Trains: Failover/Alternate stops.
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:49 am
I was thinking about train routes and the best ways to manage trains and how to keep belts full and compressed.
I came up with this plan, using iron ore as an example:
- A load stop at each iron deposit. All iron deposit stops are called Iron Load (we don't care which deposit the iron comes from). Use circuits to make the stops unavailable unless the chests are full and ready to load.
- Give each location that needs iron ore it's own stop name. For example Iron Unload 1, Iron Unload 2, Iron Unload 0. Each of these locations have 2 stops each, where either can keep the belts saturated.
- Have at least 3 or 4 trains scheduled from Iron Load (aka any iron deposit) to the location (i.e.: Iron Unload 1). The idea is to always have one train unloading and almost always a second one unloading too. Because of the oversupply, these trains may have to wait here to fully empty. Add more trains to the route as the deposits get further away.
- If a train arrives and finds both of the location stations full, instead of just sitting in a stack to wait for a turn to unload, ignore the planned stop and go unload at a Failover stop.
The last step is where I am having trouble. Is it even possible to tell a train to ignore an unload stop if it finds it fully occupied and just go on to the next stop in the route? If possible, how would I go about doing it?
I came up with this plan, using iron ore as an example:
- A load stop at each iron deposit. All iron deposit stops are called Iron Load (we don't care which deposit the iron comes from). Use circuits to make the stops unavailable unless the chests are full and ready to load.
- Give each location that needs iron ore it's own stop name. For example Iron Unload 1, Iron Unload 2, Iron Unload 0. Each of these locations have 2 stops each, where either can keep the belts saturated.
- Have at least 3 or 4 trains scheduled from Iron Load (aka any iron deposit) to the location (i.e.: Iron Unload 1). The idea is to always have one train unloading and almost always a second one unloading too. Because of the oversupply, these trains may have to wait here to fully empty. Add more trains to the route as the deposits get further away.
- If a train arrives and finds both of the location stations full, instead of just sitting in a stack to wait for a turn to unload, ignore the planned stop and go unload at a Failover stop.
The last step is where I am having trouble. Is it even possible to tell a train to ignore an unload stop if it finds it fully occupied and just go on to the next stop in the route? If possible, how would I go about doing it?