[solved?] Train cannot get from depot to train station

[Ganymed]

Marked as SOLVED: The train did eventually start moving but it took a few weeks to start doing so. Weird. This is similar to an issue with a train sitting in the depot but not being registered as such.

Okay, I recently had my post about horse carriages answered but now I'm facing a different problem. I've setup plenty of train stations and they've all been working so far. Now this particular one does not want. And maybe there is something obvious to a veteran that I as a layman don't see.

I got the first train running between a coal mine and a power plant. It's running into weird issues of not unloading its coal which pisses me off a bit but I'm going to find out more about that before I bother the forums.

The second train is supposed to run between a second coal mine and the same power plant. It doesn't leave the depot, though. And I'm puzzled as to why. I've copied the first train and changed the schedule to include the second station and depot.

Pathfinding2.png

Train does not leave depot.

(261.08 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Is there a way to preview uploaded images without uploading to an external image hosting site? I'd like to illustrate my problem directly in the thread.

So anyway, it looks like I've made sure to complete the train tracks between all stations and I've set it to target the right train station right in front of it but the train does not move. Any ideas on why that could be?

[Arioch]

you did not show the train itself though....
nor you did show the depot insides

that greatly limit amount of information people can see...

PS. in such a situation I would try to remove al the route/task items of that train and just make it run - let it run just ANYWHERE it any way would be out of the depot, and you would always be able to stop it and revert.

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out of my mind I can easily imagine few possible reasons, which your screenshot has no information to neither confirm nor prove false

1. Lack of semaphores. The railroad is split into segments between pathlights. Train only can go through the green light ( or open-up bar ). Otherwise the trains woudld collide - they are too heavy and fast to be just driven randomly like cars.
In your screenshot there is no semaphore. Chances are you built a single monolithic railway connecting three places: two mines and a plant. Then the "internal" semaphore in the depot is always "red" - it senses another train outside and does not let your second train out for the collision.

How to check?

1.1 - put another train into the depot (this or another depot), that would free the main railroad, and then the staled train might decide it is time to come out. The former train though now would stick inside and refuse to get out.

or

1.2 - press that button in train window with the semaphore crossed by red cross. It would tell the train to ignore next red light and run onward for collision. If it gets out - be quick to revert it backwards and force it into the depot yet again. Unless you really wish to see two trains going into trainwreck.


2. Lack of electricity. you could select electro-driven locomotive - it would not drive over non-electicized railwork. Graphics for electricized and non-electricized depot is the same, so I cannot see what depot you have. But the outer railwork seems no-electicity one

3. Lack of braking car. Some old steam engines in some extended transport packs do require a separate braking van to be added to the train. They would not move without it. Though normally they would tell you the warning about it outright

[Ganymed]

Hey man, thanks for the reply.

Yes, I was lacking info about the train and you suggested a lot of things.

The only thing the two tracks had in common was the train station, so a collision was highly unlikely. The station even had two tracks and I spammed entry- and exit-signals because I suck at signals. I just plop them down everywhere. But because of that, I think the separate tracks to either end should be clear with no signal interference from the other train. Each train has his own depot as well. So I thought it wasn't the signals. Especially because on blocked tracks, the trains indicate that they're waiting for a free path, making it easy to troubleshoot. This one did not, it was just telling me it was on its way at 0 km/h.

Pathfinding3.png

The shared station. Signals everywhere.

(279.48 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Both trains DO work simultaneously. They're doing their jobs and providing income. It was just a temporary issue, apparently. I have no idea why.

The train does have a braking segment. When it is missing, it shows a red error message and refuses to send the train on its way, so that's out of the question as well.

The trains are steam powered.

So it isn't a systematic error, it seems, it's just a train taking very long to do anything. And it was longer than the usual slow acceleration phase that early UKRS2 steam engines have which is why I got nervous in the first place.

Thanks for helping a newb out. I appreciate the effort. The problem is that with most issues I encounter, since I don't know what could cause it, I don't know what info to provide to find the cause.

Added train info for completeness' sake. Since things do generally work, I doubt there is any info to be found.

Just info about the train in question. Such German. Much useful.

TrainDetail.png (56.31 KiB) Viewed 2944 times

[Alberth]

Simplest solution in such a case is to provide everything, by posting the save game.
If you use newgrfs that are not in the online game content, that could be a problem though, as people will need to go hunting for those newgrfs before they can load your game.

My guess of your problem was lack of proper signals, but it would need the failing situation as savegame to establish that, I think.

Anyway, you solved now already.

[Arioch]

The station even had two tracks and I spammed entry- and exit-signals because I suck at signals

well, I usually do not use those "old style" signals, because I also hardly can read them, I start with electric lights right away.

you seem to be a picturesque man, wanting to make it all like picture of good old days.

I would suggest yo really to try to playing your first 100 games without extra plugins that only make things more complex.

From personal experience I would say that

1. Default trains are usually cheaper than those fancy ones. So it would be easy for economic. And it would be easier to build more advanced rail networks. And when the business would grow - you would have to re-design them anyway

2. My approaches to building railway stations shifted significantly as I was playing more and more. From saving every penny and every second and hoping the trains would never stuck - and to wasting dollar just to make sure the trains would make its way eventually, even if a bit slower. Surething, in the dawn of the game economy means much, but to the 1970-s what matters is if you have territory to expand the bottlenecks, and let train pass extra mile - faster locomotives would make it not very significant, on the contrary - when you find few trains came together and stumbled on each other's path into a perfect mutual deadlock - and they are standing like that for few years already while you was busy in other map corners - that would hurt you muuuch more

[Arioch]

also - you make very zoomed puctures - you better make them less zoomed - but giving more overview

we see the station and the depot - but we did not see the neighbourghood of those....

[Arioch]

Simplest solution in such a case is to provide everything, by posting the save game.
If you use newgrfs that are not in the online game content, that could be a problem though, as people will need to go hunting for those newgrfs before they can load your game.

...which begs for a feature "Export game into a self-contained package with all the required add-ons included"
Of course what is "required" is not easy to define.... For example OpenGFX of the version older than the current version on BaNaNa - is it required or not?

[kamnet]

Simplest solution in such a case is to provide everything, by posting the save game.
If you use newgrfs that are not in the online game content, that could be a problem though, as people will need to go hunting for those newgrfs before they can load your game.

...which begs for a feature "Export game into a self-contained package with all the required add-ons included"
Of course what is "required" is not easy to define.... For example OpenGFX of the version older than the current version on BaNaNa - is it required or not?

The only problem with this is:
1) Not all add-ons are able to be redistributed in this manner. It entirely depends on the license the author selected.
2) Not all add-ons are available through the in-game content download service, and some may not even be able to be downloaded period.

[Eddi]

most likely the track was reserved by another train (possibly quite far away), which was released when that train reversed.

use the "show reserved tracks" feature, and place more signals in appropriate places.