Cargo Trains and Unique Factories - Can trains move intermediate goods? (Industries DLC)

[BlackFive]

I've got the Industries DLC and have several areas far from my main city designated as industrial zones. These are supported by local 'towns' also separated from my main city.

Between the Industrial Zones, I laid down and connected a rural cargo terminal next to a bunch of warehouses, each designed to store one of the intermediate goods (products that must be produced in the Ind.Area). Because the Unique Factories are so large, the plan was to build a separate 'Industrial park' closer to, and supporting, my main city. In my industrial park, I did the reverse of the rural - added a cargo terminal and a similar bunch of warehouses for the unique goods to support the Factories.

The problem is, while everything seems to be working - it looks like instead of transferring the intermediate goods... they're getting exported and re-imported. IOW, the hope was that the rural warehouses would move "Animal Products" or "Plastics" to the train, the train would carry the goods across the map and then distribute my own produced "Animal Products, "Plastics" etc. to the Industrial warehouses supporting the Unique Factories.

Both cargo terminals are connected to tracks leading to the Outside Connection (the original train tracks that spawned with the map). Is that the issue?

Is the only way to do inter-city cargo is a dedicated rail line NOT connected to the outside world? Or does that not even work?

[WhiteKnight77]

Yes, they will. Your best bet is to keep your city's cargo network separate from the outside connection network. You can use a one way track to export from your warehouses to the outside connection, that way imports are not brought in that way.

Here is some generic industry with a cargo terminal with a warehouse for Unique Factory Products in the background.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2998192179

Here is a shot showing the my farming area in the background.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2998195868

Here is a shot of my industry areas.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2999148224

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2999148186

[BlackFive]

Thanks! It's been driving me mad trying to figure this out - because I've got plenty of Plastic at one location and it just won't move to the factory zone. I'll break off the outside connection rail and connect it past my city - because the 'cargo' line is too integrated at this point to try to make parallel tracks.

[VinceP1974]

If you're open to using mods, there's one called Transfer Manager CE v2.3.30

This will allow you to put restrictions on cargo movements and it will also do some optimizations about warehouse to warehouse transfers, and road distance performance.

I have my DLC industries scattered throughout the map, but a central factory location in one of the corners. You can designate any warehouse to not Export and/or Import. You can restrict incoming and outcoming sources/destinations to within district only.

So in my factory location, I set all the factories to ONLY deliver goods within the district... which means they all will only deliver to a warehouse for special goods. And then I have train cargo hub and cargo harbor nearby. And I think, but I can't remember, if I set the factories to only accept inbound cargo from the district too.