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All 4 stations feed into the same supply line, which needs 24k steam/s unloaded from 1-2 trains (for 2 GW of power). Each "station" unloads at 6k/s and in reality is a twin unloading station (1 train moves up from the stacker while another unloads from one of the twin stations).
Twin stations, so I have a guranteed steady stream of supply, not interrupted by several trains empty at the same time.
4 Twins because each twin provides 6k/s (limited by the fluid system) for a total of 24k/s, unloading a train in roughly 7 seconds, which leaves just enough time for the next train to move from the stacker into the twin. For that to work each twin has its own stacker (4 trains would not be able to move through a single stackers bottleneck in that time). And the 4 twins with their 4 stackers are the reason i need to divide the total number of incoming trains by 4 and also split the remainder.

Setting the train limit of each station (or twin station) to 1 just wont do. I give the trains 30 seconds to get there. If at peak consumption of power, steam falls below a limit, in that time I am down 30 x 24k = 720k. I have a buffer of 1M. But after the 30 secs the unloading has to run smoothly with the trains needed already waiting in the stackers.

disentius wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 4:03 pm Aha, context is king:)

So each station has to have a guaranteed throughput of 3K/s -> 1 train every 16.6 seconds. Correct?

No. Each twin station has to have a continuous tp of 6k/s (2 pipes limited at 3k/s). The trains unload from the two twins of a twin station alternatingly (circuit controlled). (50k steam/train)/(6ksteam/s) = 8.33 s/train .
With 4 pairs of twins I achieve a continuous tp of 24k/s .
Within those 8.33 s 4 trains need to move out of their unloading station and 4 new trains need to move from their parking position to their unloading station.

That is not the same as 8 singles with a tp of 3k/s as I see it. 8 singles could be emtpty at a random point in time, in the worst case all at the same time. Then the continuous tp is stopped until 8 new moved from their waiting slot to the stations.

Hm, ... I think the culprit here, to clarify it, are the limitations introduced by the fluid system. One pipeline, with pumps, u-pipes and corners is limited to a tp of 3k/s. I use tank>pump>tank>pump to increase that to 24k/s. I could unload from 8 singles @6k/s per station, but that would increase the needed tp to 48k/s to fill up the buffer. But that would mean two parallel lines of tank>pump>tank>pump, which I am not willing to do at the moment.

In any case, 4 pairs of twins or 8 singles, I would need to divide the total number of requested trains by the number of stations and also split the remainder.

Where are you aiming at with your questions?

Yes, but that would mean I also could use dedicated trains. Because, what if I just need 250k steam there? That would be 5 trains, not 16. Part of the context is, that all steam supply on the whole map is handled by a lot of 1-2 trains with one name for pickup stations and 1 name for dropoff.

Well, this is not the road I wanted to go in this topic. Talking about the context. And I stop it here. But ... if you want we can discuss train tp challenges in another topic.