Trains stopping at the top of lift hill?!

[matthew813]

So, I got planet coaster on steam about a week ago, and I decided to make my guests more happy by adding another train to a wooden GCI coaster (i don’t really remember the name of the track but I remember the brand) and after doing so, when I would test the ride, one train would go up the lift and start going thru the course, while the second would start to ascend the hill, and stop at the apex. It would continue to wait until the first train had stopped completely in the station, then the chain would resume and let the train drop.

Obviously this completely eliminates the purpose of even having two trains in the first place, so I just stuck to using one train for a while but now I’ve grown my park to seven coasters, people really don’t like to wait in the 45 minute queues, and I don’t really appreciate the bad reviews.

I have encountered this issue for all of my coasters, and I can’t seem to stop it from doing this despite all my efforts.

Help!

Thanks, -Matthew

 

[Squirrelmonkey93]

What I think the problem is is that in the settings of the coaster you have the block sections enabled. This means that on each block one train can ride at the same time for safety measures.

What I believe is that you didn't build any block break halfway or on the end of the coaster and that is the reason the second train stop at the top of the lift hill. The lift hill, the track and the station all count as one block. So to run 2 trains smoothly with the minimum waiting times for you peeps you have to build another block break in your track. Since I don't know your track layout I couldn't give a suggestion where it would be the most convenient.

I know of this thread started by Bitter Jeweler who explained it better than I can since I'm not really a coaster builder myself [wink]
https://forums.planetcoaster.com/showthread.php/11611-Block-Brake-Efficiency-Tip?highlight=

 

[jamesviago]

hi matthew. for safety reasons, coasters are designed to prevent multiple trains from colliding.
this is implemented using a similar system to that used by railway trains.
the track is divided, using block/section brakes, into sections, and a train cannot proceed into a section until it is completely empty of other trains.
the station ends, and the top of a lift hill, are automatic block breaks, so your track has sections:
station out to top of lift hill: section 1.
lift hill to station in: section 2.
station in to station out (i.e., the station itself): section 3.
in order to always have one empty section, so that at least one train is able to move at all, the number of permitted trains is always one less than the number of sections.
your trains on the lift hill must wait until the track ahead is clear, which it is correctly doing.

to get the effect you want, insert a block brake just over halfway (timewise) between the top of the hill and the station.

[ Station out ] --(S1)-- [ hilltop ] --(S2)-- [ block brake ] --(S3)-- [ Station in ].

then, the train on the hill will be released when S2 is clear (i.e. the train is halfway along the track).

timing: if a section is faster than the one following it, trains will have to stop while the next section clears. so for smooth running, you'd make each section slightly shorter (less time) than the one before. e.g. station load/unload might be 24 seconds, time to top of hill 22 seconds, time to mid-track 20 seconds, time to end 18 seconds. for a longer ride, insert more sections.

there's a bunch a great stuff in BitterJeweler's thread, as mentioned above, and there are some helpful videos in there too.


here's a track with many sections and multiple trains (about 1 minute of this video, starting at 5:18)

[video=youtube_share;gkTRLo-XC8I]https://youtu.be/gkTRLo-XC8I?t=5m18s[/video]

and the 29 minutes version of the build is here, including my design drawings :

[video=youtube_share;BcIy7Z-e_eY]https://youtu.be/BcIy7Z-e_eY[/video]

hope that's helpful...