I'll get right to the meat.
Let's start off with new Cargo Wagons.
Type 1: Tanker
The tanker is filled via the "small pump" object. It can contain any liquid, from water up to and including all substances from the petrochemical industry.
It would be an alternative to oil barrels, which is not quite the intention however. I want to use it for transport of sub-products, like sulfuric acid for example. Perhaps I want to ship lubricant.
Or I want to use my light fuel in a different place (near furnaces) than my petroleum (near industry). Would be really handy and fun to use!
Type 2: Split Cargo Wagon (for lack of a better name
)The "Split Cargo Wagon" is as large as regular cargo wagon, but it's lower part is a separate "chest" than it's rear part. This, enabling it to be filled with a wider variety of goods on smaller space, especially if those goods are only needed in small quantities. Probably only able to be loaded by 1 inserter reliably, could be increased to 2 if at all possible. Nice brute-force approach to load multiple item types on limited space requirements.
Type 3: Smart Cargo Wagon
The "Smart Cargo Wagon", when filled by Smart Inserters, acts as though it was cabled by red/green wires. Thus, it is customizable like a smart chest would be. You can set your inserters to load a specific amount of goods, possibly up to 6 different types per wagon in limited, but precise, quantities. Could possibly be used to avoid "waste", too.
Type 4: Great Cargo Wagon
Just like a the regular cargo wagon, but can hold more goods.
Could be very useful for very long travel, where 100 seconds load/unload time as negligable compared to the travel time.
Type 5: Logistic Cargo Wagon
As soon as on a stop sign, will act as a Provider Chest. Thus enabling logistics bots to unload the train. Could be bad for very extensive logistic networks, but might be very useful on smaller networks. Long stops recommended!
Next, I'd propose to add a new Rails Type:
The Electric Rail Network:
Basically, they are rails with a power line dangling above them. They are obviously more costly to craft, as the rails now require copper, too.
They can be placed on top of the old rail network to modernize it (like you do with assembly machines or belts).
The Electric Rail Network serves a dual purpose:
First, it is a power link. Just like power poles, it leads electricity along. It does however not have a larger power field than the size of the rails, so to use the power you'd still have to place poles nearby.
Makes it easy and straightforward to extend power to outposts, without promoting gimmicky "turrets everywhere along the train tracks" situations, at least not without power poles to connect them to the rail power network^^
Second, it allows the "Electric Locomotive" to travel on it. More on that below.
Lastly, I'd like to suggest new Locomotives:
Type 1: Fast Locomotive
Just as the normal locomotive, but has a higher top speed at the cost of higher fuel consumption. Useful for long travel without intermediary stops.
Type 2: Electric Locomotive
As hinted above, the Electric Locomotive can only travel on Electric Rail Tracks, thus making it a more late-game option.
It's advantages are that it doesn't require fuel to operate, but uses the electric network instead (negligable, actually) but more importantly, since there is no more need to create heat in order to get going, it's acceleration is faster, thus reaching the max speed long before a regular locomotive. This makes it exceptionally useful for highly congested rail traffic, with lots of stops at stations and stop lights. Should overall give a nice speed boost compared to the regular locomotive, depending on the railroad design. (opposite from Fast Locomotive, really).
That's pretty much all of it. Any thoughts?
Thanks for reading,
Molay
Not to say I wouldn't want some with bigger cargo, but this will surely do for now!
