What kind of chests do I use at a train station?

[Mauslag PIngman]

At first I put down steel chests but I have logistic robots so I put down storage chests. That worked until the robots started bringing surplus up from the factory below and filling all my train unloading area with all kinds of junk. So what kind of chest should I have next to the cargo cars?

[Frightning]

For train unloading: Use Active provider chests, bots can never put items into these chests, but prioritize taking things out of them (either to Requestor chests requesting the given item or else Storage chests, provided of course that there is room for the items, or the case of the former, unfilled requests for that item).

For train loading: Use Requestor chests (and perhaps set them to request the desired item(s)).

[Mauslag PIngman]

So does each train stop have a place to unload trains and another place to load trains and both places have different chests?

[Deadly-Bagel]

It really depends how you want to set everything up. Sometimes you have loading and unloading at the same stop, sometimes they're separate, depends on your requirements.

Your situation seems to be confusion over the chests themselves, not the trains. Logistics bots will always try to take everything out of Active Provider Chests, if nothing is requesting the resource(s) it will be dumped into Storage Chests. Passive Provider Chests are left alone until something is requesting that resource, and take priority over Storage Chests. Both types of Provider chest can only be withdrawn from by logistics bots, they can't insert.

Storage Chests can be inserted and withdrawn from, as they're just a buffer to hold anything surplus that has either been deconstructed or put in Active Provider Chests.

SO if you want to load a train, use Requester Chests. If you want to unload a train, you're better off IMO using Passive Provider Chests but depending on the circumstance you might want Active Provider Chests. You CAN use both at the same station, just remember to use Stack Filter Inserters (or otherwise limit unloading) so they're not unloading what you're trying to load at the same time.

[Frightning]

It really depends how you want to set everything up. Sometimes you have loading and unloading at the same stop, sometimes they're separate, depends on your requirements.

Your situation seems to be confusion over the chests themselves, not the trains. Logistics bots will always try to take everything out of Active Provider Chests, if nothing is requesting the resource(s) it will be dumped into Storage Chests. Passive Provider Chests are left alone until something is requesting that resource, and take priority over Storage Chests. Both types of Provider chest can only be withdrawn from by logistics bots, they can't insert.

Storage Chests can be inserted and withdrawn from, as they're just a buffer to hold anything surplus that has either been deconstructed or put in Active Provider Chests.

SO if you want to load a train, use Requester Chests. If you want to unload a train, you're better off IMO using Passive Provider Chests but depending on the circumstance you might want Active Provider Chests. You CAN use both at the same station, just remember to use Stack Filter Inserters (or otherwise limit unloading) so they're not unloading what you're trying to load at the same time.

Not true, Storage chests take priority over Passive provider chests, you are correct about Active provider chests being higher priority than Storage chests (and that items will be moved to Storage from Active providers). For unloading, using Passive providers means that you don't want the goods being brought in by train ending up in Storage chests (I do this w/ my Oil trains, for instance), whereas use Active provider chests if you do want Storage to act as a buffer if you are over-producing those goods (I do this w/ my ore trains for two reasons: First, I built most my Storage with the expressed purpose of storing excess ore production, but also, second: Since I have ore unloading stations that are meant to work w/ mixed ores, and any of my ore trains can use any of my unloading stations, I wanted to be sure that the unloading bay chests were unloaded first and wouldn't become flooded by an overproduced ore, blocking others that I actually need from being unloaded).

[Deadly-Bagel]

Ah yes, my bad. Haven't used logistics in a while lol and when I do I tend to just load in products and dump them in storage.

I intend to do a logistic, no-belt run in 0.15 which will be fun ^^ no doubt I'll become very familiar with all the bot mechanics.

[henke37]

Be careful with active provider chests. They can easily fill your entire storage if you aren't careful.