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or does one rely on a timed function the trains run only?
Would be nice if a product is at his minimum a train would go and load some stuff needed from an outpost and bring it over / I know that thats a easy task with robots but for a long distance robots are not an option.

SmartTrains mod might let you set that up.

I just do it by having a normal wagon for supplies on my trains. You can filter the wagon inventory the same way you can filter your quickbar so that the wagon will only hold certain items. Then you can use requester chests or similar to load that wagon.

I´m currently up to a logistic network with trains (using smart trains mod). Unfortunatly it requires an insane amount of combinators and the logic behind it fries my brain So I´ll probably need some weeks/months to get it running

*edit* so to answer your question: There is no easy implementation in the game, but you can go nuts and build it yourself

SyncViews wrote:I just do it by having a normal wagon for supplies on my trains. You can filter the wagon inventory the same way you can filter your quickbar so that the wagon will only hold certain items. Then you can use requester chests or similar to load that wagon.

Two problems are:
How does the requester chest know, which certain item is needed now?
and
how to start a train?
I want to find a solution to have a train at a station waiting until a certain part of the factory has a assembler running low on raw material - then starting off, delivering and coming back for refueling. Just like in real life thought.

Well, i just fill the wagon up with commonly needed components for the outposts (ammo, repair packs, replacement turrets, etc.), then have a roboport at the outpost itself for repair bots. The wagon is the first one on every one of my trains ore/oil trains, so runs all the time.

I also have a construction train with a lot of wagons and basically everything needed to build the outposts (lots of iron/copper/steel plates, circuits, pipes, walls, concrete, rails, etc., supplied by requester chests at its station in the main factory) which ill usually use to travel to the outposts if I intend to do anything significant. Normally just for building new ones through, it is rare I do anything with an existing outpost once initial construction is complete.


I never bothered doing any on-demand transport. The trains consume so little fuel, that if they deliver ore but there is only space to unload say 10% of it, I don't really care, likewise with having the entire wagon to maybe deliver 2 replacement turrets and a few repair packs because the chests at the outpost are already full.

If the game got to the point that running a train needlessly, or the extra weight of the wagon had some meaningful penalty (e.g. trains burned a large amount of oil proportional to the mass being pulled) then maybe...

is there a way to unload a train fast (direct) by bots?

No, but you can have a lot of fast insertions and chests with stack size bonus. It doesn't take long to load/unload an entire wagon of ore, and for the general supply wagons, your generally transferring considerably less.

There is a Mod for this I think. It was called logistic trains or logistic railway or something similar