Option in inserters to only load locomotives/trains

[Themme]

Hello forum users,

My idea is to add an option at the inserters to only load locomotives. This option should show up in the inserter interface (just like how it opens at the filter inserters) when the inserter is placed in reach of a traintrack.

Why would I see this option?
For example I have 1 smelter station where all lenghts of trains go to from various mines, some have multiple locomotives and some just one due the lenght of the train. If I have an automatic refuel for a train with 4 engines, i have refuelers at the first 4 spots, but if a short train arrives with just 1 engine, the other 3 refuelers put the fuel in the cargo wagon. I would like to see an option to restrict those refuels to only load fuel in locomotives and not in cargo wagons.
Of course, if in the future liquid fuels for the trains will be added, the filters should also apply for the pumps.

I know that you can put filters in the cargo wagon to only accept 1 type of items, but that would mean I have to add these filters to every slot in the cargo wagon of every train, and if a mine is empty that contained coal, and I want to assign that train to an iron deposit, it would mean I have to change the filter again.

I tried looking for this suggestion in the search box, if I missed this idea, please tell me and send me the link to that suggestion.

Thanks, Themme

[Darinth]

Some possible solutions, each with some pitfalls.

1: Don't send trains of different lengths to the same station. Obviously some people are simply going to find this an unacceptale limitation. I never had any issues just making sure trains of the same length went to the same depot, but I understand wanting the flexability of sending multiple train length to the same depot.

2: You can copy configurations. Keep yourself a series of wagons set aside somewhere such that the wagons are each set so all of their slots are filtered. You can then shift-right click to copy the settings from one of those wagons and shift-left click to paste those settings onto your target wagon. Relatively quick way to quickly replace the filters for entire wagons.

3: 0.17 will bring the ability to blueprint trains. I'm pretty sure that this will include (at a minimum) the filtered slots on wagons, and possibly the full train schedules. Should be a quick easy way for you to take down and setup trains as needed.

[Trebor]

If the station could send the number of locomotives and wagons to the circuit network would that help?

[weaknespase]

If you make all trains consist of multiples of identical locomotive-wagon groups, you can solve your problem without any circuitry, just like interleaving MPEG frame types in the stream.

[Themme]

Some possible solutions, each with some pitfalls.

1: Don't send trains of different lengths to the same station. Obviously some people are simply going to find this an unacceptale limitation. I never had any issues just making sure trains of the same length went to the same depot, but I understand wanting the flexability of sending multiple train length to the same depot.

2: You can copy configurations. Keep yourself a series of wagons set aside somewhere such that the wagons are each set so all of their slots are filtered. You can then shift-right click to copy the settings from one of those wagons and shift-left click to paste those settings onto your target wagon. Relatively quick way to quickly replace the filters for entire wagons.

3: 0.17 will bring the ability to blueprint trains. I'm pretty sure that this will include (at a minimum) the filtered slots on wagons, and possibly the full train schedules. Should be a quick easy way for you to take down and setup trains as needed.

I like your way of thinking, to answer your comment #1, yes I would like to have the flexibility for different lengths of trains to go to stations.
The thing is, in both option 2 and option 3 you have a limited filtered train, which then loses the flexibility to have variable cargo slots, which is the pitfall you refer to?

If the station could send the number of locomotives and wagons to the circuit network would that help?

This is indeed a possibility, would be interesting to program this correctly in case you have trains with 2 front engines or when you have trains with 1 front engine and one rear engine. Actually, you can easely solve that by having the reversing engines also at the front... So yes this is a good idea.

[Optera]

I made two mods solving this:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Inventory%20Sensor
returns if the carriage is a locomotive or wagon alongside the inventory

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LogisticTrainNetwork
probably overkill for this feature alone
LTN stops return the composition of parked trains as one binary signal per carriage type where each bit represents the position of that type

[Themme]

I made two mods solving this:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Inventory%20Sensor
returns if the carriage is a locomotive or wagon alongside the inventory

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LogisticTrainNetwork
probably overkill for this feature alone
LTN stops return the composition of parked trains as one binary signal per carriage type where each bit represents the position of that type

Ah, missed this mod, should have searched on sensor instead of filter to find it
As I understand, the inserter reads if there is a train next to it, and puts that signal in a circuit network.
So basically if I want to have that inserter activated when there is a train, I would need to return that signal to the same inserter? I could imagine that an inserter can send a signal, but not send and recieve at once. (ofc I could create a second inserter reading the signal)


Btw, I forgot to mention a diffrent situation I had when I got fuel in the cargo wagons, I once had a train traveling like 5 minutes to a huge iron mine of like 500 million, it went through enemy territory (they somehow did not do anything to the trainrails), and that train regulary hits biters. One time there were so many hits that one of the 8 locomotives broke, sending that cargo wagon to the spot where locomotive nr 8 used to be (At first I did not notice this). It started with rocket fuel being loaded in this cargo wagon and ended up having rocket fuels blocking my smeltery input.

[Darinth]

Some possible solutions, each with some pitfalls.

1: Don't send trains of different lengths to the same station. Obviously some people are simply going to find this an unacceptale limitation. I never had any issues just making sure trains of the same length went to the same depot, but I understand wanting the flexability of sending multiple train length to the same depot.

2: You can copy configurations. Keep yourself a series of wagons set aside somewhere such that the wagons are each set so all of their slots are filtered. You can then shift-right click to copy the settings from one of those wagons and shift-left click to paste those settings onto your target wagon. Relatively quick way to quickly replace the filters for entire wagons.

3: 0.17 will bring the ability to blueprint trains. I'm pretty sure that this will include (at a minimum) the filtered slots on wagons, and possibly the full train schedules. Should be a quick easy way for you to take down and setup trains as needed.

I like your way of thinking, to answer your comment #1, yes I would like to have the flexibility for different lengths of trains to go to stations.
The thing is, in both option 2 and option 3 you have a limited filtered train, which then loses the flexibility to have variable cargo slots, which is the pitfall you refer to?

Yup. Options 2 & 3 lose the option of variable input slots which means you couldn't do something like iron mine->iron ore dropoff->iron plates pickup->iron plates dropoff. I always used option 1. I never found either of it difficult to work around. I was always happy to setup all of my trains with the same lengths for a particular set of stops, but I know people like the flexability.

[Themme]

The thing is, at the end you probably end up having all trians the same length, IF they use all the same track, otherwise you could end up in deadlocks blocking everything because of the equal distance between the signals, but variable lenghts of trains. In case of iron for example, if you dont use production modules in your smelters, having the same train picking up the ore as picking up the plates is a good way to reduce the amount of trains traveling around. And therefore I would like to keep the cargo slots variable.

[Tairon96]

[...]

Btw, I forgot to mention a diffrent situation I had when I got fuel in the cargo wagons, I once had a train traveling like 5 minutes to a huge iron mine of like 500 million, it went through enemy territory (they somehow did not do anything to the trainrails), and that train regulary hits biters. One time there were so many hits that one of the 8 locomotives broke, sending that cargo wagon to the spot where locomotive nr 8 used to be (At first I did not notice this). It started with rocket fuel being loaded in this cargo wagon and ended up having rocket fuels blocking my smeltery input.

Holy cr*p. That's a bummer. I did not know this behaviour of the game. In such a case I would prefer the remaining train would carry the destroyed locomotive all the way until it is replaced or removed by the player. This would be more logical than a destroyed locomotive making*puff* and simply vanishing.