Setting up a commuter train

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• Setting up a commuter train

Commuter trains are trains allowed to change their running direction situation-related. Generally these are trains which can drive in any direction without requiring locomotive shunting.

Trains exclusively running between Terminal Stations, however, do not necessarily need to be defined as commuter trains provided option Stop Non-Commuter Trains in Terminal in the Rocrail properties is deactivated.

In order to run a train as a commuter train the following conditions have to be met:

• Option Commuter Train has to be activated in the loco properties.
• Each block the train should be able to access must allow commuter trains.
• Each block the train should be allowed to change direction within must either allow direction changes or has to be defined as a Terminal Station.

Trains shuttling between stopover blocks, i. e. blocks not representing end blocks of a line, are sometimes referred to as yo-yo trains. This type of train is achieved if one or more stopover blocks allow direction changes.

Even then trains do only change their direction if Rocrail is not able to find a destination opposite to the block enter side (i. e. in driving direction) because the following block

• does not allow commuter trains or
• is occupied or
• is out of operation or
• can not be accessed due to other reasons like, e. g., block permissions.

In these cases routes leaving the block enter side - if any - are evaluated, too. In case a route is found the logical direction of the loco and the block enter side will be swapped allowing the train to leave the block in opposite direction.
The rule is: trains maintain their direction whenever possible.

Download the plan-file: pendelzug.zip

In this example loco 1016 is defined as commuter train. The loco may

• enter blocks B3, B4, B5 and B6 because commuter trains are allowed in these blocks
• not enter blocks B1, B2 and B7 because commuter trains are not allowed in these blocks
• change its running direction in blocks B3, B4, B5 and B6 because block properties allow for

The loco will change its running direction

• in blocks B3, B4 and B5 only if no destination is found in the original direction,
• always in B6 because it can leave the block only in the direction it came from.