Train station/logistic clogging problem

[Psychomantis]

I have a interesting issue on my save.. I have lots of trains that are assigned to train stations with the same name (iron ore pickup etc).
Stations are connected to chests, if there is enough ore to fill all 4 wagons, the station becomes active. Now to my problem.

Often 2 trains go one after another towards the same station and the train station doesnt manage to turn off that fast thus, the second train tries to go to a station that is already used, clogging the rail on that point as he cant go to the station and making a lot of delay. Same on output stations.

Solutions? and yes I know there are mods but i find it stupid that this cant be done in a game such as factorio (as far as I know)

and btw.
is there a way to make the train go to a designated waiting spot ONLY if he has no other stations left, meaning he would never visit that station unless pickup and droput are both unavalible

And I am sorry if this is solved somewhere already, cant find it

[Loewchen]

Generally you can not prevent a train to target a station if it is the only active station of this name. If you are using the same name for stations not right next to one another, then you are simply using the mechanic wrong, the idea is to use this as if they are different platforms of the same station, you surely can build around that with more complicated logic gates but I would either: Have one train per station that waits if not full. Or have trains that stop on all/several stations in sequence and then unload. Or have a train go: Load 1 -> Unload -> Load 2 -> Unload...

[Psychomantis]

I thing the problem is also i built my base a bit too dense, so a minor clog just screws everything up, first time making such a base and going into fully train automatization/stations.
I was hoping I can make something like the logistics robots but just with the trains without using the logistics train mod, shame

Funny, 200h in and I still don't know some things, love this game

anyways, thanks!

[Ren]

Do you use train stackers? These have helped me a ton.

Let's say I have 2 stations named the same, and I need 5 trains to visit them. I have the inbound traffic go to a stacker of 3 lanes, those three lanes merge again to one line right before splitting into the two stations. This way, I can affectively have all 5 trains in the station area (2 in stations, 3 waiting in stacker) without clogging the main traffic.

BTW - I've got probably close to 800 hours in this game, and learn something new every map.

[zOldBulldog]

For load stations I usually use a "two-slot" approach: One for the unload and a queue location. Then I use circuit logic to control the open and closed stations. And I also give it a bypass rail (which doubles as a Passenger train station). No clogs.

For unload stations I also have a two-slot approach (although with less circuitry) and a stacker to allow full trains to wait.

If you would like a full description and a blueprint you can grab it from factorioprints at https://factorioprints.com/view/-LCyNqfc04vWxjS8v8DG

[Hiladdar]

From a design perspective, I set up two rail yards initially. The first one is for fluids, and I also set up a refueling station there. Coal is the initial fuel, or if a heavy forested starting area, lumber. Trains run on coal, lumber, and so on. As a rule, I'll only process incoming oil, incoming sulfuric acid, and outgoing sulfuric acid for the uranium mines. For this I plan at least 6-10 stackers. Finally I include a by-pass to get to the refueling station.

The second rail yard is for dry raw resources, primarily coal, iron, copper, uranium, and stone. Iron and copper is off loaded from both sides, while the other items are off loaded from one side. The second rail yard also has a by pass and and a refueling station, as well as a parking area for my personal train. I also has a spur leading leading out. When I launch trains, I set them up on a the spur, configure them, fuel them, and launch them from there. This way there is no impact on the rail logistics and less chance of being run over by a train. For the stacker, I plan on 4-5 spots for each, copper and iron, 2-3 parking spots for coal, and 2 parking spots for stone and uranium. This rail yard will have between 15 - 20 stackers.

Both the above rail yards are set up utilizing "push" logistics, i.e. try to shove as much of the oil, coal, iron, copper, uranium and stone as the base can hold. Once I get bots going, I'll set up a third rail yard, one that is based on "pull" logistics, where only deliver if resource like batteries is below a certain level. For this past, I conditionally hold each train in it's parking spot in the rail yard, full, ready to be off loaded. Once the number of batteries falls below a certain level, the train is released, it off loads it's load, refuels and picks up a new load prior to heading back to it's holding spot. I found the network logic needed to implement this was minimum, and the operation smooth (so far). This is usually set up after the first satellite is sent into orbit.

Hiladdar

[SpeedDaemon]

They way I normally solve this problem is to turn things around a bit. For something like ore mines, I'll have one or two trains dedicated to that mine, and their default waiting spot is at the mine getting loaded, or queued behind the train getting loaded. Trains are cheap, and they don't clog things up or burn resources if they're just sitting at a mine. My default mine train station blueprint is "on a stick," so trains don't normally path through and get stuck, but it also includes a turn-around to make sure. The only catch is that at the unload station, you need enough trainstops+stacker space to handle every train assigned to that station showing up at the same time. I've been doing this for a long time, and it's always been set & forget.