Building railway stations
Manual Tutorials

Basic tutorial:

Starting
Setting up a bus service
Setting up a train service
Setting up a plane service
Conclusion

Advanced railway tutorial:

Two Platforms
Two Tracks
Basic Network

In game tutorial:

In-game tutorial
In-depth Instructions

Railway construction:
Building tracks
Building stations
Building depots
Placing signals
Buying & selling trains
Converting railways
Road construction:
Building roads
Building stations and loading bays
Building depots
Buying & selling road vehicles
Waterways construction:
Building docks
Building depots
Placing buoys
Buying & selling ships
Building locks and canals
Airport construction:
Building airports
Buying & selling aircraft
General construction:
Building bridges
Tunnels
Landscaping
Working with vehicles:
Setting vehicle orders
Refitting vehicles
Replacing vehicles
Grouping vehicles

In this tutorial, you will learn how to build train (railway) stations, and how to connect railways to stations efficiently. Building stations efficiently is very important if you wish to establish a great train empire. There are hundreds of ways you can build stations. The examples below should put you on the right path.

Contents

Building train stations

  1. Open the Railway Construction toolbar by clicking the /File/en/Manual/RailCnstr.png button.
    Railway Construction toolbar.
  2. Click on the Build railroad station button /File/en/Manual/RailSt.png. The Rail Station Selection window appears. Remember, you can hover over any button or right click* for a description of what it does.
    Rail station selection window.
  3. Set the Number of Tracks and the Platform Length. Remember that each "unit" will take two carriages or engines, so choose the length of your station according to the length of the trains you want to load there. For example, a platform length of 3 can accept one engine and five carriages. Longer trains can stop there also, but loading/unloading will be slower.
  4. Select the orientation for your station to run the track in the right direction.
  5. Find a place for the new station on the map. Besides building on flat land you can also build on slopes. It is possible to build over existing straight tracks.
  6. Click to build the station.

* You can right click for information if the "hover over delay" is set to 0.

What kinds of stations should I build?

That is completely up to you, but here are some general guidelines:

Below are some examples of stations. Each example is presented in two different signal styles. One style uses path signals; this is the preferred method of signalling. The other style uses block signals and is mentioned here for legacy reasons. Read the article on Signals to learn more about the different signal types. How to build signals is covered in Building signals.

When using path signals, remember that your longest train needs to be able to wait at all signals without blocking junctions. For this reason, some of the path signal screenshots do not show the full station, but show the full signal path.

Single stations

Single terminus loading station with path signals

Single terminus loading station with block signals

Single terminus unloading station with path signals

Single terminus unloading station with block signals

It is good practice to make the loading-exit and unloading-entrance lines to go straight into the station, while the loading-entrance and unloading-exit lines can loop around. Trains delivering cargo will deliver it faster and loaded trains can leave the station faster.

As you may have noticed, there are no path signals used in the example with path signals. This is because this station is essentially a single one-way track. As with any other one-way track, it is not necessary to use path signals. Using path signals here makes no difference to station performance.

Single Ro-Ro loading station with path signals

Single Ro-Ro loading station with block signals

Single Ro-Ro unloading station with path signals

Single Ro-Ro unloading station with block signals

Double stations

Double stations with two platforms are preferable for stations that need to handle more cargo. These may be the type of stations you build most often. Having two platforms means that once one train is done loading, the other can start loading immediately, without having to wait for the previous train to exit the station.

Double terminus loading station with path signals

Double terminus loading station with block signals

Double terminus unloading station with path signals

Double terminus unloading station with block signals

Double Ro-Ro loading station with path signals

Double Ro-Ro loading station with block signals

Double Ro-Ro unloading station with path signals

Double Ro-Ro unloading station with block signals

Multi-track stations

Once the stations start servicing many trains, multi-track stations are preferable, to ensure there are no long wait times for trains. If more than one train is waiting to enter a station, it has too few platforms. Adding more platforms is an easy solution. A four-track terminus and Ro-Ro station are shown below. Bigger stations are just as easy: add more platforms, make sure trains can enter and exit each platform, and add the proper signaling.

Quad terminus station with path signals

Quad terminus station with block signals

Quad Ro-Ro station with path signals

Quad Ro-Ro station with block signals

Through stations

A special type of station is the through station, which allows trains to enter and exit from both sides. This type of station is especially useful for those (mainly) passenger lines that connect one town with the next and the next and the next.

Double one-way through station with block signals

Double one-way through station with path signals

Double one-way through station with path signals

Double one-way through station with path signals

Next: Building train depots »