Laying track - does direction matter?

GreyAreaUK

New member
Morning. When laying track does it matter which direction I lay it? I've tried to find the answer and it seems to boil down to "some say it does, some say it doesn't" so I was wondering if there's a definitive answer?

For instance, if I lay down track mostly clockwise, but a couple of sections are counter, will that matter? Does track have a sort of 'polarity'?

Many thanks.
 
I think it depends on your definition of "matter".

I suggest you put a stretch of track down. The next thing you do is put a track side item on it; I suggest a signal. You will notice it face one way or the other. This is the only effect. But since you can switch them around, the effect is minimal.
So if you want to save yourself a few seconds (or on a larger route a few minutes) of work, you figure out in which direction the track side item faces by default and put down your track based on that.

I am sure someone will jump this thread with some story about AI behavior, which I am sure was true many versions ago and when people didn't put priority or direction markers in place, but today I can't imagine any effect that would stay in place when you are done building your route.
 
Morning. When laying track does it matter which direction I lay it?
Track direction is quite important. It determines the default direction for many items placed in Surveyor, including signals, buffers, switches, track direction markers and, of course, traincars.
 
YES ... It does matter ... All surveyor items can be turned around.

If AI doesn't behave ... You can re-lay track in the correct direction
 
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We were told by the experts, and I mean the real experts not us in the forums here, and this being
Trainz Developers,
that track direction does not affect the driving of trains by the AI or by us, and only affects the direction of track-objects.

But alas, with that said, I find that laying track in the direction of travel to be convenient if anything and saves the extra step of flipping signals and stuff around with every other click and placement of said objects. This definitely speeds up the process quite a bit so we can go on to the more complex landscaping and tweaking phase of the route building, which actually takes the longest.
 
Every time I respond to the 'does the direction of track direction matter', and I say it does, I get bashed. But I will say it again, it does matter. So if you are building a route, and you just want to be sure, just make sure to lay your track in the proper direction. Simple enough, don't have to second guess... and if it's wong... It won't matter.
 
Hi Chris --

I'll accept your invitation. Stand by for a bashing.

It makes absolutely no difference to the one thing that really matters -- train operation.

It does make a difference to trivial matters like the direction of track side accessories when they are originally placed on the track.

Phil
 
Every time I respond to the 'does the direction of track direction matter', and I say it does, I get bashed. But I will say it again, it does matter.
It's possible to prove that track direction matters for AI, at least for some cases.

Create a new route with a straight section of track. Create two passing loops, one each side, starting and ending at the same junctions (that is, two three-way junctions). Make them as identical as you can manage. Lay one passing loop in one direction and the other passing loop in the other direction. Make sure the junction switches are set to straight-ahead.

Use the copy tool to copy and paste the section of track so the second one is alongside the first, but rotate it 180 degrees ([[) before pasting.

So you should now have two separate identical sections of track that differ only in their orientation in the world.

Place a consist on each centre portion between the passing loop junctions. One consist will have to be turned around, so that they face the same direction.

Start driver and issue a 'Run Around Train' command for each consist. AI will have to decide which side to run around on. If train facing or world orientation was the controlling factor, then the two trains would run around on the same side - either to left or to right.

But they don't - they run around on opposite sides. That is, the side selected seems to be dictated by track direction because that's what got reversed in the copy process.

A similar test can be done with only the central track laid in the opposite direction. The result suggests that the difference is created when the AI searches for a route, and meets a junction. It appears that the track direction controls which side of the junction is searched first. But the selection is not affected by the direction in which the passing loop is laid, so the effect of track direction is much more subtle than might be first thought, and perhaps that's why people deny that it exists.

Note that this test applies to the Run Around Train rule only - it shows that track direction can matter. It doesn't prove anything about how track direction affects other AI rules. However it is reasonable to assume that any rule that needs to search for a train, and possibly any rule that needs to search for anything, will be affected by track direction if there are multiple paths.
 
When building a yard I usually prefer that a train inserted with Quick Drive will point in the correct direction. Especially if I'm placing several consists to build a long train.
Sometimes that means laying track in one direction on one side of the yard and the other direction for the other side of the yard.
 
Apologies, I wasn't aware that this was quite as contentious as it appears.

I think for the time being I'm going to assume that track direction shouldn't matter, but it's best to assume that it does (because it does no harm to) and just lay track consistently.
 
The single most important factor affected by track direction is probably appearance. For a track which is entirely symmetrical, it really doesn't make much difference which way you lay it, but most tracks are (at least to some small extent, and in some cases to a greater extent) visually asymmetric. Turning the track around by 180° has a noticeable effect.

Beyond that, there are the minor changes as others have noted above.

There isn't a hard and fast rule as to whether track needs to be "laid in a particular direction" but it does have an impact and so you should do what is right for your route.

chris
 
It matters, it doesn't matter, it matters, it doesn't matter.......and on it goes.

I just have one question - If you're main line is single track and you have trains running in both directions, which way do you lay your track?

Aha - so it doesn't matter after all does it? Or does it?

I try to lay my track in the direction my trains will be running most frequently, but I sure as heck don't stress over it because 99.99999999999999 % of the time trains travel in both directions on my tracks.

More food for thought :)
 
It matters, if you are an obsessive compulsive neat-nick, like me ... but if you aren't, it may not matter much ... and if someone else finds your track backwards .,.. tell them to fix it themselves
 
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