Welcome to the Trains!
If your looking at this then something has you stumped, or you want a heads up!
Either way lets get into it
The trains have so much potential, that the only limitation is your imagination
While some of the stuff trains can currently do is limited, there is more coming that can advance your setup tenfold
There are some rules all setups need to follow or you will run into issues. I have these listed these below:
- The train station should match up with the train length. Even though this is not necessary, if you have freight cars at the back of the train then you will need blanks up to the freight car so that it can be unloaded/loaded or the station will not know to unload the car and ignore it, leaving the car full/empty of freight. (For example, if you have 1 locomotive and 5 freight cars, you will need 1 station and 5 blanks or 5 unloading/loading bays, or a mix of both to fit the full train in)
- You need to make 100% sure that the station is facing the direction the train is going to be travelling, if you face it the opposite way, then the train is not going to move and throw up errors
- When making your stations, you will need to start at the furthest point away with your station, then your blanks or unloading/loading bays back towards your input track
- If you want your train to unload/load, it has to be on the timetable or nothing is going to happen, regardless if your manually driving or its automated
- If you want the train to be automated without issues, then you need to add each station in the order you have set them up as. (hopefully you have labelled each station) (make sure you rename your locomotives too) As you click the + button to add more stations do not forget to click each added station on the list to change it to the next station that the train needs to go to after the one before it
- Setting up the trains in front of the station you want it to drive into first then setting the timetable will allow it to drive on it's own. Sometimes you need to hop in then out of the train to get the AI to kick in
- You can have more than 1 train on a track
- The trains only load once they come into the station, they won't load if they are just sitting there, unless you place them 100% in the correct position
- If you wish to have each train go in different directions use the junctions and stations as needed
- Each freight car currently has 32 slots so plan your route accordingly
- You only need to power 1 power station and the rest of the following stations will be powered along the track
- You can also come off a powered station with a power pole and power mini factories and miners that are not connected to your main factory if you do not wish to set up mini power stations
For Junctions, please use the following rules to set them up:
- Start with a piece of track
- Go back to that point and come off it again in a new direction
- Do this for each additional direction you wish the junction to go in
- Junctions can only be formed on a 'join' on the existing track
- Making the smallest possible track possible in the area you want the junction will give you the most positioning options
- If you wish to make a junction of station, you will need to come off of the station with a small piece of track first to begin the process. (Direct off stations does not work at this stage)
Picture Credit goes to Discord User Tom
The station style setups are currently limited to five, however that may change in the future. For now the five setup styles are listed below, with examples:
Method 1
Full Loop
Should be pretty obvious, but if not, then it goes as follows. You start at one location, usually home base, then go to each location on the map you wish to grab materials from, then loop all the way back to the home base station
Method 2
Self Looping Behind First and Last Station & Back to Back with End Loops
With self looping tracks, whether it is back to back with loops at each end or self looping, there will be a switch added. While the switch is not really needed, if your picky about how the train turns around then you can change the switch to suit your needs
Method 3
Back to Back
For back to back, you have one station at each end both facing out, in the middle you have the stations all facing the direction you want the train to go in. The locomotives do need to face away from each other in order for back to back to work as well as the end stations or the train is going no where
Method 4
Back to Back with Right Angle Middle Stations
This is similar to a back to back setup, however each station is at a right angle to the track, the train will enter and leave the same direction as it heads to each subsequent station. You will need to add a bypass track behind each station so the train can travel all the way back to the start and do it all over again
Picture credit goes to Discord user VanStorm, reddit user /u/MartinVanStorm
General Tips & Building Ideas:
Tips
- For making trains up, where hills are likely to be involved, a good rule to follow is one locomotive to 5 freight cars, adding more freight cars then this and you risk the train rolling back down the hill. You can add more Freight Cars and Locomotives to make a longer train
- For a nice turn or loop, each turn point uses a 3x3 foundation spacing for a 90 degree turn. use this for making your loops tidy. If self looping don't forget to have a small track come out from the station first for the loop to reconnect to
- To dismantle trains, they need to be at a 100% stop. (If they are moving at any point then you cannot remove them)
- For your main base (Grand Central) station you only need 1 powered station and then the rest will be unload/loading platforms, use the blank platforms in the place of extra Locomotives you may have used on your train to save power consumption
- There are 2 freight platforms now, one for solid products & one for liquids. The liquid platform holds 500m3. Plan your destination source accordingly to be able to receive the liquid into platform. Use one liquid platform per item, do not mix liquids or you will have a bad time!
To be added, watch this space!