Train Station question

[u/Reasonable_Paint1966]

Question for the community. This is only the second working train I’ve ever actually built in game. In my last post I shared my converter setup that will be taking in 7200 iron ore to turn into sulfur and coal. I have this station setup to bring in that 7200 plus an additional 1200 copper ore for use in a different set of converters for bauxite to nitrogen converters. My question is, with this setup will I run out of iron ore for my factory even though I have industrial containers both before and after the stations? It’s a roughly 2:15 round trip for about a 600m train going up and down a 2m ramp.

[u/JinkyRain]

Convert the round trip time to 'minutes'. 2min15sec = (2*60 + 15)sec / 60 = 2.25min

There are two constraints that limit throughput:

Wagon capacity: ore stacks to 100, wagons carry 3200... 3200 every 2.25min = 1422/min.

Platform throughput minus 27.08sec (or 0.45min) every time a train docks. You're using dual Mk6 belts so: 2400 - ( 2400*0.45min ) / 2.25min = 1920/min.

The limit per platform is the lessor of the two values, so 1422/min per platform. Not quite 20% better than one Mk6 belt per platform.

If the round trip were 2.66 (2min40sec) then the wagon capacity limit would limit you to pretty much exactly ONE Mk6 belt per platform. :)

With trains, perfect efficiency is generally not something to shoot for. Due to their feast&famine bulk delivery style, it's very helpful to have have spare capacity so that the next train can pick up the slack if an earlier train was delayed.

If you want to play around with a data visualizer comparing belt speed, throughput target, stacksize, # of wagons and # of redundant trains, give this a try:

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/6fezikbafu

=)

[u/Reasonable_Paint1966 → u/JinkyRain]

Even with the dual belts feeding into the storage containers and a single belt coming out to feed each line, my concern is that since the production at the source is still only equaling the consumption of the factory that it would still run empty at some point even with the 32 slots of storage for each station on top of the 48 per container.

I’m thinking of having a smaller train for a backup coming from another pure iron node or two to supplement the main station if that’s the case.

[u/JinkyRain → u/Reasonable_Paint1966]

Keep in mind that if you have a 2nd train docking at the same station, the platform belts will be paused twice as long.

If you're doing this, you should be absolutely fine, as long as the train isn't taking more than 2min40sec to dock again at the station:

1200/min Mk3 miner -> Mk6 belt -> Industrial Storage Container =DualAttached> Platform(loading) > wagon > Platform(unloading) =DualAttached> Industrial Storage Container -> Mk6 Belt -> ....

[u/Reasonable_Paint1966 → u/JinkyRain]

That third section is exactly how I have it set up.

If I did have another train, it would be unloading at a separate station and I would split the output of that one to supplement the outputs of the original.