Factorio Forums

After playing through the game a few times I've decided it's time to work on a massive project. This for me entails creating a mega factory automating every object that can be made in ridiculous numbers, I have included a few modpacks (Dytech, Bobs mods and Treefarm being the main ones) to go with. As such it's obvious I am going to need a huge amount of resources coming in - so I am going to build a massive rail network. I've decided the trains will be about 5 carriages long and there will be about 30-50 of them, all moving between different bases (mine/oil sites --> smelting site --> assembly site). As such I am looking for any suggestions of railroad design.

It needs to be two-way so the trains can go back and forth between mine sites and smelting, then smelting to assembly. Each train will carry a difference resource (copper, iron, tin, lead, zinc, etc.) and all of this obviously needs to be automated with the use of rail signals and (ideally) minimal train idling. Can anyone suggest a style of network that would be able to accommodate this kind of traffic - I assume that it will need to be 2-3 rails wide in most (if not all areas) and what is the best design to use as the station(s) to allow the trains to load/unload and get back onto the network with minimal delay.

I've searched youtube and have learned how the rail signals work to a certain degree however before jumping in and spending hours making this thing I thought I'd ask for any input first

Any help would be much appreciated, cheers!

It's generally quite hard to make multiline train lines - the easiest way is doing separate train networks for every resource. I recommend style with straight rails and circles at turns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3F69g13Veg that's a good example.

Well, I can share with you my experience of doing big railroad systems:

- Create separate places for different stops. Main ones are Drop (drop resources at place), Pickup (to take stuff to other places) and Refuel (separate stations for this).
- Use the benefit of naming multiple stations with the same name on the Drop and Pickup stations. Multiple trains on the same/multiple lines can benefit from this.
- Separate a big place for doing stations, specially if you plan to have a central one.
- Use robots to unload stuff. This reduces complexity of stations. Use them to drop on Requester Chests that unload into belts.
+ If you do use robots, separate logistic network (robot area) for stations, and don't mix it up with other logistics.
- DO use blueprints, lots of them.

Ok I think I've come up with a design that'll allow a large flow of traffic to go through - I am just having trouble with a train that just doesn't want to path properly.

Here's a screenshot of what's going on:
- (You may have to right click --> open image in new window to see it all)

As you can see I am trying to get the train to go to the station at the top right of screen, but for some reason it just doesn't want to go there. I have run trains from the lower two rails and they successfully path to the station, however any train along the top rail just won't budge. Have I screwed up the signals or something?

You need a signal on the other side of the red one too. But if you're really want to use 30-50 trains i can guarantee you that you will get deadlocks with a two way system. Use one way tracks with turning circles

https://wiki.openttd.org/Railway_Designs here is how to lay good rail designs in similar game; it may help you.