At this point the original title is inaccurate. There no longer are 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
Have you ever fought to yourself "Man, I really could use over 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, the 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 upgradeable. There also is a set of wall blueprints to protect your rails from natives. On top of that, you can find stations for all train sizes from 2 to 12 cars (including LTN variants), as well as some basic stackers. Everything is spiced up with rich text.
(click to expand)
Features
Rails
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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 its multiples and divisors. Any length will work, those are just suggestions / (to avoid deadlocks there should be space equivalent to, 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
LTN Stations and depots are not visible here
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- Modular design to fit all your needs
- Every station module 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
- Multiple buffer choices
- Depots for both vanilla and LTN
- Train Limit Control Addon blueprints included
- included
- 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/colour-coding tries to resemble that of the logistic system's components
Wall
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 with 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
(90% of every rail network ever made)
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(ends don't have equal number of lanes)
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(ends don't have equal number of lanes)
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(not all turns are possible)
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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)
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- Entry/Exit Diagonal (10bp)
- Entry/Exit Diagonal (10bp)
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Notes
- 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: 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 bot's range, it won't reach its destination and instead, its power reserves will deplete, tan he 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
- There is a lot of Factorio's in-game Rich Text - it's awesome, believe me
- If you don't have the 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 do 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#4023)
Tutorials/Guides
Not for this book specifically, just some general stuff explaining how things work; all you should need to know to use this book is included in blueprint tooltips. If you're still having trouble, you can contact me on discord; Bocian#4023- 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)
Change Log (Last Content Update/Fix: 15:30 UTC 13.07.2022
- Added the missing accumulator to "Diagonal 4-way" from the "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
- 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
- Added more pictures to description
- 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
- 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
- Added missing signals to double-headed stations
- All LTN stations now have appropriate maximum and minimum train length set
- 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
- Fixed "Provider - Loading" from Rails -> Stations -> Vanilla (Red Belt) -> Station Parts (was the same blueprint as for LTN version)
- Added "Provider - Front & Rear" and "Requester - Front & Rear" Stations for all 12 car station books
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- Normalized train stations
- Added train stackers
- Improved some signalling/removed misplaced "yellow state" signals
- 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 a new station over the old one and settings will be updated)
- Fixed snapping on "2:1 Exit U-turned"
- Provider stations now have their chest number set in their arithmetic combinator for balanced loading
- Forgot to use an upgrade planner on red belt station books, fixed
- 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 replacing 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
- Stackers for each train size now have their own books rather than all being shoved together
- 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
- The reason beyond my understanding from the previous update has been understood. It has to do with changes to blueprint alignment settings in Factorio 1.1. Stations too have been affected by it - Fixed
(Compatible with older versions)
- All blueprints containing a 90° turn including the various 90° Turns have been redesigned to actually do so. Exceptions are 1) the entirety of Category B, since it was impossible to do, 2)curved/diagonal blueprints from Category C - impossible or already compatible
- Solar blueprints have been redesigned accordingly
- Overall this update increases the number of blueprints that both 2 Lane and 4 Lane 90° Turns can be upgraded into
- Great thanks to An Entire Sleeve for helping out
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added "Wall" book, containing 7 blueprints designed to protecc your trains from natives
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added "Entry/Exit" books (new category - D) containing most blueprints from category B with severe modifications (they are way better now)
- Added 4:1 4-way Intersections in 4 variants and their diagonal equivalents
- Stackers have grid snapping (again)
- Reworked blueprint naming so your eyes don't bleed anymore
(Compatible with older versions)
- Fixed signalling in category D (some blueprints had signals on the wrong side of the rail)
- deleted blueprints from category D in the 'Solar' book that had the singular lane connected to only one side of the main track
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added grid snapping to non-diagonal blueprints from category D. It actually works and it's amazing. Unfortunately, it's not possible to do this to diagonal blueprints right now
(Stations were completely reworked, but there shouldn't be any compatibility issues as long as you don't fiddle with the ones you already placed)
- Complete rework of the stations, more freedom with their setup, better belt layouts, switched from circuit-based balancing to mechanical on provider stations - thanks to this there is also less fiddling with LTN stations, no need to worry about where each wire is connected and so on. There are fewer blueprints overall and instead of having 2 separate books for red and blue belts, now there is only one with red ones, upgradable with a provided upgrade planners. Largely influenced by Nilaus's tutorials
- Added 4:2 4-way with three ends with 4 lanes and one end with 2 lanes
- Added 10 car and 5 car stackers
- It's a big update so there is more potential for bugs than normal, I'll fix them as I get reports or notice them myself
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added landfill to stackers
(Compatible with older versions)
- Lane split isn't fixed to a specific position on a straight line like it was before giving more freedom with its positioning
- 4:1 4-ways were replaced with a 4:1 4-way that actually is 4-way.
(Compatible with older versions)
- Light on stations have been moved outside to allow for placing additional signals if one so desires
- Chests on vanilla stations have been connected with green wires for wire sorcerers
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added an outline of a 42x42 square of stone bricks to the Tiles book, it's the same size as the grid that all rail blueprints are based on, so it can be used as a placeholder for future rails
- some minor fixes like correcting spelling mistakes, changing blueprint tooltips a bit and so on
(Compatible with older versions)
- Station buffers got a bit of a remake and more have been added
(Compatible with older versions)
- Both 4 Lane Entries from Entry/Exit books had some signals on the wrong side of the rails, fixed
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added more wall blueprints
- Fixed some naming and icon errors
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added more stackers
- Reworked stacker naming and icons
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added stations for 4 car long trains
- Added Maintenance book with a handful of blueprints to keep your walls in good shape
(Compatible with older versions)
- Walls were beautified
- Wall Maintenance requester stations are no more compact
- I LTN depots are now more compact
- Fixed wrong car numeration in LTN Depots
(Compatible with older versions)
- Wall Maintenance stations can now service artillery shells
- Maintenance trains are now longer by 1 car (artillery wagon) which is used to transport said shells
- There are still variants of those stations that do not have such capabilities for those who have yet to unleash the artillery's might (without artillery, the ones that can service it won't work)
- Added a U shaped wall segment (meant for surrounding U-turns
- Some more wall beautification happened, very likely to be the last
(Compatible with older versions)
- Blueprints from Entry/Exit books now have normal signals instead of chain signals at their ends, increased throughput
(Technically compatible but station names changed so you'll have to change the names of your existing stations accordingly or suffer OCD damage for the rest of the run. Alternatively, you can copy your 'Stations' book, and replace the one from this update with it to get the rest)
- Station names changed from coloured text to icons of respective logistic chests resulting in drastically reduced length
- Added 8 car stations
- Added 2 lane buffered 4-way intersections based on "Whirlpool" by Tallinu
- 4:2 4-way (2) has been improved. While It was proven impossible to make it upgradable from 2 lane 4-way, it is now symmetric and doesn't let trains change lanes resulting in higher throughput
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added 8 car stackers
- Removed unnecessary signals from diagonal stackers
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added another 4:2 4-way. This one has two 4L ends opposite of two 2L ends. Both straight and diagonal versions
- Added Power Indicators book. Who knows what's inside?
- Added Safe Rail Crossing blueprints
- With the 1.1 release it is now possible to flip blueprints using F and G. Because of this there is no reason to maintain both Left and Right versions of station buffers and as such, they were removed
- Slightly modified the "L" shaped wall so that it doesn't overlap with diagonal U-turns
(Train stop names in LTN depots have been changed - simple copy-paste will do)
- Added Train Limit Control blueprints for vanilla Provider and Requester stations
- Added vanilla train Depots
- Added 3 more splits to 4:2:1 books
- (fix) Added green wire connecting vanilla requester stations' buffers
- All Station Buffers now have listed their storage capacity for different stack sizes
- Reworked colour-coding/symbolism in Stations book to make it more consistent
- LTN Depots now use Roboport Icon instead of the Depot Signal and are colour-coded grey
- 'Stackers' book now uses purple, and books/blueprints inside it are plain white as blue was reserved for requesters
(Compatible with older versions)
- Slight improvements to signalling in 4:2:1 blueprints
- (fix) 2 Lane Safe Rail Crossing is no longer misaligned
- (fix) Solar Safe Lane Crossing blueprints now are truly solar
(Compatible with older versions)
- Blueprint description changes/updates, more fancy rich text shenanigans
- Added 7, 9 and 11 car stations and stackers coz why not just have everything from 2 to 12 at this point. And let's not forget about the option of deleting blueprints you're never going to use
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added 1, 2 and 3 car balance fluid buffers and modified 4 car ones slightly so that it is possible to transfer information about stored fluid through a green wire. All are based on Nilaus's design.
- (fix) 7 car stacker book now has the right blueprints
(Compatible with older versions)
- (fix) Corrected that some blueprints had the wrong blueprint snapping mode or had it at all when they shouldn't
(Compatible with older versions)
- (fix) Added ONE missing belt to vanilla 1 car requester buffer ;)
(Compatible with older versions)
- Y junctions and splits are now more compact
- Added a cursed diagonal rail signal based power display
- Added a circular rail based power display (large and mini)
- Added ONION
(Compatible with older versions)
- (fix) some spelling in blueprint descriptions
(Compatible with older versions)
- small changes to wiring of 2 car fluid provider and requester buffers resulting in better pump behavior
(Compatible with older versions)
- Lamps on stations were moved to stations buffers instead to avoid collision with fluid buffers
- Improvements to grid snapping settings on station buffers
- (fix) Added missing wires on 'Provider -> 4 car fluid buffer' connecting storage tanks to the power poles
- Some additions/changes to the "Tiles" book, I'm working on something more flexible too
(Compatible with older versions)
- In the "Tiles" book you can now find 4 new books (2 vanilla/2 modded) containing parts that let you construct new tile patterns like the pre-made ones but with custom size and rail spacing
(Compatible with older versions)
- In the previous update, I forgot to include the blueprint string
(Compatible with older versions)
- (fix) 'Non-Solar & solar -> Entry/Exit -> 4 Lane Exit (R)': a rail piece was missing
(Compatible with older versions)
- (fix) better gate behaviour in safe rail crossings, smaller probability of getting stuck inside
(Compatible with older versions)
- (fix) blueprints of gated walls didn't have gates in the dragon's teeth
- minor improvements to some tooltips (mostly aesthetic)
- changed landfill layout under safe rail crossing blueprints a bit
(You may need to change the naming scheme of your stations to be consistent with the new one if you're using a many-to-many train system or something similar, relying on station names. This console command should take care of renaming stations to the new format but only stations: /c local stops = game.surfaces["nauvis"].find_entities_filtered{type="train-stop"} for _, stop in pairs(stops) do stop.backer_name = string.gsub(stop.backer_name, "item=", "img=item/") stop.backer_name = string.gsub(stop.backer_name, "fluid=", "img=fluid/") end
)
- Changed formatting for station names, so that chat messages are less cluttered and all-round more pleasant to look at
- Updated some tooltips
- Some more minor changes
(Compatible with older versions)
- maintenance train schedules updated to the latest station naming scheme
- maintenance requesters will now request a new delivery when any item goes below 20-25% (dependent on the item) of the requested amount (was 50 items below request); you can safely paste over the new blueprints over the old ones
- maintenance requester stations had their request numbers modified to require exactly 20 stacks for full delivery so that a maintenance train can carry 2 whole requesters' worth of supply
- filters in maintenance trains' wagons modified accordingly
- replaced storage chests with passive provider chests in maintenance requesters, don't even ask me it wasn't that way from the outset
- LTN providers now use filter inserters between buffer chests and trains
- Added the Whirlpool 2.0 power indicator featuring my latest achievements in Factorio animation
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added 2 new late-game unloading buffers, efficient, small and cheap
- General improvements to station buffer naming/descriptions
- Removed Station Construction Books - I'm constantly forgetting to bring them up to date with the main station books, and those main books became so customizable by now, that I don't feel like they're needed for anything anymore
- Book names now use bold font for better aesthetics
(Compatible with older versions)
- Fixed a deadlock case in the 'Entry/Exit' blueprints (not entire books, just the blueprints with 'Entry/Exit' in the name have been altered slightly)
(Compatible with older versions)
- Fixed that one of the cornerpieces in 'Gates' book was a duplicate of another one
- Changed some symbols in the 'Wall' book to more accurately represent the shape of the pieces with some more fancy symbols
(Compatible with older versions)
- Added Solar Array book. For now contains 3 designs, in variants with and without radars. Thanks to Omega for the idea and 2 of the designs.
- Fixed instructions for setting up the Train Limit Control for Vanilla Requesters (instructions for arithmetic combinators were switched)
(Compatible with older versions)
- missing rail piece in '4:2 T Junction (Left)' in '4:2:1 rail' (non soal) book fixed
(Compatible with older versions)
- Fixed 1-car fluid buffer being what the 2-car one was supposed to be
- Fixed 2-car buffer being just completely wrong
Before updating to a new version be sure to check logs, as there may be some compatibility issues with older ones
If You have any suggestions, ideas, questions, requests or encounter problems I'm Bocian#4023 on discord. Comment on Factorio Prints will work too, but it may take a long time for me to see it and respond as I don't get any notifications about them
I think it may be the longest blueprint string on Factorio Prints. Scratch that, forgot about songs
- An Entire Sleeve for helping out with testing, many reports and suggestions
- Nilaus for his fluid buffer designs
- MadZuri for his balanced train loading/unloading designs (used in previous versions)
- Hactar for his rail network, I've been using before making this book