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Rail chain signal

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Revision as of 22:50, 13 September 2019 by Jon8RFC (talk | contribs) (→‎History: add to history)
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Rail chain signal.png
Rail chain signal

Rail chain signal entity.png

Recipe

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0.5
+
Electronic circuit.png
1
+
Iron plate.png
5
Rail chain signal.png
1

Total raw

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1.75
+
Copper plate.png
1.5
+
Iron plate.png
6

Recipe

Time.png
0.5
+
Electronic circuit.png
1
+
Iron plate.png
5
Rail chain signal.png
1

Total raw

Time.png
3
+
Copper plate.png
4
+
Iron plate.png
7

Map color

Health

100

Stack size

50

Mining time

0.1

Prototype type

rail-chain-signal

Internal name

rail-chain-signal

Required technologies

Rail signals (research).png

Produced by

Assembling machine 1.png
Assembling machine 2.png
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Player.png

Rail chain signals are used for automated transportation on a railway network. With rail chain signals, it is possible to use multiple trains on a single track, or multiple rails that intertwine.

Basic

  • The best prerequisite to understand chain signals is to understand signal blocks.
  • Rail chain signals are placed like block signals at the right side of a segment.
  • They work similar to pre-signals in OpenTTD.

Definition

While normal signal prevents train from entering the occupied block, chain signal prevents train from entering the block also when the exit isn't free. When more exits exist, the one relevant to the train path is taken into account.

Usage examples

Regular signal compared to a chain signal

With a regular signal, the block it guards is empty, so the train can go there.

Regular-signals.png


Chain signal with one exit doesn't allow the train to enter the block, as the exit is occupied.

Chain-signal-basic.png


Simple example with practical usage

The chain signal prevents the train from blocking the other route while waiting.

Chain-signal-guards-crossroad.png


Double crossing

Double crossings are the cause of train jams often, as trains tend to get blocked in the middle of the crossing. It can even cause total deadlock, which require manual intervention to fix the problem. With chain signals, the non-blocking rails are still separated, but trains won't stay in the middle of the crossing.

Double-crossing.gif


Deadlock prevention

One of the typical situation with train deadlock problem is the usage of single train line for both direction with occasional bypasses. The example of the blocked situation with regular signals.

Train-deadlock.png


With chain signals, this problem can be totally avoided by preventing the train from going to the shared section unless it can exit it.

Chain-signal-prevents-deadlock.png


Advanced

Some good pictures are at the Friday Facts #81 page.

Railchainsignal anim.png

  • If the chain signal has only one exit, it doesn't allow the train to enter its block, if the exit block (which has a rail signal) is occupied.
  • If in the block of the chain signal is a crossing, trains that cross the block can pass it, because a train waits before the chain signal, if the exit block isn't free.
  • If there are more than one chain signal blocks before a regular block, a train waits before the first chain signal if the regular block isn't free.
  • If a chain signal switches to green, all exits are free.
  • If it switches to yellow, the block is reserved for a train and the signals of intersection blocks switch to red (like regular signal).
  • If it switches to red, no exit is free.
  • If it switches to blue, at least one exit is free.

History

  • 0.16.0:
    • Rail chain signals can be read by the circuit network.

See also