10 Books Full of Rails

Image

Description

At this point the original title is inaccurate. There no longer is just 10 books... but over 50. And that's only the endpoints of the book tree. Keeping for historical reasons and my satisfaction every time I see how this book grew

Short summary:

Have you ever fought to yourself "Man, I really could use over a 100 different rail blueprints... Oh! And make it double by putting some solar panels here and there"? If not - worry not for I did. And then I found a week to bring it to life. Basically, it's a "Modular Rail System" with "Absolute Reference Point" enabled for "Chunk Aligned Network" like benefits, several intersections that most people will probably never find a use for, but they're still here just in case. Each intersection has one duplicate with solar panels and accumulators taking up the free space between the lanes. If you wonder - no, those are not all possible intersections for their size. Speaking of size, train length that will have the best time on those rails is 6 but nothing stops you from using other lengths. 2, 3 & 12 are just behind. Everything is kept highly upgradable. There also is a set of wall blueprints to protect your rails from natives. On top of that, you can find stations for aforementioned train sizes (includes LTN variants) and a kit to make new ones, as well as some basic stackers. Everything is spiced up with rich text.

Details:

^{(click to expand)}

Features

Rails

All of them in non-solar variants | see Rail Book Categories for close ups
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All blueprints are always upgradable into their equivalents from other books placed lower on the list in the "Rail Book Categories" section as long as they are in the same category
many blueprints are upgradable into others from the same book or even other categories
- some of that upgradability was sacrificed for the sake of throughput (extreme edge cases)
to achieve that, some blueprints don't have the best possible signal placement, but it's still perfect signalling (no 2 crosses of rail are in the same block)
Each book comes in 2 variants:
standard (no &)
& included because why would you want to waste so much space (aesthetics first though)
- there are some paths left between solar panels so you can get run over by a train again
- not a perfect ratio, I'm not a masochist and it "probably" would be impossible anyway
Rail Spacing: - - - - - - -
Optimized for 6 / long trains, but works well with it's multiples and divisors. Any length will work, those are just suggestions / (to avoid deadlocks there should be space equivalent or larger to the length of your longest train between intersections.)
& + included
Modular
Right-Hand Drive
Each section is 21x21 or 42x42 tiles big (books are focused on throughput for 6 / trains and that is exactly the border length of the square in which all blueprints here fit, hence they are not chunk aligned)
Grid snapping is on, so you can use them like a "chunk aligned network" (blueprints can only be placed on an artificial grid that lets you start building from 2 completely disconnected points on the map and ensures that they can still be perfectly connected, see FFF #357 under the "Snapping" section)
Every blueprint has underlay to allow placing on water (Shift+LMB to place landfill, and LMB to place blueprint, you can also just double-click Shift+LMB)
Pretty connections

Stations

Vanilla stations and Buffers
LTN Stations and depots are not visible here
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Every station comes in 2 variants:
- Vanilla
- Logistic Train Network mod compatible
Some basic train stackers of lengths 2-12 - nothing special, but still nice to have
Includes a book with some smaller parts for creating custom stations
Mechanically balanced loading and unloading
Depots for both vanilla and LTN
Train Limit Control blueprints included
included
and versions (upgradable)
Every blueprint has underlay to allow placing on water (Shift+LMB to place landfill, and LMB to place blueprint, you can also just double-click Shift+LMB)
Naming/symbolism/color-coding tries to resemble that of logistic system's components

Wall

Wall Yoga
Everything on this picture was placed from blueprints
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Every wall blueprint has grid snapping for the same grid as rails
- There is no overlap with rails, so you never have to manually correct anything
- They connect nicely to each other
There are gates too, but no diagonal ones as there is no logic in the game itself that would allow for placing gates on diagonal rails
No underlay - who needs walls on water?
There is a book called "Maintenance" where you can find:
- Stations suited for maintaining your walls in good shape
- Trains with set schedules to make use of those stations
- A blueprint of a roboport with a buffer chest to supply your walls no matter how far from the station they span
- Another book, with the same blueprints except for the fact that they care about artillery. It is meant to be used before you research artillery, and stations that can service artillery wagons won't work without it.

Rail Book Categories

Category A - Basic Blueprints

(90% of every rail network ever made)

2 (16bp)
2 (16bp)

2 Lane Solar | Row 1: Vertical/Horizontal ends | Row 2: Vertical/Horizontal/Diagonal ends | Row 3: Diagonal ends
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4 (18bp)
4 (18bp)

4 Lane | Row 1: Vertical/Horizontal ends | Row 2: Vertical/Horizontal/Diagonal ends | Row 3: Diagonal ends
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Category B1 - Lane Mergers/Splitters

(ends don't have equal number of lanes)

4:2:1 (16bp)
4:2:1 (16bp)

4:2:1 Lan | No Particular Order
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Category B2 - Lane Mergers/Splitters (Diagonal)

(ends don't have equal number of lanes)

4:2:1 Diagonal (16bp)
4:2:1 Diagonal (16bp)

4:2:1 Lane Diagonal | No Particular Order
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Category C - Split Junctions

(not all turns are possible)

2 & 4 Split (23bp)
2 & 4 Split (23bp)

2 & 4 Lane Split Junctions | Row 1: Vertical/Horizontal ends | Row 2: Vertical/Horizontal/Diagonal ends | Row 3: Diagonal ends
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Category D - Station Entrances/Exits

Slap one of these anywhere on your straight piece and you're good to go, you can even have multiple of them if you want

Entry/Exit (10bp)
Entry/Exit (10bp)

Station Entrance/Exit | Row 1: 2 Lanes | Row 2: 4 Lanes
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Entry/Exit Diagonal (10bp)
Entry/Exit Diagonal (10bp)

Station Entrance/Exit | Row 1: 2 Lanes | Row 2: 4 Lanes
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*Categories do not represent book nesting

Notes

Rails:

Most of your network will consist of blueprints from Category A, Category B will find some use for sure, but these books are more specialized, and Category C will be used very rarely if at all
Outer lanes in 4-way Intersections from 4 Lane books (category A) do not have left turns. Use Line changers provided
Some chain signals may seem unnecessary. Their sole purpose is to divide larger blocks inside a junction into two smaller ones so the train leaves the first one faster thus allowing other trains that would also cross through that block to start accelerating faster
Category B has some split junctions. The main difference between B and C is that category C blueprints all have the same number of lanes. Blueprints from category B don't
Remember to leave enough space between each section with lanes crossing each other to fit the longest train that is going to use that part of your network. Otherwise, when it stops on the next signal, it WILL block trains on other lanes. That is true for any train network, not only one built with my blueprints
No between rails so you don't accidentally recreate Population transfers in the Soviet Union, except bots. The real reason: 1. bots have a limited supply of power. 2. When it depletes, they go to recharge at the nearest roboport. 3. They go straight to their destination without considering their power reserves. That means that if you have a "C" shaped logistic network (that often forms with rails), where the distance in a straight line between both ends of this "C" is 2x greater than your robot's range, it won't reach its destination and instead, its power reserves will deplete, the bot will come back to where it started to recharge and try again thus falling into an endless loop
look cool
I've included the floor tiles I've created to help me make these blueprints so you can use them yourself, take inspiration or whatever else you'd like. They require Dectorio mod to work, (there is a vanilla version too, but it's not as pretty). They are made for 6 car trains, so if you're going for a different size inspiration is where it ends unless you can rescale them

Other:

There is a lot of Factorio's in-game Rich Text - it's awesome, believe me
If you don't have aforementioned mods (LTN, Dectorio) You'll get some error messages in the chat when importing this book. It only means that you won't be able to use blueprints that require those mods. All of them have vanilla friendly equivalents. You don't need those mods to make use of my blueprints
I'm no master of LTN nor I consider myself to be any close to one, so the logic is one of the simplest you can do. If you'd like to make something more sophisticated that would be compatible with my blueprints, go ahead, but post it as your own. Let me know, and I'll link it here

Known Issues

- Presumably one of the mods I'm using causes some entities to disappear seemingly at random from blueprints during their editing. Because of just how random it is I can't pinpoint which mod is causing that and therefore you may encounter some blueprints that just lack a single piece of rail or an inserter. Please report it if you do.

If you encounter something, I can't guarantee a quick response if you comment here, but I'm always hanging out on factorio discord, so you can catch me there (@Bocian)

Tutorials/Guides

Rail Network/Signalling

Train Signals | Factorio
A Guide to Signals - Factorio 0.16 train tutorial #3
Tutorial:Train signals on Factorio Wiki
Getting Started with TRAINS & SIGNALS - Everything You Need To Know | Factorio Tutorial/Guide/How-to
Stations, Junctions, and all things deadlock - IMAGE HEAVY
Factorio Train Automation
Train Limits in 1.1 and how to Upgrade Many-to-Many Train Networks | Factorio Tutorial/Guide/How-to
And the famous 1.5 hour long video on absolute basics: Factorio Train Tutorial - Absolute Basics There are also in-game tutorials (button under the minimap)

Logistic Train Network

Change Log (Last Content Update/Fix: 17:30 UTC 09.03.2021

18:00 UTC 22.08.2020

Added the missing accumulator to "Diagonal 4-way" from "4 Lane Solar" book
All non-diagonal blueprints now have grid settings to enable placing by dragging. They're placed next to the previous one but only on the horizontal or vertical axis, not on diagonals. If support for that releases I'll update them too.
New title

19:00 UTC 23.08 2020

Landfill added under every blueprint to allow placing on water
For some stupid reason, I've renamed all 45° turn blueprints to 135° previously, now it's the right way again
Improved upgradability in and between Category A (Solar) books

20:00 UTC 25.08.2020

Added more pictures to description

13:30 UTC 23.08.2020

Added Absolute Reference Point setting to every blueprint
Changed Non-Solar Books' color-coding from yellow to dark orange for better visibility on tooltips
Fixed "4:2 T Junction Right" from "4:2:1 Lane" and "4:2:1 Lane Solar" books (one exit was 1 piece of rail too long)
Added missing lamps to "4:2 T Junction Left" from "4:2:1 Lane" book

22:30 UTC 25.08.2020

Added stations for < C || < C > || < CC || < CCCC > || << CCCC || < CCCC <> CCCC > || << CCC <> CCC > trains and their simple LTN equivalents
Added blueprints for creating stations from smaller components both for vanilla and LTN

12:00 UTC 26.08.2020

Added missing signals to double-headed stations
All LTN stations now have appropriate maximum and minimum train length set

15:30 UTC 26.08.2020

Slightly redesigned all <CC stations and all but <<CCC<>CCC>> provider stations in order to make all stations red belt compatible
Added Red Belt stations (upgradable to blue belt)
Removed the unnecessary middle power pole from all "Straight T Junction" (Category A) blueprints

16:00 UTC 26.08.2020

Fixed "Provider - Loading" from Rails -> Stations -> Vanilla (Red Belt) -> Station Parts (was the same blueprint as for LTN version)

17:00 UTC 26.0.8.2020

Added "Provider - Front & Rear" and "Requester - Front & Rear" Stations for all 12 car station books

01:00 UTC 27.08.2020

Redesigned all stations to make them smaller and simplify the balanced loading/unloading using MadZuri's design
Added "Provider Front & Rear" and "Requester Front & Rear" to all 12 car stations
Added more blueprints to "Stations Parts" books

15:30 UTC 27.08.2020

Added "Straight Lane Switch U-turn" and "Diagonal Lane Switch U-turn" to all 4 Lane Category A Books
Reworked signalling in "Straight U-turn" and "Diagonal U-turn" in all 4 Lane Category A Books in order to make them upgradable to the above. Also Diagonal U)-turn" looks like a square now.
Fixed modularity of rail blueprints with diagonal exits (previously solar panels would overlap)

16:30 UTC 28.08.2020

Changed some blueprints in "Station Parts" books and added new ones
Added "Instructions" book. Inside you can find instructions on setting up MadZuri's Balanced Train Loading and my LTN Stations
Fixed wiring in Provider stations
Simplified LTN Station Logic "Provide Threshold" and "Request Threshold" replaced with "Provide Stack Threshold" and "Request Stack Threshold"
Added train stations for 2L-10C Single-headed trains

17:30 UTC 28.0.2020

Normalized train stations
Added train stackers
Improved some signalling/removed misplaced "yellow state" signals

21:30 UTC 29.08.2020

Provider stations finally work as they should be I swear (all it took was changing "Anything" to "Everything" in inserter settings so you can just put new station over the old one and settings ill be updated)

12:30 UTC 31.08.2020

Fixed snapping on "2:1 Exit U-turned"

10:00 UTC 26.09.2020

Provider stations now have their chest number set in their arithmetic combinator for balanced loading

12:30 UTC 06.10.2020

Forgot to use an upgrade planner on red belt station books, fixed

18:00 UTC 05.12.2020

Moved signals from exits of rail blueprints to their entrances as suggested by Josch. Helps blueprints connect better by mitigating some conflicts (if you're planning to use this update on a save where you already have used older versions, you should place a signal in the middle of a big rail block that forms where old rails connect with new. That's not a perfect solution, but anything better would require to replace signalling on all old rails)
Improved signalling on all "u-turned" blueprints from 4:2:1 books
Changed "Diagonal U-turn" from 4 Lane books so it is upgradable to "Diagonal Lane Switch U-turn" as originally intended
If you're playing on 1.1, Factorio saves cable connections in blueprints now, you know what that means

15:30 UTC 8.12.2020

Stackers for each train size now have their own books rather than all being shoved together

20:00 UTC 10.12.2020

I've missed all of 4:2:1 Solar book, when aligning blueprint grid after update from 06.10.2020 - Fixed
After previous update, stackers had align to grid checked with some ridiculous values for some reason beyond my understanding- Fixed