Track Condition - Use and Definition?

I tried the Wiki but it is a collection of confusion.
First - are higher values good or bad? Then, does this have a physical effect on the actual quality of the track?
Is there a functional effect on trains traveling on track with some settings of condition? Can a train refuse to travel on a "bad track" under AI control?

track-condition is a tag located config.txt. It has been available since build 2.9, but for some reason the Wiki page has been edited that contained the information has been removed.

The condition is a percentage. The range is full 1% to 100% with 100% being perfect and anything below being worse.

1 = 100% perfect
.90 = 90%

.50 = 50%

...

.10 = 10% ---- Really bad.
.05 = 5% ---- Very, very bad
.01 = 1% ---- Wicked bad.


You can hard wire this tag if you want into any track if you wish. I did this for some cloned rusty track and some reskinned track I redid for myself originally from Jointed Rail. Seeing boxcars and hoppers rock and roll down a rusty spur is quite amazing. I use the worst grade tracks for some very old branch lines and occasionally used spurs.

Hard wiring is easier than manually editing each and every track spline.

http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/KIND_Procedural_track
track-condition 0.5

The big question what does it do? I would like to have some trains refuse a route over certain tracks based on condition. Or, does all it do is make the trains wobble?

The later (though I am not sure if it had the influence on derail chance).

Thanks, will have to use trackmarks and "pretell" some trains to avoid nasty side tracks.