I don't get the logic behind rail switches

Question

Almost all of my switches are pointing to the wrong direction. If the little arrow shows left, the train goes right and visa versa. So I thought, ok, this is a bug. But some days ago I layed several new switches, and two of them are pointing to the correct direction. I can't figure out what's different with these two. But it don't seem to be just a bug. There must be some law behind it, which is still bugged, but I can't understand it anyway.

Comments

it all depends on the direction you placed the track...if you always placed the track going in the same direction (left to right facing in the same direction all the time) then they would all match.

It's a bit like conveyors , depending which way you draw a conveyor (unattached from any input or output) , it moves in a certain direction.

Except with rails it doesn't matter which way you create it in.,...you might notice different patterns on the side of the rails too...this is dependant on which way you create them in as well.

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Thanks for the explanation, Wullail. I tried that out on one switch. I changed the directions I layed the tracks surrounding the switch and the tracks of the switch itself. I makes no difference. The switch points to the wrong direction.

But: inspired from you post, I fiddled around a bit. It doesn't depend on the direction of the track  (maybe also, but not only). It depends (also?) on which track - of the two tracks going of the switch - you layed first.
For instance: I layed a main route and a little later a side route switching of from the main route. Little arrow > wrong way. I changed it by laying the side track first and switch of from it to the main route. Little arrow: correct direction.

I'm of to verify this theory.

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Ok, I think I can narrow it down to one simple rule:

always lay the left track first (in direction of traveling).

For instance, if you layed a main track some days ago and want a new side track going of to the left, delete the according part of the main track, lay the side track as a direct route and then connect the main track again.

As far as I tried it, direction of track laying doesn't matter.