Trains arrive in Shiroku: development points go into rail, highways and services, a provisional rail yard goes on a newly bought tile, and the main line is lowered with the slope tool so the station can sit right in the town centre, the Japanese way. Three crashes and a reload with missing mods later, two trains run and the town reaches level 5.
What happens in this episode
With Grand Village reached in episode 2, Shiroku can finally have trains. This was also my first proper session with mods. The first episodes were vanilla. Mods open up a lot, even if they weren’t fully stable yet: the game crashed several times, and once it loaded without Move It, Find It and the picker, so I had to restart.
How it was built
Spending development points
Trains come first. Trams are an option for linking small towns later. Then park maintenance, the water treatment plant, advanced road services, and in a hurry the large roads and highways, which I had forgotten to unlock. The welfare office and college are too big or not needed yet.
A rail yard before anything else
Trains need a rail yard before any line works. There was no good spot in town, so I bought tiles and put a provisional rail yard out in the countryside. The highway gets a branch with a one-lane off-ramp and a small roundabout. It might slow the highway down a little, but it’s a good connection. A wastewater treatment plant replaces the old setup, because water and ground pollution take ridiculously long to clear in Cities: Skylines II, more realistic but painful in a game.
The station belongs in the middle of town
In Japan the train station is the centre of town, and most central stations in Europe sit in the middle of town too. My first spot didn’t work: the station can’t be placed on top of existing tracks, and buildings blocked it. After the reload, with Move It working again, I threw the plan overboard and moved the station closer to the centre. That’s the kind of big redevelopment real towns go through as they grow.
Lowering the tracks
To let a road cross over the line, the tracks had to come down. The ground is flattened to a baseline first, then the double tracks are lowered by about ten metres, and the slope tool (brush around 30–60) makes a smooth descent from the lowest point. The curved track tool merges the lines again. The first attempt was prettier than the second, so I deleted it and redid it. The Anarchy mod helped the merge. Elevated two-lane roads over four tracks didn’t work at all.
Trains, shops and Tiny Town
With the lines set up, two trains run in and out of town. The station parking lot filled up surprisingly fast, so the parking fee went up slightly. Commercial zones cluster around the station, because in Japan that’s where the shops are, and the ambulance depot sits next to it. The beach side gets more properties on narrow one-lane roads. They waste space, but they look lovely. Trees from the Line Tool go between the tracks, and extra industry stays small so as not to pollute the future residential area.
Level 5, Tiny Town, unlocks North American mixed housing, mailboxes and a post office, roadside parking fees, recycling and speed bumps, plus five development points and seven expansion permits. The plan was set: Shiroku stays a small seaside town, and a bigger city with a downtown, an airport and towns on the islands will come elsewhere on the map.
Video chapters
- 00:00Using mods for the first time
- 04:19A rail yard first, highways unlocked
- 08:22A highway branch and a small roundabout
- 17:40Pollution takes forever to clear
- 22:07Why the station belongs in the centre
- 26:37Lowering the tracks with the slope tool
- 35:12Merging the double tracks
- 48:52Commercial around the station
- 53:05Beach lanes, trees, Tiny Town
Clicking a chapter starts the video above at that point.
FAQ
Do you need a rail yard for trains in Cities: Skylines 2?
Yes. Passenger trains need a rail yard (train depot) before any line works. I placed a provisional one on a newly bought tile so trains could run while the town grows.
Why put the train station in the town centre?
Because that's how Japanese towns work — the station is the centre, with shops and services around it. It's common across Europe too. It's worth a big rebuild, like lowering the tracks, to get it there.
What did level 5 (Tiny Town) unlock?
North American mixed housing, coal mining, communications (mailboxes, post office, radio mast), roadside parking fees, recycling, speed bumps and energy policies, plus five development points and seven expansion permits.