1x1 GLR Station

[akbear]

I'm having a problem in my cities with GLR gridlock.  Apparently my sims are so in love with the ground rail system that the trains often form a non-stop conga line that blocks intersections and at times even kills off trains that are stuck too long at a certain spot (fortunately I can't hear the cries of the sims as they are sucked into the invisible black hole never to reach their destinations)

One possible solution would be a tram that was limited to two or three cars or a mod that did the same (from what I can see there was at one time a radical mod that one could choose the length of a passenger train between 3 cars and 8 long), but even that might not be enough.

The VDK short tram cars do help, but they still get exceedingly long.

So that leaves a streetcar as a solution since it's only 1 car long, but it brings up a different problem.  The streetcars stop well ahead of the stations as if they still had multiple cars behind them. 

To solve this issue, my thought is a simple one tile station with no props at all or  with only one prop, such as a fancy lightpole with directional signs in the very centre of the tile (between the tracks).  The station itself just having the default track and pavement (allowing for a sandstone or sidewalk mod to change the texture).  This way it would look much more natural for a streetcar to simply stop and be in relatively near vicinity of where an opposing streetcar would be stopping (and perhaps better yet since neither would be blocking the other for the sims to embark or disembark if they are stopping slightly ahead of the station due to the extra cars that the simulation still thinks are present).

if anyone is interesting in tackling such a job I'd very much appreciate it, and here is a mockup of what sort of thing I had in mind for a single centre prop since pictures seem to do much better than words in this case (and assuming I posted the image correctly)

[APSMS]

The VDK trams that only use an engine (and consequently let you have more than one model type in your city) shouldn't suffer from the station misalignment problem (they don't in my cities at least; it sounds like that problem is related to a tram mod that doesn't actually eliminate the extra cars).

You can solve this problem (which is purely visual, by the way) by modifying the parameters of the mod (I forget exactly how, but you can find the info through a convenient search here).

SFBT makes some tram-in-road stops that are single tile and with minimal props, but they probably aren't quite what you're looking for (not GLR only)

Thishttp://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2536 might be useful, but again I think the fix is better found elsewhere

[akbear]

The closest thing I could find was the SFBT tram on street, which does have a minimal amount of props and just adds a short segment of sidewalk on either side, but I was really looking for something that didn't stand out from the rest of the track. 

I did make several attempts to modify that station, but for the life of me I can't seem to take that station and replace the base texture with one that will be overridden with the sandstone or brick.

Another issue with that station is that trams do not visually go through it, they fade out and new ones spawn on the other side of them.

So, while that is a viable option for a 1x1 station, it just falls short on continuity.  It was, though, a step in the right direction.

[APSMS]

Lot's of things to suggest here, and hopefully I'm not just blowing smoke (or telling you stuff you're already familiar with)

The closest thing I could find was the SFBT tram on street, which does have a minimal amount of props and just adds a short segment of sidewalk on either side, but I was really looking for something that didn't stand out from the rest of the track.

Are you using rural GLR? I looked in the pack I suggested, and for standard city textures they have a 1x1 tram stop (that's not GLR-in-road or GLR-in-street)

I did make several attempts to modify that station, but for the life of me I can't seem to take that station and replace the base texture with one that will be overridden with the sandstone or brick.

The GLR-in-street is a transit-enabled lot. I'm not familiar with lotting or modding, but I wouldn't suggest it for the inexperienced with those particular types of pieces. And the SFBT ones mentioned in the link will change their base texture if you have something like Paeng's sandstone mod installed.

Another issue with that station is that trams do not visually go through it, they fade out and new ones spawn on the other side of them.

Did you try exiting the city and re-entering it? This is a known problem with transit-enabled lots. They have to either be drawn over with the base network to enable the paths, or you have to reenter the city after saving it (and then exiting the city). Otherwise the visual discontinuity is also an indicator of the network discontinuity and the station is preventing your road/line from functioning properly.

So, while that is a viable option for a 1x1 station, it just falls short on continuity.  It was, though, a step in the right direction.

By the way, did you try any of the single-car GLR mods by Vester to see if that would help solve the problem? Or modding the GLR skin files to reduce the number of cars displayed per passengers traveled?

[akbear]

Are you using rural GLR? I looked in the pack I suggested, and for standard city textures they have a 1x1 tram stop (that's not GLR-in-road or GLR-in-street)

maybe I'm missing something, the provided link was for the modern bus and tram stops, the tram stops in that package are

Tram stops:

SFBT_khoianh_Strassenbahnhaltestelle_blau_2x1_1888a718.SC4Lot
SFBT_khoianh_Strassenbahnhaltestelle_blau_3x1_f8881390.SC4Lot
SFBT_khoianh_Strassenbahnhaltestelle_grau_2x1_9888a7b2.SC4Lot
SFBT_khoianh_Strassenbahnhaltestelle_grau_3x1_d8881c3d.SC4Lot
SFBT_khoianh_Strassenbahnhaltestelle_rot_2x1_9888a77e.SC4Lot
SFBT_khoianh_Strassenbahnhaltestelle_rot_3x1_f8881bf4.SC4Lot

which I do have, but they're 2x1 and 3x1

The GLR-in-street is a transit-enabled lot. I'm not familiar with lotting or modding, but I wouldn't suggest it for the inexperienced with those particular types of pieces. And the SFBT ones mentioned in the link will change their base texture if you have something like Paeng's sandstone mod installed.

attempting to use a tweaked tram in street I kind of felt the worst that could happen would be occasionally some sims would get mowed over when a pizza delivery sim decided to use it as a shortcut in the 29th minute.  You are right, though, I have likely forgotten more than I ever learned as it took me about three days to figure out how to get the 3x1 one-way version of http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/17489-viaducts-for-rail-road-oneway-avenue/ to be pathed in an acceptable fashion to work for a compact viaduct type interchange.

By the way, did you try any of the single-car GLR mods by Vester to see if that would help solve the problem? Or modding the GLR skin files to reduce the number of cars displayed per passengers traveled?

I did wind up going back to the streetcar (single-car), and with the single tile stop that I was experimenting with (or should be say trying to tweak) it did work as expected with the streetcar stopping slightly ahead of the station (in fact with a second one waiting in line behind it for the station it was as if a two car unit was in the station, so my assumptions of how it would look with two opposing streetcars at the same stop was correct and it would in fact look like a normal stopping area allowing the sims to disembark from either side and not get run over by the other streetcar)