Train questions chugga chugga!

[BustedHipGaming]

I want to dip my toe into a big rail system, so started a rail world. Questions for you veteran, huge train network building types:

Do you build a main line for your rail network?

If so how many lines in each direction do you use, and how far apart do you keep your tracks?

Do you every process ore on-site or do you always train it away to a smelting outpost?

Do you use trains to feed a main bus or do you train materials to specialized building outposts?

Any and all tips appreciated. CHOO CHOO!

[Jupiter3927]

I messed around with trains a bit and I sort of have a main line.
It probably isn't the best thing ever but I have 1 line of tracks going in and out of my base.
Multiple lines would make it harder to jam up but 1 line works for low-mid level throughput.

I put a 4 tile gap between my tracks and it seems to work ok for my network.
Anything bigger would just make it easier to signal your intersections.

Having a seperate smelting outpost seems to be the best way to smelt ore since you can send the products anywhere with only a few output stations.

On-site smelting just feels like a waste of resources but can double a trains capacity.
It also makes your mining outpost produce lots more pollution making it require more defenses.

I like to have my trains feed a main bus for stuff I only need some of like train stations or nuclear energy buildings and have entire assembling outposts for stuff I need obscene amounts of like red circuits and gears.


Something I never tried but would like to is having very long trains (10 cargo wagons+) just for transporting ore from outposts to your smelters and a seperate train system for moving stuff around the main base.
I never got around to doing it because I settled on the 5 car standard the game measures out for you and don't feel like moving and redoing all my intersections.

[robert225]

I am currently trying a proper railworld base for the first time, and I have found that there are a couple of what I would call "Mail Lines", one to the East and one to the South West of the starting area. Both of these have 2 tracks in each direction in the very central part of the base, but are mostly one track each way. I have built the base in a way that I can double up sections of rail as needed without too much rebuilding.

My tracks have 4 tiles between then. That is enough for Large Power Poles between the tracks, with lamps and signals either side of them. (and space for the occasional Radar).

I have seperate smelting areas. The mining outposts eventually run out and have to be moved. With seperate smelting, all you need to do is build the new mining outpost and plug it into the existing network. Depending on the item, I will set up supporting facilities close to each other. For example, the Brick Production base is very close to the first stone mine, and the plastic and Acid poduction sites are close to the main refinery.

I am not using a Main Bus**, but having seperate bases dedicated to single tasks. In my starting area, I just built a supply base which produces all the equipment I need (some people refer to these as "Malls", mine has extensions for Rail items, logistics items and nuclear stuff.), initially fed by the starting area deposits and local smelting, but eventually these got replaced by an inbound rail connection.

I have seperate bases for Iron, Copper and Steel Smelting, Brick Production, Green, Red and Blue Circuits, Refining, Plastic, Batteries and Uranium Processing at the moment. Also, a Labs base (the station feeds a tileable 48 Lab line, so I can expand this whenever I need, and also a base for each science pack, again tileable for expansion.

I use small localised Logistic Networks in the bases that need them, but mostly don't connect them up.

I am at the stage where I will be adding a Module and Beacon producing base, and upgrading the power output massively to support beaconed electric furnace set ups for my rocket production and infinite research.

The only thing I haven't decided is best for me yet is fuelling the rail network. Currently, I have a central refuelling station, and include a 10 second stop there on every trains route. I have yet to decide whether this is better than supplying fuel to the individual bases, on the regular stations.

60 hours in so far (I have taken it very slowly, and built everything big from the beginning) and I am thoroughly enjoying this world, it makes a big change from the Main Bus style of base I had been building for so long.

**My last Main Bus base got so big (16 lanes of Iron, 12 Copper, 6 Steel, 12,8 and 4 circuits, etc) I needed more than a full stack of underground belts just to run a belt across the bus), so I wanted to try something different.

[MisterSpock]

I dont see the point seperating the smelting stuff from the main factory. Its making it just more complicated.


So i decided for a single railnetwork with 2lanes:
1. I build the Trainyard and connect the output to my base
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925987834


2. I have three blueprints for my network
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925989557
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925988874
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925988580

3. Even outposts for mining are blueprints (it takes me like 5min to build one outpost)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925989824

4. As you can see my outposts are using single way instead of 2 lanes. This is because im very lazy. Thats why i have a T-Intersection und point 2. Lets look at my network:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1129120599

5. Trains have 2 Lokomotives in each direction, 4 cargo wagon for ore and 1 cargo wagon for supplies.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1128856468

[Name Lips]

First, the most basic concept of railroads: Signals break up the rails into "chunks." Each "chunk" can only ever contain one train at a time. In theory, your rail network can have as many trains as you have chunks. (In practice, that many trains would jam the system, especially at junctions, but you rarely need that many anyway.) Chunks keep trains from crashing into each other. If a train is present in a chunk, signals will turn red, and other trains will stop at the signals and refuse to enter the chunk.

2nd (a lot of people get stuck on this one), if your trains are going to go in both directions, you need to have an engine on each end.

At this point you can practice setting up a basic set of tracks with a station on each end. Figure out how to get a single train to move between the stations. It doesn't even need to be carrying anything, but you should practice until you understand the concepts. Do this each time there's a concept you have trouble with -- make a test track with one or more engines running around it to figure out how the logic works.


Then, unless you're building a huge rail system for a megabase, you should do ok with this setup:

A "main line" with one track in each direction. Place signals to make sure that trains go the correct direction on each track.

A dropoff station for each type of cargo you will be carrying. I mostly ship ore, so each station drops off ore to feed directly into the series of smelters that require it.

A pickup station at each ore patch to collect the ore mined at that station.

One of the trains stops should also load fuel (usually coal) directly into the engines.

A basic schedule for each train. Like: "travel to station A, wait until fully loaded, travel to station B, unload everything." You can get complicated here, but keep it simple for now.

To get to and from the main line, you use rail junctions. A junction is just an intersection where a train can turn onto a new set of tracks. This means tracks will need to cross each other. This is messy and can lead to traffic jams, because once the lines cross each other, the entire junction counts as a single "chunk" and only one train may enter. This can be irritating because frequently trains need to pass through the junction at the same time in opposite directions. Even when the trains won't hit each other, they stop and allow the junction chunk to be empty before they enter it themselves, leading to traffic jams. This circumstance is why the game includes Chain Signals. Chain signals are smarter than regular signals, and actually check to see if a collision is going to happen. If not, they will allow multiple trains into a single chunk. It is good practice to separate a junction chunk with chain signals instead of regular signals. You could use chain signals everywhere and the system would work fine, but they use a lot of computing power and this will slow down the game.

Your junctions allow your trains to exit the main line to reach the stations. Most of your traffic should stay on the main line -- the trains only leave it to get to the stations on their route.

Until you know what you're doing, plan to only have each train carry a single type of cargo (don't try to use one train to haul both iron ore AND coal, for instance.) It's possible to do this, but it's usually better to just make a new train.

[Mansen]

In my most recent game I went full ham on rail, meaning mines each had their own stations, a central smelting plant with stations. And then the madness - production chain had their own mini bases, as well as a research base that took in smelted metals, oils etcetera and produced everything they needed.

[Lawlzer]

Personally, I use MOSTLY 2 train tracks both ways, (so, 2 "left" and 2 "right" with 2 "rail spacings" (2 spaces) between them. I always do smelting at a specific place. See this video for multiple reasons why it's a lot more efficient to do it at one place, instead of at the outpost. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y3xy56n_tA&t=1434s
For non-megabase, I always bring everything to my central "hub" and when I go for a megabase, everything has its specific outpost. Iron gets brought to green circuits which gets brought to red circuits which gets brought to... Yeah.

[juliejayne]

I like to challenge convention.... my tracks are next to each other... which means that they have to be RHD to get the signals down. To me it is a more "realistic " pleasing look.

Smelting I am experimenting with on site. It means that plate trains bring the plate where it is needed,and are half the size or ore trains.