Train Expansion

[CapnPipsqueak]

I have a few ideas for new train objects and rolling stock.
Inspired by Klonan's KS Power mods and James O'Farrell and Choumiko's Rail Tanker.

All of these items would require the Railway technology, as well as other prerequisites, which would only require Logistics I and Steel. Automated Rail Transportation would require Logistics II. Signals requires Optics. Because who the heck is able to make signal lights without inventing lights first? Seriously...

New Engines:

Steam Locomotive
Built using steel, a Steam Engine and a Boiler. Intended for use closer to the base, as it only has one slot for fuel and eats up water (or oil, if you have that much just lying around... YOU MONSTER) faster than a Steam Engine. Produces pollution according to the fuel it's using. (high for wood, medium for coal, low for solid fuel)

Tender
Significantly increases the range of Steam Locomotives by providing it with fuel and water. When a Steam Locomotive is connected, it will pull fuel and liquid from the connected Tender(s). Requires Automated Rail Transportation.

Articulated Steam Locomotive
Relive the waning years of the Steam Era with this fuel-guzzling, pollution-spewing, high power, Big Boy look-alike. Requires Productivity Module I.

Diesel Locomotive
Runs entirely on Light Oil or a new Diesel Fuel. Faster acceleration than Steam locomotives. Requires Oil Processing and Engines.
Diesel fuel would provide more power than Light Oil.

Diesel Booster
An add-on to the Diesel Locomotive that doubles it's power for increased fuel consumption. Stick these on a long, heavy train to make it go fastah! Requires Speed Module I.
Boosters are cheaper to make than Locomotives and don't require their own fuel supply, but cannot power a train by themselves.

Gas Turbine Locomotive
A Diesel Locomotive that uses only Petroleum Gas. Produces less pollution and accelerates faster. Requires Advanced Oil Processing.

Electric Locomotive
An engine that runs entirely on electricity, provided either by catenary or third rail. Requires Electric Engines and Electric Energy Distribution I.
Has a very small internal battery that is instantly recharged.

Electric Booster
Same effect as the Diesel Booster. Requires Speed Module II.


New Rolling Stock:

Ore Hopper Wagon
Can only transport ore, but provides 40 slots. (2K ore instead of 1.5K)

Passenger Wagon
Has one-third the cargo space of Cargo Wagons, but can transport ten players. Logistics II.

Defense Wagon
A gun turret on a flatbed. For when you need to run a train through a biter nest NOT BECAUSE YOU SHOULD, BUT BECAUSE YOU CAN!
Requires Turrets, obviously. Has a small ammo magazine.
Could also come in a Cannon version and a Laser Turret version, see below.

Generator Wagon
Reduces the speed of Steam and Diesel Locomotives to produce electric energy.

Accumulator Wagon
Carries no cargo, but carries an energy reserve to allow Electric Locomotives and Laser Defense Wagons to operate without a constant power supply. Requires Electric Energy Accumulation I.

Container Wagon
A flatbed with a shipping container on it. Provides one third more storage than a Cargo Wagon. Intended to be used with the Container Gantry, but will work with inserters.

Brake Van
Carries a small amount of cargo, but it's main purpose is to reduce collision damage and look cool.[/i]

BiterCatcher TM Energy Projector
Uses electricity to cause the train to push players out of the way without killing them, and murder rocks, trees and enemies within a small range. Requires Energy Shield Equipment.
Creates a big, glowy, purple energy plow on the front of the train.


New Infrastructure:

Hopper Unloading Trench
A railway segment as long as the Hopper Wagon. Automatically unloads ore from hopper wagons and outputs it onto adjacent transport belts similar to a drill. Holds a small internal buffer. Requires Logistics II.
Produces pollution as it unloads due to all the dust flying everywhere and also to balance it against inserters.

Hopper Loading Scaffold
Same thing as the Trench, but in reverse. A building that holds hoppers full of ore than dump into the train below. Built alongside the railway. Requires Logistics II.
Similarly to the Trench, produces pollution as it loads. Unlike the Trench, requires inserters to load into it.

Water Tower
A wooden water tower that slowly accumulated water with no requirement for electricity or a pump. (Rainwater, yo!) Automatically refills Steam locomotives and Tenders. Built alongside the railway.
Use to keep your Steam locomotives going in places with no convenient water puddles lakes.

Container Gantry
A big gantry for loading and unloading cargo containers on trains. Moves the entire inventory of the container at once. Requires Logistics III and Inserter Item Stack Size Bonus IV.

Rail Viaduct
A set of raised rail pieces for running rail lines over the top of other rail lines, belts, storage chests and, walkways. Interferes with large buildings and power lines. (if possible)
Comes in Stone Brick and Steel.

Third Rail
Rail segments with an inbuilt third rail. charges any Electric Locomotive or Accumulator wagon that runs on them.

Caternary Wires
Power lines built alongside rail segments. Built on the opposite side to Stops and Signals, to make things convenient. Provides a small power footprint and can connect to regular wires, but can be attacked just like regular power poles.

[Factorio2016]

Oh dreams, dreams, dreams.
The idea is not bad. But, a lot of things.
Over time, a bit will appear.

[SantaFe675]

Dude, I really like this idea. It kinda ties in with my mod idea. Maybe we could try to combine the two and someone would consider making it?

[IkaikaKekai]

Some nice ideas, a couple I'd like to tack on.

Hopper Loading/unloading: Rather than something along the side, it would sit on the tracks (or replace the tracks) in about a 4x8 area, and each would hold 40 stacks of ore/coal. An optional thing to add on to your idea about pollution would be to have an optional water connection to reduce (not eliminate) pollution from loading/unloading (some real railways do this along with covering loads).

Oil wagon/car: Like the hopper this would be purely dedicated to handling fluids (not just oil). I'm aware there already is a mod that adds tankers, so maybe permission could be obtained from that author to add his mod to a 'pack' of train mods. I haven't used that mod (yet) but would think the tanker would hold 7,500 units of liquid, that would be the same as if you used oil barrels in the current cargo wagon, but with the added benefit of not needing a barreling/unbarreling set up and being able to transport liquids other than oil (like say water from a coastal/lake area to an inland/desert area).

Liquid loading and unloading: In the aforementioned tanker mod, the modder just used electric pumps to fill/unload his tanker. That seams kind of a cop out to me (even if it works), so my add on would be to have a long platform that snaps next to the track, say 2x6 spaces. Like the hopper unloaders, they would hold one car's worth of liquid (7,500), but they would have 2 'entry' and 'exit' points each (one on each end) so that you don't need two different models for loading and unloading, you just have a 'loader' using the one (or both) of the two 'entry' pipes, and the 'unloader' using the exit pipes.

Defenses: I would handle the idea for weapons wagons differently, more in line with how power armor is set up (even using most of the same items, with turrets added in) IE modular with limited space to add in objects. IE you could just add 4 gun turrets, or 2 laser turrets, a fusion generator, and a shield. Military cars would synch up as well, so you could have an 'armored' train, IE the first car would be lasers, the second card would be a fusion generator, shield, and batteries, the third would be more laser turrets, shield would provide protection to the entire train (the longer the train the less health the shield has to work with, IE a 8 car train would have half the shielding as a 4 car train), the generators and batteries would provide power to defenses (not the train in the case of the electric loco) and turrets provide the pew pew. Adding cannons, rocket launchers and the like would be an idea too (maybe even a large cannon that takes up the entire car, ala the old railway guns)

[Galacticruler]

Just pointing out that a few of these have already been done. check out 5Dim's mods, the Rail Tanker, and a few others,

[Hyratel]

yeah but to get 5Dim train stuff you need the core and it has Stuff I don't want. Core mods should only be a library, IMHO, not a featureset (5Dim's is both poorly documented, and poorly illustrated, but as best I can tell the Core adds increased stack sizes, among other things that I don't want to fool with)