Factorio Forums

Hey i was curious if something like this might be possible. A mod for rail signals attachment points.

Its mostly for aesthetic reasons, i know space is infinite in Factorio so it is not in any way necessary, but i love the look of having a tightly packed rail system with long trains chugging down the highway inches from its neighbor.

The idea is essentially a scaffold you could build across the railway above it, and attach a rail signal to the scaffold on either side for the rail directly below it. This would allow signalling on rails that were immediately adjacent, allowing the construction of rail highways and tightly packed lanes, or even i suppose a train wall with multiple layers that was almost impassable.

What i'm picturing is in the image below, quick mockup using game parts. i would of course still want to have the ability to connect wires to the signals to control them as normal, and to use either chain or rail signals as needed. Sorry i didn't have the time to do proper shadows.
in any case, as i said its purpose is mostly for aesthetic reasons at least from what i'm envisioning. Anyone have any thoughts?

Okay i had more time than i thought, heres a mockup that i think illustrates it a bit better.

Yes it's possible, mods are allowed to place signals in inaccessible spots.

I imagine what you'd need is something of a cross between a rail signal (so you can place them next to rail), a power pole (graphically) and an underground belt, for the behavior and cost.

I'm guessing the signalling would ideally be configurable, but it would probably work acceptably well to only support 2n tracks with n adjacent tracks in either direction, possibly with a startup setting to choose between LHD/RHD.

I imagine cost would be something like 2 power poles, n signals and 2n iron sticks.

Edit: I wonder if you could create a signal that's placed like a train station; that's pretty close graphically already.

There might be useful bits in this mod: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Realistic_Electric_Trains

It does things with signals and power poles.