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Basic Principles:
- Intersections, no matter how well designed will cause trains to occasionally stop or slow down. It is best to avoid intersections as much as possible.
- Ore deposits become larger as you get further away from the spawn point. Larger deposits means more efficient mining.
- Therefore one of the most efficient designs is to build your base along a straight rail main line, with the various factories laid out in an order that facilitates transport of materials.
The bulldog Main Line design:
- Is based on the above principles.
- Is left hand drive (LHD). Although I am normally an RHD person, Factorio's train exit position and signal placing quickly made it evident that LHD works far better in this game.
- Is designed to support 8 wagon trains. Personally I designed it for 1-4-2-4-1SD (same direction locomotives) trains, with the intent of using 1-4-1SD at first and later grow to the bigger trains. When I get quite far from the starting point I expect to use larger trains and at that point to add to the blueprint book.
- The line is mainly designed as a 4-lane line, in 8-chunk segments.
- At the end of each segment are lane changers to allow trains to move in/out of the lanes.
- At the center of the segments there are turnarounds, to allow trains to reverse direction without intersections that cross tracks.
- In areas where you build bases there is an additional set of 8-chunk-long tracks that break off from the main line. These short tracks are where you place your entry/exits to your factories train stations.
- The above allows trains to enter/exit stations without ever crossing a line. Full trains go straight to their stations. Empty trains drive along the entry/exit track, shift inward and reverse direction to return to the factory where they will load up. This arrangement minimizes conflicts between trains and maximizes train speeds.
- For optimal throughput, plan the order of your factories along the main line well. Keep the travel distances as short as possible and in the right direction.
- There is no reason to have raw ore trains (except perhaps coal and maybe some stone) on the main line. Ore trains are best left on their own ore loop that goes straight into the smelter train station, never touching the main line.
- If you want even better throughput, setup a 2nd main line on the opposite side of the factories. In full through one main line and out empty through the other.
Core blueprints:
- Main Line with Exit Lanes: This is what you use as the core of your base. Simply plop these 8-chunk segments end to end and let your bots build them.
- Main Line without Exit Lanes: You can use these if there is a section where you don't plan to place any factories.
- Main Line, Long Haul (2 lanes only): You can use these on the long line out from your base toward the rich ore fields.
- Lane Junction, 4/2 lanes: Use these to join your 4-lane main sections to your 2-lane long haul sections.
- Radar Standard separation: Use these to place self-powered radars to keep your track visible. Contains 2 radars, so you can just lay over the previous one to tile them. These radars fit nicely between the 4 lanes and the exit lanes. It is important that the power poles in these do NOT connect to the main line (or you'll draw power).
- Bulldog Artillery Forward Post: You can use this blueprint to place a temporary outpost at the end of your line, to clear nests as you extend the line. Once cleared, remove it. Supports 1-4-1SD (same direction locomotives) trains.
Optional Blueprints (you should not really need them, but they are here just in case you want to tweak the design to make it your own):
- Bulldog TicTacToe intersection: The whole point of the design is to avoid intersections altogether, but if you really really want one... here is one that fits well with the rest of the design. Make sure to add enough 2 straight segments and a lane changer segment before connecting its ends to the rest of the design... so that you don't accidentally create the potential for slowdowns or even a deadlock.
- Straight - 4 lane: Just that. Again, you should not need it unless you are customizing.
- Lane Changers - 4 lane: To go with the intersection and straight sections. Or to customize for different train lengths.
- Inline Return / direction changer: Also available to customize for different train lengths.
Note that I left out many common sections that you typically see in rail blueprint books. There is no curve. There are no T-junctions. There are no further intersections. All of that is absolutely intentional, to remove the temptation. All you should ever really need is a trivial Y-split/merge from the exit/entry lanes, and that is so simple that it does not require a blueprint.
Factorioprints page: https://factorioprints.com/view/-LPOOJ-GsdY4h7KTnHgc
