Are trains worth it?

[I Hate NFTs]

Title

[Solark]

It depends on what you're using them for. Long distance resource transport? Use a train.

[Sillls]

You can eather ride them or drive them if you want. That can be fun.

But as ronwright said. Resource transport is really good with these.

[Deckador]

I like trains, but it does depend on how far you want something to travel. For oil, you definitely want to use a train. But it's also not very practical to have a massive conveyor belt line.

[chaseydog]

If your using the RSO mod, and why wouldn't you be (wink, wink), trains become critical as the larger ore deposits will be further out. I'm on my first play through and finding that setting up a proper rail line while initially challenging is rewarding and well worth the effort.

[DragomirKingsman]

There is one way to move solid objects without conveyor belts.
TRAINZ.
So yes, they're worth it.

[The Chaotic Coder]

And get the Rail Tanker mod as well, it'll allow you to transport not just cruide oil but also any other fluid (petroleum gas, light oil, heavy oil, water, lubricant, sulphuric acid...) without having to invest thousands of steel plates in barrels.

[Sistermatic™]

Belts are a lot faster to set up and take a lot less space and resources so comparably, no. You really only need to build trains if you like trains. Sure, once you have "train station" BP working it's a lot easier but for what it uses compared to a simple belt.., nah.

tbh, I've always thought this game needs a power penalty for belts to make trains more desirable over long distance. Infinity belts make trains redundant.

[ExavierMacbeth]

The math for them as well as a nice comparison between Belts, Trains, & Bots is on the wiki. But basically ify ou need a belt longer than 500 units long (or more than 700 items per minute from it) then its alot better to use a train.

Personally i like using trains to maintain my defences. I can set filters on a single box car to carry a little bit of ammo, repair kits, replacement bots, barrels of oil for the flame turrets, & ailen artifacts (if using a mod like Natural Evolution). Then just let the thing go from fort to fort :)

[Badacid.Velox]

I find setting up & using trains one of the best & most fulfilling parts of Factorio (and i'm not a train fan otherwise!) learning it & then seeing them whizz round your base and occasionally knock you down & kill you is amazing fun.

Trains really got interesting for me after following the three rules on the below page though - they'd got slightly annoying for me before that as they kept blocking up. I think number one is dependant on situation, but two and three are definatly worth following. If you just have a couple of simple tracks and arent planning on joining whole areas together then you dont really need rules but if you're going into trains properly then I would try and follow them all as much as possible. It also makes it a lot easier to spread your base over huge areas.

Spoilers!:
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/2dz5jv/trouble_with_trains_heres_three_simple_rules_to/

My current map:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731859182

[Carefulrogue]

Depends on whether your hell bent on using them, or not. Me, I use trains. You don't need to worry about having to manage what line ends up feeding into what system, as a tangle of miner-to-belt-to-factory would, but trains can certainly be expensive. The require fuel, iron, stone, steel, and need a handful of service stations to feed and extract resources they carry. This can be a lot of work, and I understand why people don't want to deal with it.

However, trains are quite fun to play with. Their is a certain satisfaction, seeing an ore line feed your furnaces, before darting off to the outposts it's extracting it from. I'm of the camp that takes great enjoyment from it.

If anything, I'd say setup a line, and start running some engines. It's a bit difficult, like everything in this game, but it pays off in the end. Especially once you get to the point of commanding fleets of engines, and rolling stock.

Enjoy mate.

[Badacid.Velox]

Originally posted by Carefulrogue:

Depends on whether your hell bent on using them, or not. Me, I use trains. You don't need to worry about having to manage what line ends up feeding into what system, as a tangle of miner-to-belt-to-factory would, but trains can certainly be expensive. The require fuel, iron, stone, steel, and need a handful of service stations to feed and extract resources they carry. This can be a lot of work, and I understand why people don't want to deal with it.

However, trains are quite fun to play with. Their is a certain satisfaction, seeing an ore line feed your furnaces, before darting off to the outposts it's extracting it from. I'm of the camp that takes great enjoyment from it.

If anything, I'd say setup a line, and start running some engines. It's a bit difficult, like everything in this game, but it pays off in the end. Especially once you get to the point of commanding fleets of engines, and rolling stock.

Enjoy mate.

Also remember blueprints! I only learned about them after like 100+ hours of game time () and they've transformed how I play. Once you have one station setup how you like it, it's so easy to just slap them down anywhere.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Yea the blueprinted station is great. Especially if you decide ahead of time how big your train will be.

I generally use Engine-Cargo-ReversedEngine (with an extra cargo ro two for ore haulers). Lets me park a train in pretty much any station without complex loops and lets me make use of a service train design were i have 1 train that carriers a little bit of everything. that runs around to all the stops "topping off the tanks" so to speak. Especially ammo/repair packs to the forts.

[=BB= Misophist]

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Yea the blueprinted station is great. Especially if you decide ahead of time how big your train will be.

I generally use Engine-Cargo-ReversedEngine (with an extra cargo ro two for ore haulers). Lets me park a train in pretty much any station without complex loops and lets me make use of a service train design were i have 1 train that carriers a little bit of everything. that runs around to all the stops "topping off the tanks" so to speak. Especially ammo/repair packs to the forts.

Me and a friend (just for the lols) setup an 11 car train... Plus two engines on either side. I definitley agree with the blueprits bit...

[Badacid.Velox]

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Yea the blueprinted station is great. Especially if you decide ahead of time how big your train will be.

I generally use Engine-Cargo-ReversedEngine (with an extra cargo ro two for ore haulers). Lets me park a train in pretty much any station without complex loops and lets me make use of a service train design were i have 1 train that carriers a little bit of everything. that runs around to all the stops "topping off the tanks" so to speak. Especially ammo/repair packs to the forts.

I love the idea of a service train! So cool. Will have to look into that. Presume for mines etc that you have to have a nearby additional station for that so your ore loaders dont fill it up? Then just conveyer it into the base?

[SK]

Originally posted by BRINGITSISTA:

Title

realy good idea to build a train IF= you need to transport stuff a long way and IF You in a server with other poeple cuz they can go in and transport THEM and IF you need security robots that must fly around