Main Train Lines

[Hanover]

I've decided that I want to make a main train line. Is it better to place your factories and then connect them with a main train line, or create your main train line first and then place the factories? I want to do a train line that circles most of the planet and hits every major resource deposit. I plan on re-locating my base to the northern side of the Grassy Plane above the bottomless crater.

[Zigamus Wizard]

Make the train line first and a loop around the entire map, with shorter loops that cut through the middle. Once that is connected and functional then you can make ramps and loops off it to each of your factories. Be SURE to use block and or path signals.

It is far harder to find a path for the train than it is to place a factory, which can easily be lifted up and let the train go under it even.

[Zigamus Wizard]

Love your icon, in fact I am watching the original Heavy Metal movie right now, that spaceship is iconic for sure!

[Hanover]

Yeah, that's one of the very first movies I watched when we first got cable TV. I had double-LP soundtrack on vinyl. :)

Thanks for the advice. I've spent so much time trying to figure out how I want to place everything, and I think having that rail system done first will give me the most flexibility. The crater will be a nice junction to all the different places. Then I can see where I want the factories lower, higher, etc.

[sergier]

Lol That movie is such a unique piece. Loved it but the whole trial part was hysterical. Here Is your money Handover Fist. Immediately gets ejected out the airlock...
Is there a "optimal" angle for train ramps? Obviously the shallower the better.

[McCloud]

I so miss Night flight! J-men Foreveeeeeerrr!

[🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺]

Just as a completely separate suggestion that you will either love or hate me for later:

When you run your main line, run a couple more parallel to it at the same time (2/4/6 total, whatever). You may end up never using them but it costs very little extra time to do additional lines and if you do end up needing them you'll be forever grateful they were already there.

[Hanover]

Originally posted by 🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺:

Just as a completely separate suggestion that you will either love or hate me for later:

When you run your main line, run a couple more parallel to it at the same time (2/4/6 total, whatever). You may end up never using them but it costs very little extra time to do additional lines and if you do end up needing them you'll be forever grateful they were already there.

How much space do you put between each rail? Just trying to figure out if I should unlock Blueprint Designer MKII first.

[Bobucles]

Train hubs are as large as tier 4/5 factories all on their own. Build the train depots first, give them a dedicated factory floor for any serious hub.

A MK2 blueprint is useful for printing train rotary junctions. Make a plain ring out of 8 segments, the mk2 can't fit the connections. Spam block signals around every connection point of the junction. Beware if rails are pinched too close together, trains will crash.

There is no need to build larger than a single pair of rail lines. A single rail line can move 60 mk6 belts of cargo, on a bad day. Throughput is not an obstacle, your FPS will run out before the rail line gets saturated. The real obstacles are hills, junctions, depots and signals.

Depot conveyor belts are paralyzed when trains are using the station. No, it doesn't really make sense, the station has internal buffer space but it can not use the buffer. Place cargo containers next to the station to keep cargo flowing.

Because of the paralysis, there is no point in directing multiple trains to a single train stop. If too many trains visit, the belts will stall and stop moving cargo. A good setup is 1 or 2 trains per pair of stations. Don't try getting too fancy, there are no advanced train controls in this game. Get your cargo from point A to point B, and don't sushi belt your train system.

[Sasheria]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Train hubs are as large as tier 4/5 factories all on their own. Build the train depots first, give them a dedicated factory floor for any serious hub.

A MK2 blueprint is useful for printing train rotary junctions. Make a plain ring out of 8 segments, the mk2 can't fit the connections. Spam block signals around every connection point of the junction. Beware if rails are pinched too close together, trains will crash.

There is no need to build larger than a single pair of rail lines. A single rail line can move 60 mk6 belts of cargo, on a bad day. Throughput is not an obstacle, your FPS will run out before the rail line gets saturated. The real obstacles are hills, junctions, depots and signals.

Depot conveyor belts are paralyzed when trains are using the station. No, it doesn't really make sense, the station has internal buffer space but it can not use the buffer. Place cargo containers next to the station to keep cargo flowing.

Because of the paralysis, there is no point in directing multiple trains to a single train stop. If too many trains visit, the belts will stall and stop moving cargo. A good setup is 1 or 2 trains per pair of stations. Don't try getting too fancy, there are no advanced train controls in this game. Get your cargo from point A to point B, and don't sushi belt your train system.

This.

This is what I do.

I have a 2 track system going all over the place. There is outer permeter, but I still stick with 2 tracks ;) I do use a lot of path and block signals.

I do have train station below and factory above. Yes, this will make my factories HUGE, but then again, it may not be a bad thing since I am feeding a lot of stuff.

I do make resource center (RC) for each type of resources so the dedicated train and move them to the appropriate factory. Yea, my stuff are huge, but expanding is WAY easier cause of the train foundation and how I build my factories.

[Hanover]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Train hubs are as large as tier 4/5 factories all on their own. Build the train depots first, give them a dedicated factory floor for any serious hub.

A MK2 blueprint is useful for printing train rotary junctions. Make a plain ring out of 8 segments, the mk2 can't fit the connections. Spam block signals around every connection point of the junction. Beware if rails are pinched too close together, trains will crash.

There is no need to build larger than a single pair of rail lines. A single rail line can move 60 mk6 belts of cargo, on a bad day. Throughput is not an obstacle, your FPS will run out before the rail line gets saturated. The real obstacles are hills, junctions, depots and signals.

Depot conveyor belts are paralyzed when trains are using the station. No, it doesn't really make sense, the station has internal buffer space but it can not use the buffer. Place cargo containers next to the station to keep cargo flowing.

Because of the paralysis, there is no point in directing multiple trains to a single train stop. If too many trains visit, the belts will stall and stop moving cargo. A good setup is 1 or 2 trains per pair of stations. Don't try getting too fancy, there are no advanced train controls in this game. Get your cargo from point A to point B, and don't sushi belt your train system.

This sounds good. My problem Is I'm bored of building in the same space (been in the Rocky Desert forever) and I am in no hurry to finish the game. Id rather find a "groove" early that lets me go around the map, play with different factory/hub designs but make it so I can pretty much send any train to any place I want (I'm a software engineer, can you tell?).

I unlocked most of the build-related QOL features up front including the power boosters. I have everything up to computers going into Dimensional Depots so I think I'm ready to start building faster.

Based on the advice here, I'm going to go clockwise from Rocky Desert along the outside edge around the Savannah to encircle back to RD. Then expand around no mans land where I plan on setting up main base where my space elevator will be. Then continue adding more areas moving towards grassy plains and making the Abyss Cliffs (way high up with a few spirals to the bottom) a second main base. Seems like whenever I started exploring, I always ended up back at the abyss and there is a nice cave nearby too.

Its probably weird I've been on tier 6 so long, but since this is the first tier that requires manufacturers, its time to start to get away from the ad-hoc factories to something that's more fun.

[Joelle]

Huge pieces of advice on this topic as someone who built a rail network, road network and scrapped both of them twice before arriving at my final one in play now that works beautifully...

1) Use blueprints for each section type to save time. Have a straight, left turn, and right turn sections. Use 2m foundations always in each blueprint, including 2m double ramps for up/down if you choose to place these without a blueprint.
2) Place the foundations first and run it to areas of existing factories or rebuilt regions for new factories before laying the track once happy with it.
3) Space track in 3 foundation grid pattern with a track, a space and a track, balancing them perfectly in the middle of the foundation.

 Track Space Track 

4) Avoid placing the actual rail track until you ensure the foundation blueprints of straight, left and right are complete in the area to their desired train platform. Too many times I'd lay rail alongside as I go along and then realize I'd need to curve more and remove a few straight foundations to avoid clipping into mountain corners or edges of undestructable terrain objects. Waiting until you have the right layout will save time.
5) 90 degree turns are easy with 3 grid pattern as they will always be 3 foundations left/right, 3 foundations down/up to make the perfect turn.

Lastly, pick which side of traffic is going to go in what direction and don't break this anywhere. Add loops or roundabouts if need be to ensure the directions never change. My case, I do right lane normal operation, left lane return operation, similar to American driving.

[gamel]

My tips for your rail network:

1) Like most players my "main line" is actually a pair of parallel rails on top of foundations, each for every direction (you need signals to force the direction)

2) Stations are build perpendicular to the main line, accessible via a "T junction". Learn to build them

3) Build stations longer than you think necessary. Later on you might need to add platforms or accommodate longer trains. Rebuilding stations is a pain...

4) Signals: they force the direction of the track left to it. So every T junction should have 6 of them: 1 block at every exit, 1 path at every entrance, so 6 total. (You're free to do things differently, but this has always worked for me so far)

5) Bidirectional trains (with a locomotive on both sides of the train) can move both ways, meaning your stations can be dead ends.
If you use unidirectional trains, you need to build 180° curves in every station. It takes more room, but the good thing is that you don't reverse the rank of the cars. It allows schedules between an odd number of stations

6) One freight platform = 1 resource. (Unless you are crazy and want to try your luck with smart splitters and sinks?)

7) One train station = 1 or 2 different resources. If you try to add more goods in your stations, trains need to get longer and longer, and the train stations too. And then at some point you realize you need 8-car trains and 8-platform stations just to move some plastic...
For your mental sanity, don't even try to use a "central station"

8) This means you will need multiple unloading stations in your "main base". Plan accordingly, keep a lot of room to expand.

--------------------------

Some bugs to be aware of:
9) Signals don't like overlapping rails AT ALL. Build properly over foundations and you shouldn't have problems

10) Dismantle crates can ruin the signalling too. For some reason they mess up with the pathfinding?

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by gamel:

6) One freight platform = 1 resource. (Unless you are crazy and want to try your luck with smart splitters and sinks?)

- Ensure you have buffers (ICUs) that exceed the freight car's capacity so they can completely empty depending on how much your bringing in.
- Smart splitters to sort goods into said buffers
- Overflow at said splitters where appropraite and sink if your worried you'll get a blockage

It's not that hard if you want to mix goods. Just saying - its not that crazy - just requires more planning. Not unlike your suggestion to have extra space for platforms? Same idea.

[Daedrac]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Originally posted by gamel:

6) One freight platform = 1 resource. (Unless you are crazy and want to try your luck with smart splitters and sinks?)

- Ensure you have buffers (ICUs) that exceed the freight car's capacity so they can completely empty depending on how much your bringing in.
- Smart splitters to sort goods into said buffers
- Overflow at said splitters where appropraite and sink if your worried you'll get a blockage

It's not that hard if you want to mix goods. Just saying - its not that crazy - just requires more planning. Not unlike your suggestion to have extra space for platforms? Same idea.

I've got 3 resources on one line (<200 total/m) and I noticed that the splitter can't keep up with Mk5 belts, some resources went overflow even though the line was constantly moving. Using Mk4 and it's beautiful.

[Bobucles]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Originally posted by gamel:

6) One freight platform = 1 resource. (Unless you are crazy and want to try your luck with smart splitters and sinks?)

- Ensure you have buffers (ICUs) that exceed the freight car's capacity so they can completely empty depending on how much your bringing in.
- Smart splitters to sort goods into said buffers
- Overflow at said splitters where appropraite and sink if your worried you'll get a blockage

It's not that hard if you want to mix goods. Just saying - its not that crazy - just requires more planning. Not unlike your suggestion to have extra space for platforms? Same idea.

The simplest setup is to have a belt from the train station go directly to an awesome sink. That's the first thing you build. Spam smart splitters on that belt, one for every unique resource. The tagged resource splits off, and overflow continues down the middle. Any resource that's maxed out goes directly in the trash, clearing room for everything else.

Multi use stations are still a Bad Idea(TM). Stations can not handle constant train traffic, every train is a half minute lockdown where the station can not belt its inventory. It may be okay for a mix of high tech resources that can unload very quickly, but raw ore is best with its own dedicated stations.