How to deal with 2headed trains being reversed?

[aober93]

How does anyone deal with the problem when a dual headed supply/build train comes in reverse? Each waggon carries different items, and the loader is specific to that waggon. But a reverse train has the wrong waggon in the wrong loader

Hows anyone way to deal with this?

[AngledLuffa]

The easiest is to make them symmetrical so this never happens.

In the case of mixed goods, that may mean allowing for both (all?) goods at the endpoints of the train. For example, I have an outpost which imports red chips and exports blue bottles. I just put both types in the same wagon, using the slot limits to prevent too many of one or the other, and let the train run like that.

You can also build the stations so they don't care about train direction. For example, a uranium train which carries uranium and sulfuric acid could have pumps/inserters on one side of the tracks and inserters/pumps on the other. Obviously this will load and unload half as fast, but for a train like that you probably don't care too much anyway.

Roll on roll off does run faster, though, avoids problems like this, and allows for shorter trains to deliver the same cargo, so there are a lot of advantages to switching from 2 headed to 1 headed.

[Zool]

I simply tend to avoid bidirectional trains completely, as unidirectional trains are easier to operate in high numbers. My favorite is actually 2-4 with nuclear fuel for really crazy speed and throughput.

Bidirectional is also always slower (2-4 is much faster then 2-4-2, due to the weight of the unused locomotives) - for details see the thousand threads on trainspeed ^^

[aober93]

Hmm funny i thought about going bidirectional alltogether lol. But thanks, looks like mirroring is the way to go. But i think i mirror the loader and not the waggons. I figured a nice quick loader for my mixed trains.