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From point A, through B, to C, there is a railway serving a large number of trains.

At point B, a train wants to enter the railway, but stops at a signal as the tracks are currently occupied. Now when it enters, it will do so at a low speed, blocking the entrance for an added period of time, which then blocks the next train, and so on.

What techniques can I use to make point B more efficient, and not slow down a lot of trains?

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Okay, are you limited to a single track here? – ewanm89 Apr 30 '12 at 15:57
Ideally, no. The idea is to be able to feed a large mainline, preferably with a lot of traffic. :) – user50849 Apr 30 '12 at 19:15
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I suggest you look up the load balanced merges on openttdcoop.org it doesn't stop the train stopping, just makes it a little less relevant if it does, also cyclytrons still have a slow down as all curves do, size needed for maximum cornering speed depends on train length, again there is information on this on openttdcoop.org – ewanm89 Apr 30 '12 at 22:47
After I read a bit about Priorities I understood a great deal more, specifically about the dead-end tracks. Thanks! I still haven't understood how to take it from there to a Cyclotron though, and I can't seem to find that info on openttdcoop. I find a link back to the official wiki, but that's still a bit to complex for me to figure out. – user50849 May 1 '12 at 7:49
Cyclotrons are still new for openttdcoop community, but you wanted simpler, I would suggest shift mainlines instead (SML), also, consider joining openttdcoop public server sometime, they specialise in large networks with these more complicated techniques. – ewanm89 May 1 '12 at 8:39
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Cyclotrons are what you want.

http://wiki.openttd.org/Railway_Designs#Cyclotrons

A cyclotron is a loop with a priority merge. A train willing to enter a hi-speed main line enters the loop (preferredly at full speed), and subsequently passes through the priority merges every so often, depending on the size of the loop and train speed. The priority merge lets the train enter the main line if no other train is passing at the time, and continues in the loop otherwise.

This effectively keeps the train at full speed and allows it to enter the main line only if there is enough space between trains there, and at full speed. As a result, the main line never slows down.

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Please explain your answer further. Simply naming an item or game mechanic and linking to the wiki is not sufficient. – MBraedley Mar 28 at 19:43

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