

heh they're decent junctions apart from the signals every square, put them on the wiki though?? they're most excellenté. well done.

Well i use signals every square because i plan ahead...
I dont want queue's going all the way through the map if i have 50 mammoths trains on the same mainline...
I try to save every little square!

There's only two problems as i can see...
It's easy to miscalculate it's size and build a corrupt layout, having to remove the COMPLETE station... (Thats not cost effective)
Also if you manage to build it without problems it's still costly and those "connector 4x4 stations is just a useless chunk of metal but they still connect the station up so they are needed...

Why's that? You can just remove the sections of the station that are not right, and you can also remove the connector stations once you've build the roro stations, they still count as one station, even when they're not connected anymore.

How do i do that?
when i use bulldoze on one part of my train station all connected are removed for me...

WOW I like the last one!
I'm an idiot in making junctions and stuff, I find some of them unrealistic, but I'm very impressed.

(1 Minor question a little OT: how did you manage to get that many pictures in your post?)

Well, I want to see more of those last ones!!!

The last station or the last junction?
As far as stations i dont know any others than those i posted...
But i might come up with something better in the future...
Later im going to fill in some designs that i missed out.

As for the number of pictures i used the IMG tag...
All images are located on my personal webserver with my personal .SE domain. (Sweden)

You know, the wiki contains a nice category for junctions.

http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Categ ... _Junctions

It would probably benefit everyone more if you placed your junctions there. Though i'm not saying get rid of the topic.

I know about the wiki junctions and a "junctionary" out there but i wanted more feedback from all of you rather than one or two diffrent people

my newest version.
Prob: 50 Trains have to go round this station and should be served automaticly, but don't obstruct each other to much.

Thats a very nice idea for a station that i have never seen before... I will try and make one of my own since it seems very easy to make

[NoMercy]

I consider the version very efficient.
The enterance is based on a two enterance comparision. If filled, then don't allow a train. This can be continued till you end up with one (or two) tracks. You could also add a loop if the line gets clogged.

The exit isn't the best ever. It could have been done better. One thing is for sure, don't do it like the enterance, cause then the most used tracks (4&5) will just be in eachothers way. The best thing is to combine those at the end.

Comments?

[Dextro]

I consider the version very efficient.
The enterance is based on a two enterance comparision. If filled, then don't allow a train. This can be continued till you end up with one (or two) tracks. You could also add a loop if the line gets clogged.

The exit isn't the best ever. It could have been done better. One thing is for sure, don't do it like the enterance, cause then the most used tracks (4&5) will just be in eachothers way. The best thing is to combine those at the end.

Comments?

Looks like a very good station but I believe it would be better with longer exit lines no?

Still the entrance looks very good

[Jump]

Why's that? You can just remove the sections of the station that are not right, and you can also remove the connector stations once you've build the roro stations, they still count as one station, even when they're not connected anymore.

How do i do that?
when i use bulldoze on one part of my train station all connected are removed for me...

use R, remove a piece of a station, not delete it

[LordOfThePigs]

Here is my usual T-Junction. notice that there is always one free square between the 2 parallel tracks. this layout allows a high train throughput, and follows the golden "trains exit line before others enter that line". It also solves the nasty turn-right-to-turn-left pathfinding issue. All tunnels are as short as possible (3 squares). Finally, no extra travelling is required compared to a simple corner following any train direction.

And, by the way, I think this is a pretty elegant solution.

My phrasing is pretty horrible, so I hope I got my points across... If not, please ask.

[ThorRune]

You got the signals on the high path the wrong direction... But else, yeah, it looks sweet

[LordOfThePigs]

Damn, and to say I didn't notice that.....

My signaling skills are low, i always do that kind of stupid things

[Arsenal]

Sorry, I can't agree to the spagetti 4 way. My first rule - the mainline with the most traffic NEVER goes up or down. Apart from that, decent stuff.

[StarLite]

I like the spaghetti way, I use it everywhere

[Cadde]

I consider the version very efficient.
The enterance is based on a two enterance comparision. If filled, then don't allow a train. This can be continued till you end up with one (or two) tracks. You could also add a loop if the line gets clogged.

The exit isn't the best ever. It could have been done better. One thing is for sure, don't do it like the enterance, cause then the most used tracks (4&5) will just be in eachothers way. The best thing is to combine those at the end.

Comments?

Yes that the same basic design as my 'effective RoRo station'
Nice to see that others use the same basic idéa

use R, remove a piece of a station, not delete it

Hmm i tried that tool before maybe i just doubleclicked and unchecked it again, thanks for clearing that out for me... Too bad theres no drag and drop feature...



A station i just made for fun, it's really cool with custom designs on stations

Here is my usual T-Junction.

Nice layout and effective!
Mutch better than my design for a T-Junction...
(im not talking about the splitting one now)

Sorry, I can't agree to the spagetti 4 way. My first rule - the mainline with the most traffic NEVER goes up or down. Apart from that, decent stuff.

Ooops... I noticed that now!
I placed the signs all wrong...


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I made a change to my effective RoRo station design...
Here it is:



The thing i changed was how many turns a train had to make to save speed.


Also i designed a station with separate entrances to all three groups.
The three tracks should go all the way down the mainline to an identical station for best performance.
Here it is:



This design combined with my specialized 4 way station works SUPER and im really beginning to go from using "SUPER" junctions to theese designs and then shuttle the whole load to a factory or likewise...

TRUELY EFFECTIVE...

Ill post a savegame soon of my custom map design to show how effective it is.

//CADDE

[Zuu]

I like the spaghetti way, I use it everywhere

Wonderfull! Must have taken whole lot of time to build.

My self I try to make non symetric crossings, as I think they look better. To bad I don't have any OTTD junctions to talk of. (but some TTDP.)


When looking at these junctions I gots the idea that there should be a train generator for floding junctions with trains.

[NoMercy]

The thing i changed was how many turns a train had to make to save speed.

Yes, the enterance idea is the same. Maybe four tracks per comparison is faster than two, I haven't tested it.

I do know that your exit will most likely be clogged in no time. Why? Trains take the shortest route to the station, which for train one would mean it would go to track 1 (lowest one). The second would go to 2. Now once the first two (or four) trains want to leave the station, they will most likely hold eachother up (they mix immediately after they've left the station). That's why I suggest you shift your exists one or two spots from the way they enter a station. Or combine you mostly used track (1) after all the other tracks have been combined.

[StarLite]

I like the spaghetti way, I use it everywhere

Wonderfull! Must have taken whole lot of time to build.

My self I try to make non symetric crossings, as I think they look better. To bad I don't have any OTTD junctions to talk of. (but some TTDP.)


When looking at these junctions I gots the idea that there should be a train generator for floding junctions with trains.

It kinda did, as I rebuilt it a few times

The final junc took about 30 minutes in total, and another 10 to debug it [wrong/missing signals etc]