The careful rail-line design method the user approved on 3 Oct 2026 (real structure, odd-first offsets, timed long stops, round-trip vehicle counts, simple page); full text in pipeline/rail-design-rules.md
The full rules are in pipeline/rail-design-rules.md in the project folder. Read it before designing any rail sheet, local or long-distance.
On 3 Oct 2026 the user called the local design "lovingly gotten correct". They said MD-CR had "none of this careful planning" and asked for MD-CR to be redone with these rules.
In short:
- Real workday trains, Mon–Fri. Seasonal and Friday-only trains are listed, not modelled.
- Model the real structure. Join trains into one line only where they really run through, and never extend past a real terminus. Partial through trains become their own line in alternate hours.
- Lines on a shared section alternate hours. Uneven combined headways are fine.
- Offsets are odd hours first (interval 120: minute for L, minute + 60 for S).
- Leave up to 30.
- Timed stops: termini, every stay of 5 min or more, and every wait point, per direction. Each timed departure must come after the arrival.
- Vehicles: write a full clock round trip, rounded up to a multiple of the interval, then vehicles = round trip ÷ interval.
- Page: plain chat-like tables.
Why: the user checks every detail against reality and against the game, and wants functional lines that look like the real thing.
How to apply: follow the file. Ask when it is unclear which real trains the user cares about. Related: local-rail-062-064, simple-sheet-style, simutrans-fork-schedule-spec, md-cr-rail-sheet.