Free-Flow Rail Junctions

Free-flow rail junctions, laid out like motorway interchanges and placed in one click from the Rail Constructions tab. Every direction runs on its own track and no train ever crosses another track on the level, so trains in one direction never wait for trains in the other. TRUMPET A double-track branch joins a double-track main line. All four movements are covered: - the two turns on the branch's side: plain curves - the two turns that would cross the main line: a 270 degree loop, and a bell that runs around the outside of the loop - the branch crosses the main line on a short bridge and stays up on an embankment while the curves join it, so they meet it as plain quarter circles CLOVERLEAF Two double-track lines cross on two levels and all eight turns are covered: a loop for each left turn and a bell around it for each right turn, one pair in each quadrant. Each line keeps its crossing height through the junction, so all switches lie on the level and the loops and bells climb from one line to the other on their own. About 600 m across the loops at the default settings (1.1 km including the upper line's ramps), about 460 m at the smallest. SETTINGS - Level Change: Ramps only (one line stays on the ground and the other passes over it), or Both lines (one dips half the clearance and the other rises half, so the ramps are about half as long) - Running: right- or left-hand - Loop Radius 50 to 200 m, Curve Radius 50 to 250 m: wider is faster and takes more room. Where a ramp would not fit, the curve is made wider. - Clearance 7.5, 8.5 or 10 m between the rails where tracks cross: lower is smaller; 10 m leaves room for catenary under the bridge - Track Spacing 5 to 10 m - Upper Line Ends: Ground (the line crossing over ramps back down) or Raised (it ends on its embankment just past the last switch, much shorter; carry it on with your own track) - Bridge: Auto (by year), stone, steel or concrete. Raised track is on embankments; bridges are only where one track passes over another. - Ramp Gradient 2 to 8 % - Signals: Yes places one-way path signals once the junction is built: on every track after it leaves a line and before it joins one, and on the lines before each switch. A train passes them without slowing when its path through the junction is clear and waits only for a train on a path that merges with its own; one-way, so no train is routed the wrong way along a ramp. They are ordinary signals you can move or remove. - Track type and catenary, as for stations TIPS - Place them on open, fairly flat ground first: the trumpet is about 650 by 650 m at the default settings (branch ramp included), 650 by 450 m with Raised ends; the cloverleaf about 660 m across with Raised ends. - The open ends snap to existing track. - Once built, everything is ordinary track: extend it, upgrade it or bulldoze parts of it like any other track. Removing the mod leaves the built track in your game.