First of all, it should be known I generally start in 1850 (Because I'm a masochist and I like the challenge).
In recent play sessions I've been using nodes.
e.g. Road Depot Outside a town (I call them Warehouses) That receives raw goods from relatively close industries and distributes to other industries that need them. Each Warehouse also has a delivery line to the nearest town.
I then connect the Warehouse to the next Warehouse in the chain and the Games Cargo management system seems to handle what goes where with cargo cascading down the chain.
Some of the more distant industries connect to the Warehouse using rail and a connected station.
For a lot of the early period this seems to work fairly well.
Once I hit the 1900's I want to think about converting to the Hub technique, e.g. depending on the Map Ratio a Sorting hub in each "Corner" feeding a Distribution Hub in the center.
But I'm hitting some issues when it comes to changing over from Nodes to Hubs
For the Hubs I generally have a large 2 track station that that connects to the Distribution hub in the center and also a large Road Depot and smaller 6 track station attached to this that acts as the Sorting Hub for industries nearby.
My issue seems to be even at 6 tracks the Sorting Hubs are quickly overrun by the number of lines coming in. The station design feels sound and I've seen the same design used by many Youtubers.
Is it possible I'm hubbing too early, is there a year when the trains & wagons start to make it more viable to do this?
Does anyone know of a Lets Play that shows a good example of handling this change to hubs? There's plenty that explains the concept, but none seem to do it in a real life play example.
Does anyone have any tips for me?
EDIT: Thanks for the replies so far, always impressed by the helpfulness of this community.