What is everyone's preferred train size

[Jap2.0]

What are the largest trains you actually use for automated long term logistics and not just build-fuel-<run on test track>-mine?

Here's where I have to blush, though: automated logistic use? 1-1.

I don't even...

You could only go smaller if you transported the coal in the locomotives fuel slot without any wagons!

Nope. You can't take coal out of locomotives anymore. That was removed in some update or another.

[vanatteveldt]

Meanwhile in real life mining companies use quite ridiculously long trains, no grunting involved

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_trains, e.g. "BHP Billiton used to run iron ore trains of 336 car length, 44,500 tonnes of iron ore, over 3 km long, six to eight locomotives including intermediate remote unit". So for people who like the immersion of using very long trains, the ceiling is pretty high

[Ace_W]

Meanwhile in real life mining companies use quite ridiculously long trains, no grunting involved

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_trains, e.g. "BHP Billiton used to run iron ore trains of 336 car length, 44,500 tonnes of iron ore, over 3 km long, six to eight locomotives including intermediate remote unit". So for people who like the immersion of using very long trains, the ceiling is pretty high

I imagine that the intermediate engine is only there for pneumatic pressure and braking control.

Personally I use <2-4-2> headers. This usually drives me nuts on special use trains like wall delivery's. I'm thinking this game is going to be a return to loop and single head trains. I was using the 2-4-2 style simply out of habit from the old days of weird calculations.

[Hannu]

I imagine that the intermediate engine is only there for pneumatic pressure and braking control.

Locomotives are distributed also to prevent overloading of couplings between wagons.

[Ren]

I almost always use 1-4's, with the occasional 1-2's for smaller loads. This is on a one-way circuit highway. The only thing I give up by using 1-4's vs something like 1-4-1 is some acceleration, but save the headache that longer lengths can cause.

I even use a 1-1 for my automated trash circuit, as there's just no need for anything bigger.

I'm currently running about 50 trains, with only one deadlock issue in almost 80 hours of the map. That issue was due to a design fault. I do suspect, thought, that issues will become more commonplace if I add too many more.

I am contemplating building resource loops outside of my main factory to do noting but transport ore to a depot on the fringes of my factory. If I do this, I'm going to experiment with larger trains.

[Cribbit]

Isn't the max speed achieved with a 1:2 ratio of loco:wagon?

Locos and wagons are cheap so I use 2-4's everywhere.

Double head doesn't scale well and it's super easy to build loops so I loop. I also find it to be easier to keep track of a system where trains can only go one direction on any given piece of track.

[Rylant]

Just curious what size trains everyone uses? Obviously, with bigger trains, they move slower and make signalling and intersections more difficult to control, but they can move massive quantities over long distances. Smaller trains are easier to signal and control, and are much faster.

So, does anybody use different sized trains? I would think that would be more difficult to control and keep signalled properly.

An interesting idea I heard, was somebody had 2 different train networks. One internal, and one which kept on the outskirts. The internal train network used fairly small trains to move everything around the inside of the main portion of the base. Maybe 1-3 or even 1-2 trains. Then, on the outside, trains which traveled great distances to huge patches of ore were like 4-16 trains. They delivered to stations a fair distance to the main base, and then smaller trains delivered them the rest of the way while the big trains went back for another huge load.

Currently I am using 2-6 trains, or 2-4 fluid trains.

Rylant

[Zavian]

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=51807

[Tech02]

Hello Zavian. Mostly I use trains that have 6 storage/fluid units connected to them.
I hope this helps you,
Tech02

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older topic, same subject.

[RocketManChronicles]

Just curious what size trains everyone uses? Obviously, with bigger trains, they move slower and make signalling and intersections more difficult to control, but they can move massive quantities over long distances. Smaller trains are easier to signal and control, and are much faster.

So, does anybody use different sized trains? I would think that would be more difficult to control and keep signalled properly.

An interesting idea I heard, was somebody had 2 different train networks. One internal, and one which kept on the outskirts. The internal train network used fairly small trains to move everything around the inside of the main portion of the base. Maybe 1-3 or even 1-2 trains. Then, on the outside, trains which traveled great distances to huge patches of ore were like 4-16 trains. They delivered to stations a fair distance to the main base, and then smaller trains delivered them the rest of the way while the big trains went back for another huge load.

Currently I am using 2-6 trains, or 2-4 fluid trains.

Rylant

I do something like this. For the main ores (Iron, Copper, Stone, Coal), I use trains that are 2-16-2. They are double ended for terminus stations, but use a two-track route to/from the outposts to the main base. If I go really far out, say over 12,000 tiles, in one direction, I use 4-32-4 train to haul the ore. The ore veins way out here are HUGE. It is a massive amount of ore at once, but the main base can consume it in the time it takes for another one to arrive. The advantage of the long trains is that you don't need many trains along the tracks, so signaling does not become a problem that thirty 1-2 trains can pose. And during the time between these long trains making the journey, I have smaller 1-4-1 trains traverse that span to the outposts to supply them with repair packs, walls, turrets, bots, mining drills, etc to maintain them.

Then in the main base, these large trains dump their ore right into chests that feed furnaces by bots. The main base moves items around by either bots or trains. The in-base trains are 1-4-1 and only move items distances that do not make sense for bots. Some of which is to prepare the outpost supply trains at little depots where items are transferred from one train to the next.

In general, it is good to keep the large trains separate from the small ones on their own rail networks. The only real places where I merge them is on the two-lane tracks to/from outposts, but separate them at each end.