Trains not following route

My trains are not following the correct route. I have 4 tracks from a station moving to an up line and down line. My trains keep crossing over to the incorrect line. I could show a diagram but I do not know how to upkoad this to my query.

More information needed please:

1. are you driving your trains manually? In which case you have probably not connected your track junctions correctly.
2. are the trains under AI control (i.e. "Navigate To ...")? In which case you have probably not connected your track junctions correctly or there is a break in the tracks which acts as an AI barrier forcing them to take an alternative path.

Missing details of what happens. Let's assume you have two stations joined by 4 tracks. Lets assume that you want to use two tracks for up and 2 for down. Use direction markers so that trains coming down use the designed tracks. Now you reduce the possibility of a train using one of the two tracks for the direction it travels. Assuming that you run freights and passengers, you could set the priority for each type of service: Passenger at priority 1 and freights priority 2. Set appropriate priority trackmarks at each track, and there you have it. Experimenting with this is fun and rewarding.

AI will take the shortest route, using track markers as navigation points should cure your problem.

AI drivers love crossovers and seem to use them just for the hell of it. Use trackmarks as navigation points to lay out a route and you'll find that usually tames them. Be careful with using direction markers though since they can prevent movements such as running around from taking place.

Could you explain by what you mean by junctions not connected correctly?

For example. Image 1 below:-



The junction looks like it is set to take a train to the left but it will actually take the train to the right. In image 2 below I have exaggerated the error by moving the spline point just above the junction further to the right.



This type of error often occurs on curved tracks but can occur anywhere if spline points are placed too near the junction.

Have tried moving splines but it didn't work so have added some trackmarkers to follow route. This seems to work so will do this for the time being. Thanks for everybodies advice.

AI is a rather fickle thing, it does what it wants to do, it invents it's own path that it thinks up on the spur of the moment, sometimes it does two different paths on two different occasions. You can "Fool AI" you can "Block AI", you can "Make AI" follow all your exact highly detailed well placed down commands like following a methodically laid down trail of breadcrumbs, but AI will sooner or later come up with it's own path, for no reason at all, except to seemingly wish to "P you off".

I choose to "Fool AI" and "Make it Mandatory" that it has no other choice than to follow your exact intended path.

I use track "Directional Markers" pointing towards an oncoming AI train, so that the AI train can not throw a switch on the crossover, or make the AI train not use the straight through shortest path, and instead use the crossover.

I also use BNSF50 Invisible Track (by laying a secondary turnout spline point lever just 3 ties behind a "Real turnout spline point lever"), and lay BNSF50 Invisible Track independently (off to the side roadbed) and slide it right over top, superimposing it, sliding it into place on register, to the real track splinepoints underneath. Then AI will not stop, slow down, hunt and peck along at 2 mph, back up 2 miles, as now AI will now glide along through a extremely complex meticulously laid interlocking path without messing up.

Sometimes you must become mad as a hatter, and become a real AI mad Rokit' Sientist' in order to devise an "outside the box way of thinking" creating a simple "Blocking" means, in order to "Fool AI" so it will follow all your complex commands to the "T"

Hint:

I place track marks in the middle, in between on the straight part of the crossovers to keep the AI on the main. This works for triangle junctions as well, which we call them a wye over here. I had a situation where the AI would do a backup, go straight, back up as if to try each of the wye legs before continuing on the journey down the line. This back up, forward, back up move wasn't related to any missing levers, or broken track. It was just for the fun of it as Kotanga Girl says. (I swear too they do things just for fun sometimes and mostly to annoy us!).

Anyway... I solved the problem by placing a track mark in the beginning, before the wye, in the middle of each of the legs, and then after each leg. If I wanted the AI to go straight through the junction, I would instruct the drivers to go via track marks East Jct. W, East Jct. Middle, and East Jct. East. This works 100% of the time, or so it did for me at the time.

Using a single simple "Drive" all my AI trainz will drive a 300 mile long route without even having to throw a turnout, and my AI trains will automatically stop at ALL stations (as I have placed "Blocker" locomotives on BNSF50 Invisible Track "Fake", "Blocking" turnouts), (which I back up backwards to allow AI trains to have track clearance to proceed)

So, you guys set all the direction and track marks perfectly and make it work like a clock. My route and sessions are perfect on this, or at least they work to my satisfaction. NOW you save the session. Save several times, and what did work perfectly, now does not, and trains will miss directions and run far away doing whatever AI decides at the moment. Don't have TRS19 yet, is this situation corrected on this "best ever" iteration?

As I use BNSF50 Invisible Track "Fake", "Blocking" siding track turnouts, and "Blocker" locomotives. My AI trains never even need, not even one, Trackmarker, on a 300 mile long route, so the "Drive To Trackmarker" command is totally un-needed.

Some of my "Blocker" locomotives are Driveable People and Signalmen (which I back up backwards to allow AI trains to have track clearance to proceed)

llebrez said:

So, you guys set all the direction and track marks perfectly and make it work like a clock. My route and sessions are perfect on this, or at least they work to my satisfaction. NOW you save the session. Save several times, and what did work perfectly, now does not, and trains will miss directions and run far away doing whatever AI decides at the moment. Don't have TRS19 yet, is this situation corrected on this "best ever" iteration?

Click to expand...

TRS19 is much better in that regard. The various data streams and threads work better than in previous Trainz versions. I have always put in a wait 20 seconds command at the beginning of my driver's schedules. I found that this gives the program a chance to settle down first when first loading up a route, and that helped with this problem even back in the TRS2006 and TS2009 days.

MP242 said:

As I use BNSF50 Invisible Track "Fake", "Blocking" siding track turnouts, and "Blocker" locomotives. My AI trains never even need, not even one, Trackmarker, on a 300 mile long route, so the "Drive To Trackmarker" command is totally un-needed.

Some of my "Blocker" locomotives are Driveable People and Signalmen (which I back up backwards to allow AI trains to track clearance proceed)

Click to expand...

Now that is a really clever idea. A driveable flagman would be very handy indeed to make sure AI drivers don't take it into their heads to suddenly shortcut the express through some industry sidings.

The 20 second wait command at the beginning of schedule is a really good idea too John.