Station balancing
As a follow up to the blog about Clean building we have noticed that, in recent games, stations frequently aren’t balanced.
During a game it is important to have a balanced network. There are a couple of ways to make the network balanced, one of them is by building a load balancer on the mainline. However a balancer like that isn’t preferred. It is preferred to let stations entries and exits function as balancers of the traffic load over the mainline.
Image taken from Memberzone Game 6
There are various ways of making a balanced station entry and exit and the wiki guide about load-balancers gives several good guidelines about what you should keep in mind while making a station entry and exit. To assist you in building a station here are some questions you can ask yourself during construction.
- Can a train coming from any incoming track choose any platform
- Are trains forced to merge shortly after the station (e.g. just a few tiles after platform, therefor leaving no room for other trains to enter the platform).
- How many platforms do I merge onto a single lane, taken the fact that an incoming lane can handle about 4-6 platforms (speed dependent).
- Did I create a large enough area for trains to wait in front of a platform (waiting bays).
- Can my trains pick any outgoing track exiting the station.
How to balance traffic along outgoing tracks:
- Let trains pick a track/ direction.
- Don’t merge outgoing platforms and various tracks to shortly after the platform exit, make sure the platform can empty before any merge occurs.
- Divide the platforms over outgoing tracks. Keep in mind that an incoming line can service about 4-6 platforms.
Example image of a not properly balanced station exit, notice the out going trains coming from 2 incoming tracks can only exit to 1 lane:
Check PSG81 – Oil drop station for an example about balancing traffic among outgoing tracks, including waiting bays.
