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.

Station exit balancing

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:

Example of an unbalanced exit

Check PSG81 – Oil drop station for an example about balancing traffic among outgoing tracks, including waiting bays.

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