[1.1] trainyard without the Logistic Train Network mod?

[Napoletana]

I'm a bit stuck,

My idea is quite simple, a parking station (10 stations with the same name), iron ore pickup and iron ore input. I'd like all trains to wait at the trainyard until the iron ore pickup has enough iron. That's easy to do with a circuit condition which enables the station when there is enough for a full load. In combination with the train limit, the amount of trains rushing to that station can be limited to 1. Great

My train picks up the ore, drives to the iron ore input, drops it off and goes back to the trainyard.

Here's the problem; the trains keep running around between parking and iron ore input. It skips the disabled trainstation. I rather not create a global circuit network as that is tedious. Is there another solution (preferably modless?)

[BaggyK]

Rather than disabling the iron ore pickup station when there is not enough ore, use the circuit condition to set the train limit on the station. If there is not enough ore set it to 0, otherwise set it to 1.

That will cause the trains to wait at the previous station until there is space for it.

[astroshak]

I usually have the trains waiting in a stacker before the drop off point, rather than some out of the way train yard.

The only way I can think to do it would be to use that global circuit network (make your rail BP’s have Large Power Poles, and string the Red/Green wires before you capture it for the Blueprint) to enable the drop-off station when you have the pickup station enabled. Set the drop off on a timer to turn back off to allow for the train to arrive before it shuts off.

[Napoletana]

Thanks for the help, I rather not create a global circuit network. Even with blueprints it is annoying to setup and very error prone. Especially with my biter-infested lands. The circuit condition to limit the trains to that station was the solution I was looking for.

I've created a decider combinator and a arithmatic combinator to set the trainlimit based on a number of stuff in the boxes. The arithmatic combinator is used to allow higher trainlimits for more distant stations. I've also added a second parking stop in the schedule before the iron ore delivery and set trainlimits on the delivery side as well. I don't care if either empty or full trains sit in the parking station as that will in essence depend on the demand of the factory versus the supply of the orefields. Both of which are flexible.

[Nosferatu]

Make an unreachable iron ore pickup station somewhere. That prevents your trains from skipping Iron ore pickup

[Napoletana]

I've been tinkering with it a little, but it seems to work wonders. Need more smelting? Copy the smelting outpost and add more trains if required. Every iron plate drop-off can be called iron plate drop-off. Every iron plate pickup is called iron plate pickup. Trainlimits are set at either outpost distance, or possibility of a single train-queue in front of the actual station without blocking the main trainlines.

Trains will wait at the parking station for either fresh cargo if they are empty, or a drop-off point if they're full. It scales really well and as long as you have plenty of parking spaces, trains don't cross half the map for a parking spot. I use the parking spot for fueling as well, adding a tiny fuelstation with a roboport with 10 bots to transfer solid fuel from a dedicated oil outpost directly to the parking spots. Tiny circuit condition to enable the station if the chest is almost empty so there is little excess fueltraintravel going on. No more fiddling with trainbalancing, queueplaces and other nasty complicated stuff. Excess of parking and an excess of trains is all you need. And both of those are very cheap.