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 can learn how to build train (railway) stations, and how to connect railways to stations in efficient ways. Building stations efficiently is very important if you wish to establish a great train empire. There are hundreds of ways you can build stations, some examples below should direct 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. A station building window will appear. Remember, you can right click* on any button if you ever want a description of what it does.
    Train station selection window.
  3. Set the Number of Tracks and the Platform Length. Remember that each "unit" will take two carriages, so you choose the length of your station according to the length of the trains you want to load there, i.e. a station of 3 squares long will take one locomotive and five carriages. Longer trains can stop there also, but loading/unloading will be slower.
  4. Select the orientation for your station so that you can 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's possible to build over existing straight rail.
  6. Click the mouse to build the station.

* This has been replaced by "hover over" behaviour, you can still right click if the "hover over delay" is set to 0.

What kinds of stations should I build?

That is completely up to you. The general guidelines would be:

Below are some examples of stations. Each example is presented in two different signal styles. One style uses Signals (stations in screenshots in red); this is the preferred method of signalling. The other style uses Signals and is kept here for legacy reasons. Read the article on Signals if you want to know more about the different types of signals. How to build signals is covered in Building signals.

Important to remember when using path signals is that your longest train needs to be able to wait at all signals without blocking junctions. For that reason, some of the path signalled screenshots actually show more of the signal setup than the actual station itself.

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 a 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. This way trains delivering cargo will deliver it faster as well as loaded trains can leave faster.

As you may have noticed, there are no path signals used in the example with path signals. This is due to the fact that this station is essentially incorporated into a single one-way track. Like with any other one-way track it is not necessary to use path signals in this case. Using path signals here makes absolutely no difference in 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

Once more cargo is served in stations, double stations with two platforms are preferred. This could be the most used station type you build. Two platforms mean two trains. Once one train is done loading, the other can start loading immediately - it doesn't have to wait for the previous one 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 preferred, so 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. Below a four-track terminus and Ro-Ro station are shown. Bigger stations are just as easy: add even 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 from both sides as well as leave at either side. 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 »