ACME special delivery
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:22 pm
I thought I would share a couple of the things I have done to make working with trains easier.
- I have a personal transport train that I use to get around my base. I have a blueprint that drops down a siding (so my personal transport doesn't block regular trains using that route). I name the siding based on where I put it, like kovarex east, or rocket silo 4. I have too many (500+++) to keep in a schedule, but with the search feature, I just type in the name, pick the siding from the list, for very quick transport anywhere in my base. Yes I use and love the new temporary stop feature, but with a big enough base it is way faster to pick the siding from the list than to scroll across the map.
- I have a blueprint that drops down a train stop called "Come to mama" and my personal transport is the only train that uses that stop. If for some reason I have jumped on another train, or run around on foot, so I am not near my transport, I drop the blueprint, click on the stop, open my train schedule, and call my transport to come pick me up. Super easy, hardest part is remembering to pick up the stop when I am done.
- As my factory grew (the factory must grow!), I soon could no longer carry enough material with me. So I created a supplemental train to deliver belts, inserters, factories, miners, furnaces, power poles.... I thought about calling it FedEx, but decided that ACME had a much better mad scientist flavour (thank you Wile Coyote and RoadRunner!)
I have a blueprint that drops down a siding with a train stop named Acme. I click on the stop, and select the train waiting at Acme Home, and summon it to deliver the extra materials I need. I use waiting for fluid count > 0 so the train waits at home until I summon it, and then waits at Acme until I am done. Again the hardest part is remembering to remove the stop when I am done.
The siding has room for one train with one cargo wagon. - And after not too long, a single Acme train wasn't enough. So now I have:
- Acme is still my go-to delivery service with a little bit of everything.
- Track-me carries more rails, and belts, and landfill. In the near future it will likely have rails removed to make more room for belts, at which time it would likely be renamed to Belt-me.
- Yukon Ho! (thank you Bill Waterson for Calvin and Hobbes!) carries more rails, and signals, and power poles because Track-me doesn't have enough rails, and doesn't have the other things I need to extend my rail network.
- Beam me up Scottie! (thank you Star Trek) carries beacons and modules.
- Domo arigato Mr Roboto (thank you Styx) carries robots, roboports, and logistic chests.
- Duke Nuke'em carries nuclear reactors, heat pipes, heat exchangers, offshore pumps.
- Steamboat Annie carries steam turbines (because my standard nuclear plant blueprint has 288 turbines and there wasn't enough room in Duke Nuke'em). I tried adding a second wagon but it seemed too heavy and too slow, and didn't fit in the Acme siding without blocking the tracks.
- Roomba is the newest addition: he picks up lumber, and stone, and coal - all the detritus of construction, and carries it away so I don't have to.
- Coming soon: Black Gold, for setting up new oil fields with pipes, tanks, pumps and pumpjacks, and There's gold in them thar hills, with miners and belts, for setting up new orefields.
Oh and if you are wondering how I name the train, I don't really name the train, I name the home stop for the train, so when I look at the list of trains that have Acme in the schedule, I see which one it is by the name of the home stop in the schedule.