Junction Designs and their Signals - OpenTTD Tutorial

[@MrDowntemp0]

I'm so happy you're still making OpenTTD tutorials!

[@MasterHellish-Gaming]

Glad you like them!

[@DaveTwoBob]

Great to understand the junction rules to apply when trying to design your own junctions. I often find my junctions work fine until they get busy and blocked, I find out when my profits plummet!

[@yogurtfluff1]

I also like the cloverleaf as it allows trains to turn around on the odd occasion they need to. Eg to get around gridlock, they went to a weird depot to be serviced/replaced etc

[@RustyWalker]

If you build the outside of a cloverleaf with the 4 diagonals, you can have a contraflow inner, where you swap the left and right directions temporarily. That helps with the merge: split rule. All you do is leave a tile for your required signals, and then put a bridge (or tunnel) at each end on one driving side only, and pass the other track under the bridge and run it on the "wrong side" within the junction, then pass it under the other bridge back to the "right" side at the other end of the inside of the junction. You then work out how to complete the missing directions for the junction between those two bridges. I hope that was clear enough :D

[@cnikkor]

In early versions of the game there was an additional rule "don't turn left to go right" (or the other way around) because the pathfinding could get confused and trains could get lost, but I think this is resolved in the latest version of OpenTTD, maybe on very very big junctions this could be an issue not sure. And one additional rule is "tunnels instead of bridges" if possible, because tunnels do not have a top speed limit. But there are situations where bridges are more useful as shown in the video

[@RustyWalker]

One more thing for newish players - heavy trains have a lot of inertia. Aim to keep those ones on the flat bits in the junction and the lighter trains can do the bridges if it is a mixed goods/pax junction. Same with stations - keep the loaded trains flat and the unloaded trains can be the ones that change height.

[@sihy]

Does driving full trains downhill make them go faster?

[@RustyWalker]

@@sihy I don't think so. They didn't model that I don't think.

[@RooiGevaar19]

What do you think of rail highways? E.g. that there are 2 lanes in each direction, and every 8-9 tiles there are conditional one-way signals, and a lane switches right after them, so if one train is stuck for some reason or is slower, then another train can pass him.

[@MasterHellish-Gaming]

As a general rule I like them, but I find that the switching can sometimes slow the trains down more than just having no switching

[@RustyWalker]

You need to be very good with advanced signals really for it to work. The thing is, in OpenTTD, trains path generally speaking via the shortest route, so all your trains will switch sides depending on which is technically shorter. To stop them doing that, you have to know how to add pathfinding penalties to make them prefer the route that is slightly longer as appropriate. You also need to know how to build "prio blocks" for the highway to work properly. You're better off planning - if you must have different speed trains - in advance which is going to be fast and which slow and treat them as nested routes that are separate but run together for the aesthetic. Follow MH's tips about bridges and tunnels to keep your lines separate but you'll need more space to pass the slow lines under the fast lines or v.v.

[@izomyr]

In always up for a refresher on signals in OpenTTD!

[@Gil-games]

Oh no, it started so well. Then the "bad" junction's signal removal, then the clover leaf. Argh

[@riiksbergplays]

I have just started this game again, since childhood. I have made a few videos and it is obvious I should watch more tutorials like this 😂

[@Gil-games]

@@riiksbergplays first learn the hotkeys!

[@riiksbergplays]

@Gil-games This I have to do 😁 Is there a list somewhere?

[@Gil-games]

@riiksbergplays I made a video about it.

[@RustyWalker]

@@Gil-games ^^ I second that, even if you just start with the ones you use most of the time, like for landscaping, autorail, bridges, and tunnels.

[@Gil-games]

​@@RustyWalker I can't promote my vid here, to answer you: q-w-e, a, b, t

[@boRegah]

I will, fr, use this fascinating knowledge in Locomotion 👌

[@GerrardGB]

I must admit I make the mistake of putting a signal on the exits of merges, probably because I still think in term of blocks rather than paths. I figured that "freeing" the block ASAP once a train exits the merge is best, although it isn't really necessary with pathing nowadays.

[@ogsteezus5583]

I must admit you just educated me on the mistake I still make, even on a new network I made last night. 😮

[@Gil-games]

You do it right! There is no reason to remove signals, if trains clog up, the problem is somewhere else! Or the throughput of it is low.

[@stevieinselby]

Yes, especially for those of us who cut our teeth playing TTO and TTDx - long before path signals were a thing - when signals only operated on blocks, then you wanted signals both immediately before *and* after each diverge. Remembering _not_ to do that with path signals takes a lot of effort!

[@RustyWalker]

It is ok to do on splits where we're talking about a mainline splitting to a sideline rather than a station. A sideline should be built to handle that capacity easily enough without backing up to the ML junction.

[@caseysallador4025]

how about long trains? is it also applicable for that? im frequently using long trains especially cargos (both raw and processed). for passengers? maybe 10 cars

[@dotintegral]

What about roundabouts? Single track roundabout can be deadlocking, but how about two track roundabout? It got me thinking if there is a clever multi-track roundabout that would work.

[@RooiGevaar19]

I used roundabouts and at low-to-medium traffic they work well.

[@AdneTV]

Please be very careful when placing URL's in your video description. 2 out of 3 URL's are not working cause you use the "◄" symbol in the URL itself.

[@MADAFENA2010]

Clovers definitely don't work, I used them a lot and had the network jammed the whole time.

[@Gil-games]

They work, but definitely a bad solution for a simple problem. However if it got jammed, it means you messed up something else

[@jacobn91]

could you not have just used tunnels at 9:45 just had either split go a different direction lol

[@Gil-games]

Rule 1-7 is absolutely good, but 8 is just made up, urban legend, not true, bogus 😊😊😊