Factorio Forums

I would love electric trains, I bet it has been suggested before but could not find it in the "not implemented" suggestions... (Correct me if wrong)

I have this idea of how electric rails could look like, which is pretty simple. 2 more rails in the center of the railtracks that holds the current for the electricity

This is just a simple edit. But you get my point...

The electric rails will look similar to that with my idea. Adding the current to those rails removes the need of powerlines above.
To charge the rails, you add a junctionbox to a single part of a system that is connected to a powerline to your powergrid.

Also normal diesel locomotives can stil go on these kind of rails. Electric trains can also be placed on normal rails, but wont simply work. If you got a system where it is both electric and non electric rails, and the electric locomotive tries to move to the non electric rails, it will loose charge.

You should also be able to place those electric rails on to normal rails to easily upgrade like you can with fast and express belts.

Well why use an electric train?
Pros:
Fast acceleration (Electric engines can accelerate really fast if enough power is applied, far faster than usual burner engines)
Faster movement? (Well faster acceleration is a nice enough pros, they can keep the same speed if yes)
Dont use any fuel other than power (You can run it on like solar power if you got that)
Dont pollute (Not sure if the original train does or not while driving)
Can be far stronger (Again, just apply enough current and the train will be strong as a beast, just mind it's power usage)
Produces power when braking (We can say they have a better way of power breaking like electric cars, turning their engines into generators)

Cons:
Uses electricity (While this is a good thing, it can also be a bad thing. They would probably use lots of power, especially when accelerating or running heavy cargo)
They cease to work if power is cut (Blackouts can stop all your trains running on power)
You need to replace all the engines with electric engines when crafting them (Electric engines are more expensive than usual ones)
Might overheat when drawing to much power with to much cargo? (If we decide to add that, so people just cant make it be overpowered strength)

At the very least, I'd like there to be more native support for doing this via modding.

For example:
Currently, track types are single entries on both the track, and train. The first thing I'd change is to change it to an array. Then an example usage would be to list "rail" and "electric-rail" on your electric rail, and only "rail" on your normal rail, with "rail" on your diesel locomotive, "electric-rail" on your electric locomotive and both on your cargo wagons. This should allow all units to travel on electrified railways, and the electric engine only on the electric rail.

On top of that, although you can currently set a locomotive to energy type electric via modding, it doesn't draw from anywhere, having electrified rails would solve this if it worked.

And an additional setting too: Equipment grid. Would be awesome to just dump a fusion reactor in your train, and it then just goes. or solar panels and batteries.

Yeah, I was considering including that in the suggestion as well. But the whole point is that the electric train needs to be powered by rail. They will draw power by how much they accelerate, the power is negative when they break.

Also my rail idea came from Black Mesea, i think some tram systems do it the same way as well...

as for powering electric train without trolleys, you can look for example at german s-bahn. it's generaly wider used solution for powering electic trains without rails, while some like you posted exists also.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... Berlin.JPG

mexmer wrote:as for powering electric train without trolleys, you can look for example at german s-bahn. it's generaly wider used solution for powering electic trains without rails, while some like you posted exists also.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... Berlin.JPG

Aha? I stil the solution I found fits far better into this game tho...

Zefnoly wrote:

mexmer wrote:as for powering electric train without trolleys, you can look for example at german s-bahn. it's generaly wider used solution for powering electic trains without rails, while some like you posted exists also.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... Berlin.JPG

Aha? I stil the solution I found fits far better into this game tho...

while "desgin" wise you are indeed right, technicaly wise your solution is not adopted due insulation requirements for passing crossing and forks
it's possible, just not much practical, if you ever played with electric toy trains, you might know the problem

regardless it's game, so it doesn't matter, and i admit your track looks quite good

I know the insulation problems but yeah it is a game. You see problems regarding that more places... And it would be a nice effective design that fits the game in my mind. But why would your character walk without insulated boots? Can step over the electrified paths as well xD

Seems like all-pro, no cons suggestion.

Would need something to make it balanced, like perhaps requiring transformers at regular intervals that need to be hooked up to power, thus making them vulnerable to biter attacks.

Rakshasa wrote:Seems like all-pro, no cons suggestion.

Would need something to make it balanced, like perhaps requiring transformers at regular intervals that need to be hooked up to power, thus making them vulnerable to biter attacks.

what's exactly your point?

there is no con using diesel locomotive (well except if it splats bitter on rails), this will be the same. what's your reasoning to adding such thing?

also "transformer" will not produce pollution, so it will not attract bitters. unless you made it to be intentionaly producing it - which kinda does not make sense.

mexmer wrote:it's possible, just not much practical, if you ever played with electric toy trains, you might know the problem

regardless it's game, so it doesn't matter, and i admit your track looks quite good

Yes, if you build something like a turning loop, the "left" rail connects to the "right" rail and so short-circuits the power network. A viable alternative is to have a central rail (say for + or AC live) and use both the standard rails for ground. So the rail tiles shown above could be modified to add one central rail instead of the two middle rails.

That said, the only real point I could see in electric trains is that you wouldn't have to worry about refuelling them. Oh, and you could possibly do away with engines entirely by using powered bogies, but I don't see much point in allowing this...

mexmer wrote:what's exactly your point?

there is no con using diesel locomotive (well except if it splats bitter on rails), this will be the same. what's your reasoning to adding such thing?

also "transformer" will not produce pollution, so it will not attract bitters. unless you made it to be intentionaly producing it - which kinda does not make sense.

A diesel locomotive has cons; limited fuel capacity and pollution.

When an something is a pure upgrade where it just gets rid of negative aspects and adds positives it generally makes for bad gameplay.

If there's no reason to ever use diesel locomotives when you gain access to electric then that removes potential gameplay choices the player could enjoy.

Rakshasa wrote:

mexmer wrote:what's exactly your point?

there is no con using diesel locomotive (well except if it splats bitter on rails), this will be the same. what's your reasoning to adding such thing?

also "transformer" will not produce pollution, so it will not attract bitters. unless you made it to be intentionaly producing it - which kinda does not make sense.

A diesel locomotive has cons; limited fuel capacity and pollution.

When an something is a pure upgrade where it just gets rid of negative aspects and adds positives it generally makes for bad gameplay.

If there's no reason to ever use diesel locomotives when you gain access to electric then that removes potential gameplay choices the player could enjoy.

diesel locomotive does use fuel, same electric will use electricity.

and no, diesel locomotive does not produce pollution (and even if it does, it's not enough to be shown on map or attract bitters). so why should electric one? also it will not be upgrade then, will it?

while i can agree with adding transformers after certain length (you have added build complexity, since you don't need to build fueling anymore), artificially adding pollution does not serve any purpose and people will rather not use such tech, since they will be required to build defenses for transformers.

as for "if there is no reason" - well, considering you will need to replace all tracks with new one, to be able to use electric trains on them? why would you do that? you still will be using both.

I have a idea with the supercapacitors in electric trains. They would allow to charge up on the train stops very quickly and run up on the gathered power.

There are such resulutions for the trams and trolleybuses. Here are some images of the very fast charging stations on the stops: