[@Athol] The tracks run North/South meaning the settlements will be East/West of the stations.  Because it is an 'infinite' railroad usually each settlement only knows about other settlements roughly 2-3 stations away from them.  Usually each station will have maps to help travelers know where the nearby towns are and other points of interest.  I will probably at least semi-plan out say, three initial train stations to start out with.  Because of the odd structure of the railroads it makes it quite hard for places to have knowledge of much beyond their initial neighbors though of course there are some exceptions.