Chapter 16 ‐ Cars and Trains

Previous page: "Chapter 15 - Electricity part 2 - Larger electric poles, solar power, and accumulators"

Burner vehicles in general

In Factorio you can build and ride a variety of vehicles including cars and trains. They are powered by burner fuels, like coal, which are consumed while the vehicles are accelerating, but not when idle. More processed fuels offer bonuses to the acceleration and top speed of burner vehicles.

Vehicles can carry items in their cargo slots and their fuel slots. Trying to pick up a vehicle will empty out its slots first, and then the vehicle itself, but any partially burned fuel item will be lost.

Most vehicles are managed and driven using the following controls:

• Place down the vehicle with "LEFT BRACKET" and insert fuel into it, using the cursor shortcut of taking the fuel item stack into your hand and inserting it into the selected vehicle with "CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET".
• Enter or exit the vehicle using the "ENTER" key.
• When driving, accelerate forward or brake in reverse using the "W" key, and accelerate in reverse or brake when going forward using the "S" key.
• When driving, steer to the left and right using the "A" and "D" keys.
• Check the vehicle's current heading, speed, and co-ordinates by pressing "K".
• Check extra info about the vehicle using "Y".
• Check the health and fuel status of the vehicle by pressing "RIGHT BRACKET".

Cars

A car is a burner vehicle can be driven on walkable surfaces. It can go much faster than the engineer can run, but it can be difficult to steer and is very easy to crash because of all the obstacles across the world. It is driven with "W" and "S" for forward and backward acceleration and braking. "A" and "D" are used to steer.

The car has a machine gun on its roof that fires faster and farther compared to a handheld submachine gun. You can add ammo to the car the same way you add fuel. The car's trunk has 80 inventory slots of storage and inserters can interact with a car as with a chest. The car can also be moved around on top of transport belts.

Colliding with objects is a common concern when driving cars, whether accidental or intentional. Both the car and the object it collided with may take damage. The damage is dependent on the speed of the car and the health of the target; small biters and trees can be safely rammed but colliding with big biters can easily destroy the vehicle and its contents. If the car is destroyed, its inventory is destroyed with it, but the player gets ejected without harm.

Pavement driving assistant and cruise control

These driving features are unique to cars and tanks. Press "L" to toggle the driving assitant and press "O" to toggle cruise control.

The pavement driving assistant makes the vehicle turn by itself to follow along a paved road made out of bricks or concrete. The road needs a minimum thickness of about 5 tiles, and it needs to have short diagonal segments to soften 90 any degree turns. When the car goes off a road, it stops and plays three alert beeps.

Cruise control makes the car accelerate and brake by itself to maintain a specific speed. It makes driving significantly more predictable. A minimum speed of about 22 is needed for driving assistance to work and this is recommended for when you are getting used to driving. You can specify a new speed by pressing "CONTROL + O".

Object ahead alerts

When driving a car or tank, moving towards an object creates regular alert beeps. If the beeps are faster it means that the object is closer. You can press "J" to determine which object beeped last, if you are still facing it or reversing towards it.

This feature exists for trains as well and it only beeps for objects on top of rails that do not belong to the same train. If there is an object straight ahead on top of rail that is disconnected with your own rail, there may still be beeping despite no collision risk.

Trains Introduction: What can you do with railways and trains?

Trains in Factorio are used for transporting passengers, items, and fluids. For example, one of the most popular use for trains is transporting oil from distant wells over to your oil processing area. Similarly, you can transport ore from distant mines, or carry intermediate products from one part of a large factory to another part. Nevertheless, using trains is completely optional, because you can use transport belts and pipelines instead. However, trains offer some advantages that are discussed below.

Trains can also be used in combat to some extent, because they do a lot of impact damage and they can carry some advanced heavy weapons.

Comparing trains and transport belts

Both transport options are feasible at long distances but rails offer more advantages when distances get longer.

When compared to transport belts, rails have the disadvantages of being wider, requiring extra space when building turns, and costing steel instead of iron. Furthermore, while transport belts can avoid many obstacles by going underground, rails do not have such an option and so they are not as flexible when building. As for the advantages of rails, trains on them can go in two directions instead of one, and they can carry much larger varieties and amounts of items at much higher speeds. Furthermore, rails cost less iron ore to build per unit distance when compared to any belts, especially faster ones.

Comparing trains and pipelines

Both transport options are feasible at long distances.

Pipelines are cheaper than rails and they can go underground to avoid obstacles. They flow continuously but the flow rate drops as they get longer unless you add pumps along the pipeline. Meanwhile trains can carry multiple types of fluids at once and generally offer a higher throughput despite having to bring one load at a time.

Trains Overview: Main Steps for Railway Building

When you want to build a railway system, the first thing you need to do is to unlock the relevant technology of "Railway". It is available after unlocking "Logistics 2" and "Engine". To build train stops, you will also need to unlock "Automated rail transportation" which is available immediately after "Railway".

Secondly, you should think about which rail lines you want to have, as in where you want trains to go, such as from a mine area to a furnace area. You will need to have rails built along the whole way and you would probably need train stations at both ends of a rail line.

Thirdly, you will need to consider obstacles along the way. Perhaps you will need to cut down or go around some trees or move some transport belt segments underground. Trains do not have tunnels or bridges, so you similarly need to remove or go around any cliffs or water. Check Chapter 19 about that.

As a fourth step, you need to consider other train lines that are on your path. You may need to build a rail crossing intersection, or perhaps you can create rail forks so that some rails segments are shared by multiple trains routes, although this might require getting into rail signals.

The fifth step is crafting your parts. For every rail line, you will need two locomotives, at least one cargo wagon, two train stops, and probably lots of rails.

Next, you begin placing rails. First a single rail is placed down, and then you can use the rail appending tool and structure building tool to extend out the rails until you reach the destination.

Later, to build train stations, begin by placing down and naming your train stops. Use the station rail information to determine where you want to place inserters for loading or unloading.

Afterward, you can place down your locomotives and wagons and review their rotations and connections. Add some fuel to the locomotives and you are ready to drive around manually.

When preparing to automate trains, you will need to unlock and place rail signals around any intersections or forks in your train system. Later, to fully automate trains, you will need to refer to train stop names and build a train schedule.

Trains Definitions List: What is included in a railway system?

• Train: A group of connected rail vehicles such as locomotives and/or wagons.
• Rolling stock: Another name for rail vehicles.
• Locomotives: Burner fuel powered rail vehicles that pull wagons. They can be driven manually or automated.
• Cargo wagons: Essentially they are chests on rails.
• Fluid wagons: Essentially they are fluid tanks on rails.
• Train stop: A tower where trains can stop. It can be named and it interfaces with locomotives.
• Train station: An area with a train stop and any other infrastructure for servicing and using trains, such as inserters and chests.
• Rail signals: Rail mounted devices used to organize rail systems and train traffic.
• Rails: The steel beam paths that trains travel on. Notably, rails are at least 2 by 2 tiles in size and they snap to a 2 by 2 grid on the map unlike other structures. Certain rails have specific properties:
  • Single rail: A rail piece that is not connected to any others.
  • End rail: A rail piece that is at the end of a segment and has stoppers. Used for structure building.
  • Mid rail: A rail piece that is connected to one more rail at both ends.
  • Anchor rail: The rail piece used as the reference point when building a railway structure. Usually it was formerly an end rail.
  • Straight rail: A rail piece with no turns. Usually vertical or horizontal.
  • Diagonal rail: A rail piece with no turns, but moving in a diagonal direction. Sometimes diagonal rails also count as straight rails.
  • Curved rail: A long and curved rail piece that causes a direction change of 45 degrees. It is 4 by 8 tiles in size.
  • Station rail: A straight rail that is behind a train stop such that a parked locomotive or wagon would sit on it. It is a reference point for building.
• Rail segment: A connected group of straight or curved rails that has no forks or signals or train stops on it.
• Rail line: A connected group of straight or curved rails that leads from one train stop to another train stop. It can pass through forks and intersections along the way.
• Rail fork: A rail piece that is connected to more than one rail at one or both sides such that trains can pick a direction to take. It allows different rail lines to share some rail segments via splitting and merging.
• Rail junction: A group of rails that includes one or more forks.
• Rail intersection: An area where rails cross over each other without any forks and so trains cannot switch rails but might still collide.
• Rail turn: A group of rails, including curved rails, where there are no forks but a train changes direction.
• Rail crossing: An area that is designed for players or road vehicles to cross over a rail segment.
• Railway structure: A general name for something you can build along a railway, including train stops, rail turns, intersections, junctions, and signals.

Accessibility of Railways: Vanilla Factorio Versus Factorio Access

Accessibility for trains has been developed in phases. As of Version 0.10, most features about trains have been made accessible. You can even build custom train schedules and multi-train systems. Some accessibility improvements are still needed, such as support for more junction types.

Accessibility of rail placement

Building a rail system starts by placing down a single unit of straight rail. Then, vanilla Factorio uses a rail planner tool that uses the computer mouse to draw valid rail segments. Factorio Access instead has two tools of its own:

• Rail appending tool - Adds one more rail unit to a nearby end rail. Compatible with build lock mode.
• Rail structure building menu - For a selected end rail, this menu adds a correctly oriented rail structure to the open end.

Accessibility of train station building

After placing a train stop, vanilla Factorio offers visual cues about the spaces where a stopped train's wagons would be located along the station. Factorio Access has implemented a similar system for straight rails where "station spaces" are read out. These spaces are used to decide where to place inserters or pumps to load or unload a stopped train.

Accessibility of manual train driving

Train driving in Factorio Access has the same keyboard controls as vanilla Factorio. An additional tool provided is the rail analyzer, activated with "SHIFT + J". The analyzer reads out the structures ahead along the rails, as well as the distance to them. You can use this for aligning with a train station or selecting a direction of travel at a rail fork.

Accessibility of automatic trains and schedule building

A train's schedule can be configured using its graphical menu in the vanilla game. Factorio Access provides an audio version of the train menu. In this menu the train schedule can be read and the instant-scheduling tool can be used to build a simple schedule in one click. For more complex train schedules, the mod uses the train stop menus instead. The mod menu also supports the feature of automatic travel to a temporary stop.

Accessibility of railway safety

For avoiding other trains as you manually drive, Vanilla Factorio relies of visual observation of your surroundings and rail signals. Factorio Access uses a combination of rail safety tools. First of all, we have integrated the "Stop On Red mod" so that manually driven trains at closed rail signals stop by themselves unless you hold down the acceleration key for several seconds to force them through.

Manually driven trains also have three types of collision alerts: First, they also honk briefly at the closed rail signals they stop at. Second, they also honk loudly when they are at high risk of crashing into another train because they share a rail block. Thirdly, the collision proximity alert beeping system is used to warn about any entities on the rails directly ahead or behind the train. The beeping frequency is proportional to the proximity, and the beeping entity ahead can be identified by pressing "J".

As a safety feature for players walking on rails, rail crossing alert beeps are played, with greater frequency if a collision is more likely. This prevents the need for visual observation along the rail.

Rail signals, as built-in railway safety tools for automatic trains, are also accessible in the mod, as discussed below.

Accessibility of rail signals

Vanilla Factorio allows placing signals individually, using the mouse and visual cues. Factorio Access allows placing signals only in pairs, but one signal in a placed pair can be manually mined.

While regular rail signals can be placed and individual signals can be set up as described earlier, it is strongly recommended that you use pairs of rail chain signals in almost every case, because this design minimizes the chances of having deadlocks or train crashes, even though it makes train systems slower.

Building rail systems

Basic controls

Factorio Access offers 3 ways to build rails or rail structures. They are meant to be used together.

The first available option is placing straight single rails directly, like when placing transport belts. With the rail item in hand you can place it by pressing "CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET". This is required for starting a new rail segment in an area.

The second option is the rail appender tool, which is used most often. You can use it by pressing "LEFT BRACKET" with a rail in hand. The tool will look for a nearby end rail and place down the rail in hand to extend the rail by one unit. This tool is great for extending straight or diagonal rails and it is compatible with Build Lock mode, but it does not place down or extend curved rails.

The third option is the railway structure building menu, which is for building rail turns, train stops, and rail forks. The menu is opened by pressing "SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET" on an end rail in front of you. Then you can go down the menu to select the structure of your choice using "W", "S", and "LEFT BRACKET". The structure builder tool then places all the objects in the correct orientation for you, with the originally selected rail as its anchor point. Note that you cannot build a structure unless you have enough items for it in your inventory. The tool also clears away obstacles in the building area for you, such as trees and rocks.

It is also worth noting that the rail planner options to build 45 degree turns have a shortcut: Select an end rail and press "ALT + LEFT" or "ALT + RIGHT" to quickly try building a 45 degree turn towards the respective direction.

Connecting two independent rail segments

If you build two independent rail segments and you want to connect them end-to-end, the easiest way to do so is to connect them when they are both vertical or both horizontal and along the same co-ordinate axes. You can then append rails to either segment until the last appended rail connects them.

For both rails to reach the same co-ordinate axes, you may need to delete and relocate some rail segments to make the turns align correctly.

Building rail intersections

A rail intersection is formed when two independent rail segments cross over each other. This can happen while using the rail appending tool and so it does not require placing a structure. You can have many intersections in the same area but be aware that only one train can safely pass through an intersection at a time. To make a rail intersection safe, you need to add pairs of rail chain signals on all 4 rail segments around the intersection. Otherwise automatic trains using the intersection will ignore each other and possibly crash.

Building multi-train systems using forks and intersections

Trains cannot block or crash into each other if each train has its own rail line, but sometimes you have multiple trains passing through the same area and it just makes sense for them to share part of a long rail segment. In that case you can use rail forks to allow rail segments to split and merge. In other cases you have train lines intersecting and there are no good ways to avoid it. In such cases, you should be fine as long as you follow the below described recommended practices for rail building. When signals are set up correctly, a train will not try to use a rail until its path is clear and other trains will similarly wait for it before their paths can be declared by the signalling system as clear.

Increasing multi-train system traffic capacity using bypasses

If you have created a multi-train rail system with one rail segment being used by more than 2 trains at the same time, you might encounter the problem of the train system being too slow because one train is not entering the system from one end until the other train leaves the system all the way at the other end. This problem is where rail bypasses become useful. Bypass zones allow trains to circle around each other on way-way rails instead of waiting for their turns to share a two-way rail. They effectively let you divide one rail system into two, with the bypass zone serving as a new waiting area in between.

In practice, the bypass zone is supposed to replace a part of the long two-way rail segment being used by more than 2 trains. The zone is simply a pair of parallel one-way rails used instead of the single two-way rail. Therefore the bypass zone can include diagonal and curved rails along the way, but the rails need to start and finish at bypass junctions, which are built at vertical or horizontal end rails.

At the bypass junction a regular two-way rail splits and/or merges into a pair of parallel one-way rails. The one-way exit rail of the bypass junction is the only place in the mod (for now) that allows regular rail signals and one-way rails, because the bypass system is a reliable way to use their advantages without causing any deadlocks.

Rail signal logic explained

Rail signals (and rail chain signals) work by splitting rail systems into signal blocks. Every time you place a rail signal or a pair of them onto a rail unit, all the rails in front of the unit become one signal block and all the rails behind the unit become the other block. The other boundaries of the newly divided signal blocks are defined by either end rails or by other rail signals.

Every signal block can be filled by only one automatic train at a time, while one train can fill multiple blocks at the same time if it is touching them all. The key behavior for signals is that when the rail block in front of a rail signal is full, the rail signal will automatically become closed. Every automatic train checks the rail signals before passing them and trying to enter their rail blocks. This allows for trains to wait for blocks to be empty before trying to go in, and that in turn means that trains can share rail blocks by going one at a time without crashing into each other.

The above explanation works for both rail signals and rail chain signals. However, rail chain signals have the additional feature of checking the signals at the other ends of their rail blocks in addition to monitoring their own rail blocks. This means that if all the signals at the other end of the chain signal's rail block are closed, the chain signal itself will close too and thus pretend like its own block is also full. These kinds of checks make sure that trains do not enter an important area with multiple blocks unless it is certain that it will be able to get out. This massively helps with preventing deadlocks, which occur when trains get stuck waiting for each other in a loop that cannot solve itself.

Based on the above explanation, if we consider how Factorio Access almost exclusively uses rail chain signals, this shows that the entire rail system is being treated as an important area, except for the end rail segments where usually the train stops are placed. This allows a lot of safety checks but also it causes a lot of waiting and that is why rail bypasses are useful.

Recommended practices for rail building

• Pairs of rail chain signals need to be placed on every rail segment before and after every fork and intersection.
• When building parallel rail segments, it is recommended to have at least 4 tiles of space between them in order to leave space for infrastructure such as rail signals, connecting rails, or crossing buildings. This is automatically enforced for the rail appending tool.
• If you build a rail bypass junction, make sure the one-way segments are longer than the longest train in the rail system, and connect the segments only to another rail bypass junction, without forking them or ending rail lines with them.
• A train station can have a terminus design, where it marks the end of a rail line. A terminus design requires an automatic train to have locomotives on both ends so that it can drive forward both into the station and drive forward out of the station.
• A train station can have a roll-on roll-off design, where it is on the middle of the line. A RO-RO design requires placing specifically regular rail signals after the station so that automatic trains can work correctly.

Building train stations

To start building a train station, you need a train stop item and a vertical or horizontal end rail on the ground. You place down the train stop from the end rail structure building menu. The train stop is a one-way building, but the structure builder automatically rotates it correctly for you. The train stop can be renamed by opening its menu with LEFT BRACKET and this is recommended because otherwise a random name is used.

Upon placement, the rails before a train stop are automatically identified as station rails. Moving the cursor on a station rail will read the station space for it. This refers to which part of which wagon would align with the rail in question when a train is aligned with the train stop. This information can be used to determine where to place machines such as inserters for loading cargo wagons. Because of rails being two tiles wide, the information is given for two tiles at a time, which includes the one-tile gaps at both ends of the even numbered spaces.

Inserters need to placed directly next to the station rails. An inserter facing the rail would be used to unload a wagon and an inserter with its back to the rail would be used for loading. The opposite is needed for pumps and fluid wagons: A pump facing the wagon fills it and a pump facing away from it drains it.

Typically, the station space right next to the train stop is where a locomotive would be. It is recommended to place an inserter here that takes coal from a chest and fills the locomotive automatically.

When considering how trains enter and exit a train station, Factorio Access currently has support only for the terminus design where a train stop is at an end rail and the train leaves by reversing out from the direction it had it entered. While you can manually drive a train backward, subautomatic and automatic trains in the terminus design need to have a locomotive at both ends in order to work. This design is necessary for the currently supported signalling system to work correctly, but it also has the benefit of being compact.

The alternative design is the roll-on-roll-off, or RO-RO design, where the train enters from one direction and leaves from the other by going forward. Therefore one locomotive per train is enough for automation. However, RO-RO stations take up more space because the exit rail has to continue going and reconnect with the rest of the rail system. Furthermore, RO-RO design requires careful manual placement of one-way rail signals in order to not block a rail system.

Building trains

Any group of connected rail vehicles counts as a train, but a functional train requires at least one locomotive. Every rail vehicle is 6 tiles long and when they form a train, there is always 1 tile of space between neighboring vehicles.

The easiest way to build a train is to do it at a station, where you can also plan what you want to do with each wagon. It is best to start by placing the first locomotive near the train stop. You need to take the locomotive in hand and look at the station space without standing on the rail. Press LEFT BRACKET to put down the locomotive. For the train to function correctly, check that the locomotive and the train stop are facing the same direction. If not, you can flip the locomotive by selecting it with the cursor and pressing SHIFT + R.

After the first locomotive is placed, the train is defined and you can give it a name. You can open the train menu by selecting a locomotive and pressing LEFT BRACKET.

Now, you can walk along the rails to keep building the train by adding wagons. Rail vehicles placed near each other will connect automatically, but otherwise you can connect a cursor selected vehicle by pressing G. After adding as many wagons as you want, add the second locomotive on the other end. Note that while locomotives can also be placed in the middle of a train, the mod is unable to correctly obtain information from them when in the middle. Also note that adding a locomotive at both ends is necessary, again for having correct information while driving. Furthermore, the locomotive at the back needs to be facing the opposite direction as the first locomotive. If this is not the case, press SHIFT + G on the back locomotive to detach it from the cargo wagon. Then you can rotate it by pressing SHIFT + R on it. Finally you can reattach it by pressing G.

Fueling trains

A locomotive uses burner fuels such as coal to operate. It can hold up to 3 stacks of fuel at once. The fuel can be inserted by holding a stack of burner fuel in hand and dropping it into a cursor selected locomotive by pressing CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET. Locomotives can also be fueled by inserters, which is very practical to do while a train is waiting at a train stop.

You can check how much fuel a locomotive has by checking its status via RIGHT BRACKET. Note that different locomotives cannot share the same fuel supplies, meaning that each locomotive must be separately refueled.

When a train runs out of fuel, it gradually stops and raises an alert. Depending on community feedback, tools to assist with finding and refueling any depleted trains can be added later.

Manually driving trains

You can ride any vehicle on a train as a passenger by pressing ENTER. However, driving the train requires you to enter a locomotive at either end. Getting out similarly is done by pressing ENTER.

Locomotives can be driven manually such that you can move them forward on a rail by pressing "W" or backward by pressing "S". Be aware that it takes some time for a train to speed up or slow down and a train that is not stopped will continue to roll along while it gradually loses speed. When accelerating you can hear a locomotive rumbling and when breaking you can hear the brakes scraping.

If there is a rail fork ahead, you can hold "A" or "D" to choose the left or right exit respectively, or press neither to keep going straight.

You do not need to worry about going off the rails because trains can turn at curved rails by themselves at any speed and at the end of ever rail line they hit the stoppers and stop instantly without taking damage. However, if there is another train or an unfortunate player on the rails in front of you, you can crash and everything involved will take damage. For this reason, it is risky to manually drive in a system with automatic trains.

While driving, pressing L gives additional information about the train such as its name and its operating state, while opening the train menu with LEFT BRACKET offers further info.

Pressing K reveals the current heading and coordinates of the train.

Pressing J allows scanning ahead to announce the rail structure ahead of the currently boarded locomotive as well as the distance from it. Pressing SHIFT + J does the same for the structures behind this locomotive. If there is a train stop nearby, the J key will assist in aligning with the stop by reporting the precise distance between it and the front vehicle of the train.

Subautomatic trains

Factorio Access supports subautomatic travel, where a train that you are riding can travel to a faraway station by itself and wait for all passengers to get off, before resuming its normal schedule if any. This is selected from the last line of the train menu.

Automatic trains

Automatic trains work by following a train schedule, which is a repeatedly followed list of train stops to go to, and the waiting conditions that need to be met in order to depart from each of them. The simplest train schedules involve simply waiting a fixed amount of time at each station and moving on.

As efficient as they are, automatic trains are also dangerous. They are not aware of each other or anything else along their paths and so trains may crash into each other or into a player standing on a rail. To prevent crashes, you can either have rails lines that never overlap with each other, or you can unlock and build train signals to manage your intersections and junctions. For player safety, there are automatic train alarms that play when you stand on or near a risky rail segment. You also need to be careful when driving a manual train around rail systems with automatic trains because safety features for those have not yet been implemented.

Vanilla Factorio offers a graphical train schedule builder on its train menus, and this feature also includes the ability to automatically check for reachable train stations and warn the player at glance. The API is slightly more limited and so for now the two schedule building options are the semi-smart instant scheduling tool, and the manual schedule building method using train stop menus.

Train schedule building with the instant scheduler tool

Vanilla Factorio offers visual menus for designing the schedule for an automatic train. The schedule dictates which stops to go to and what to wait for before leaving each stop. Factorio Access offers as a fast alternative the instant train schedules, which are created automatically via the train menu. In an instant schedule the train travels repeatedly between every reachable train stop and waits for five minutes at each. You are able to change the wait time value from the train menu.

The instant scheduler works reliably for simple rail lines that have no forks and only 2 or 3 train stops. Note that the instant scheduler is not very clever and it can only locate stations that can be reached by the train right now, and so it skips stations that are on the opposite direction to the train even if they can be reached after the train bounces back from a terminus station. If you want to build complicated train schedules and networks, you need to do so by driving to stations manually at first and then configuring the wait conditions from train stop menus.

Train schedule building at train stop menus

This new and advanced method gives access to waiting conditions other than time, such as waiting for the train to be empty or have a passenger. It also allows adding to your schedule any train stop that you can manually drive to, but you do first have to manually drive to a train stop in order to add it to the schedule, despite the limited manual driving safety features. Future updates will aim to make this process smoother.

To use this method, you need to park the train that you want to build the schedule for next to each applicable train stop. When the locomotive of the train is parked at the train stop with at most 1 meter of discrepancy, the train stop menu should be able to read and update the train schedule. When you open the train stop menu you are able to rename the train stop but also read or edit the train schedule entries for this train stop. You train stop menu options are the following:

1. Rename the train stop.
2. Read the currently applied wait condition for this stop for this train.
3. Propose a new wait condition type. Press LEFT BRACKET here to cycle between options.
4. For "time" or "inactivity" based waiting, propose a new wait time in seconds, which is done using PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys, and with larger step sizes by holding CONTROL.
5. Propose to toggle on or off a second wait condition that we defined as "safety waiting", which makes this train wait at for 5 seconds at this train stop every time it stops here even if the main condition has been fulfilled instantly.
6. "Select here to ADD A NEW ENTRY for this train stop, with the proposed conditions applied, for a train parked by this train stop."
7. "Select here to UPDATE ALL ENTRIES for this train stop, with the proposed conditions applied, for a train parked by this train stop."
8. "Select here to REMOVE ALL ENTRIES for this train stop, for a train parked by this train stop."

A full list of the available waiting conditions is as follows:

1. Time: Wait for a specific number of seconds. You can modify this in increments of 5 or 60.
2. Inactivity: Wait for a specific number of seconds of inactivity, which is when no inserters or pumps or similar machines are interacting with the train, presumably because it is completely full or empty. This timer resets on each interaction. Again, you can modify this in increments of 5 or 60.
3. Empty: The cargo wagons and the fluid wagons of the train are completely empty.
4. Full: The cargo wagons and the fluid wagons of the train are completely full.
5. Passenger present: At least one player is riding any of the train's vehicles, including those who arrived on board the train.
6. Passenger not present: Zero players must be riding any of the train's vehicles.

Rail crossing safety

Crossing over rails is notorious in Factorio because if you are not careful, you can get squashed by an automatic train, and this happens a lot. Usually you have to rely on visual observations, or you can use circuit systems or mods to design safe rail crossings.

In Factorio Access, there is the rail crossing alarm tool with 3 alert levels. The slow beep means a train moving somewhere within 200 tiles. The fast beep means an automatic train within 100 tiles is heading towards your general direction. Finally, the frantic fast alarm bells mean that you need to get off that rail ASAP!

Tutorial: Building a Basic Railway

The aim in this tutorial is to build a single rail line from a smelting area in the main base to a mine area near a distant ore patch. This design uses terminus style train stations and a single train with one locomotive on each end and one cargo wagon in the middle. Since the rail line has no forks or intersections, there is no need to build rail signals.

Step 1. Build the train unloading station at the smelting area

• Find an empty space for the station. The space needs to be about 12 tiles wide and 25 tiles long. You will need at least 12 rails, 1 train stop, some chests, some inserters, and some electric poles. You should also craft 2 locomotives and 1 cargo wagon and a few stacks of coal.

• The shortest possible train has one locomotive at both ends and a cargo wagon in the middle. For this train that is 3 vehicles long, you will need about 12 straight rails. Place the first rail by holding rails in hand and pressing CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET. This marks the base side corner of the train station and is the starting point of the rail line.

• Walk over to the none-base side of the placed rail and use CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET to place the a second rail and repeat this for a third rail. This will allow the first rail’s end direction to be identified correctly. Note that the rotation of the rails being placed needs to fit their arrangement. Vertical rails go between North and South while horizontal rails go between East and West.

• With a train stop item ready in your inventory, approach the first rail, and open the rail builder from it by pressing SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET. Navigate down the menu to select the “Train stop” and get it built by pressing LEFT BRACKET. Now the rails will be identified as station rails. The train stop will be assigned a random name. You can press LEFT BRACKET on the train stop to open its menu and rename it.

• Walk to the other end of the rail and grab rails in hand. Use the appending tool to keep placing rails as you walk by pressing only LEFT BRACKET. Alternatively, you can enable build lock with rails in hand by pressing CONTROL + B. Your station rail will be long enough for this example when the last placed rail is identified as the middle part of station space 3, meaning that station spaces 0, 1, and 2, have been added for the three vehicles of the train.

• Now to add the train unloading machinery, walk over to the front part rail of station space 1, where the cargo wagon is meant to park.

• Place inserters along the side of the rail. They need to face the rail in order to unload from a wagon there. One inserter can be enough for unloading a cargo wagon, but since the wagon is 6 tiles wide, you can fit up to 12 inserters around it if you use every available space on both sides. For this example, it is enough to have 4 inserters along the middle parts of the wagon.

• Place electric poles on the sides of the inserters. For our example of 4 inserters, a pair of small electric poles are enough. For 6 inserters per cargo wagon, you need a medium electric pole placed down to align with every station space gap.

• Behind each inserter place a chest. The cargo wagon will unload into these chests which can altogether hold more items than the wagon can, forming an item buffer. If you place inserters behind the chests and have them all output onto the same transport belt, you now have your ore belt ready to go.

• The station is now ready.

Step 2. Lay down the rails from the unloading station to the ore patch.

• Make sure you craft plenty of rails. One rail is 2 tiles long and so an ore patch that is 1000 tiles away will need at least 500 rails placed. Note that you will also need electric power at the ore patch, so you can maybe bring some big electric poles with you or solar panels.

• Walk over to the rail at the end of the station. Use the scanner tool to locate the ore patch you want to reach. Depending on the direction of the ore patch, build a rail turn at this end rail, or simply extend it using the appender tool.

• Keep extending the rail towards the ore patch. Enabling the build lock with CONTROL + B is extra useful here. It may also be useful to scan for nearby obstacles such as lakes so that you can build around them.

• If you need to backtrack, rails can be mined with X to pick them up. If you need to remove a structure, it needs to be mined piece by piece.

• An alternative to building around obstacles is to clear them. Trees and rocks can be mined or chopped away. If you encounter enemy bases, non-peaceful enemies might attack rails and trains near their bases.

• When you are 15 to 20 tiles away from the edge of the destination ore patch, you are close enough to build a station.

Step 3. Build the loading station by the ore patch.

• The loading station requires the same materials as the unloading station and it has the same design except that the inserters face away from the rails instead of towards them. An additional thing you need at the ore patch is a power supply.

• Make sure that the final part of the rail is either vertical or horizontal so that a train stop can be placed and make sure it is at least 12 rails long so that you can build the loading station.

• On the end rail, open the rail builder menu with SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET and then build the train stop for the ore patch. Open the train stop's menu with LEFT BRACKET in order to rename the stop.

• Find the station rail marking the middle of station space one, and place the inserters, this time facing away from the rail, along this space.

• Place a chest in front of each inserter and electric poles to the sides as before, although they will not connect to any power sources.

• If you have any solar panels, now is a good time to place them down in a nearby clear area.

• If you have several electric poles, you can follow the rail back to the base without walking directly on it and place electric poles along the way. Build lock for small electric poles, spaces them apart automatically.

Step 4. Build the train

• Take a locomotive in hand, and approach the train stop. Find and face the station locomotive space middle part. Press LEFT BRACKET without standing on the rail to place the locomotive.

• Check that the locomotive and the train stop are facing the same direction. If not, rotate the locomotive by selecting it with the cursor and pressing SHIFT + R.

• Now find and face the middle part of station space 1. Grab the cargo wagon from the inventory and place it with LEFT BRACKET without standing on the rail. The cargo wagon should connect automatically with the locomotive.

• Now add the second locomotive to rail space 2 in a similar fashion. Note that the locomotive needs to be facing the opposite direction as the first locomotive. If this is not the case, press SHIFT + G on the locomotive to detach it from the cargo wagon. Then you can rotate it by pressing SHIFT + R on it. Finally you can reattach it by pressing G.

• The train should now be built. You can verify its vehicle counts or rename it from the train menu. Open the train's menu by pressing LEFT BRACKET on a locomotive and following the instructions. Notably, this menu is navigated using ARROW KEYS because W and S are used to drive.

• If the train does not have the correct locomotive and wagon count, you can connect the vehicles together by walking along the train and pressing G, or you can mine them with X.

• Add coal to the locomotives by grabbing a stack of coal from your inventory and dropping it into the cursor selected locomotives with CONTROL + LEFT CLICK. Each locomotive can hold up to 3 stacks of fuel.

• The train has been built!

Step 5. Test drive the train.

• Back at the unloading station, make sure all locomotives are fueled and enter the locomotive facing away from the base. It is important to enter this particular locomotive because the locomotive you enter decides which direction is forward.

• Press W to drive forward a little. Then press J to verify that the second train stop lies at the end of this very long and uninterrupted rail segment. Press SHIFT + J to look at the other direction to see the nearby train stop behind the train. Note that the J key reports the distances as direct lines and does not account for the curving of the rails.

• Accelerate forward for a few more seconds. Press K to check your heading and speed. Keep the speed below 100 kilometers per hour unless the train stop is several hundred tiles away. When the train stop is less than 100 meters away, press S to slow down.

• When the train stop is within 25 meters, the J key will report the distance left more precisely. Use the W and S keys to move the train until the J key announces that you are aligned with the train stop.

• Note that if the train is moving fast when it reaches an end rail it will stop suddenly but without damaging anything. This is an alternative way to park the train at a terminus station, and then you can pull it back by a few meters to align it.

• Once the train is aligned, you have parked it successfully, and the train is ready to load from the chests. If you have power set up, you can test loading the cargo wagon by putting a test item into one of the chests.

• You can verify the contents of the cargo wagon by checking it with the cursor or pressing RIGHT BRACKET on it.

• You can similarly drive back to the other station by entering the other locomotive. Driving the first locomotive backwards is also possible, but only for manual control.

• When you verified that you can manually reach both stations, you can open the train menu with LEFT BRACKET and go down it with ARROW KEYS. You will find there the option to create an instant schedule for automating this train, if you wish.

Controls for Rails and Trains: Quick Reference

Rail Building and Analyzing

• Rail placement: Press CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET with rails in hand to place down a single straight rail.

• Rail appending: Press LEFT BRACKET with rails in hand to automatically extend the nearest end rail by one unit. Also accepts RIGHT BRACKET.

• Rail structure building menu: Press SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET on any rail, but end rails have the most options. Structures include turns, train stops, etc.

• Rail analyzer UP: Press J with empty hand on any rail to check which rail structure is UP along the selected rail. Note: This cannot detect trains!

• Rail analyzer DOWN: Press SHIFT + J with empty hand on any rail to check which rail structure is DOWN along the selected rail. Note: This cannot detect trains!

• Station rail analyzer: Select a rail behind a train stop to hear corresponding the station space. Note: Every rail vehicle is 6 tiles long and there is one tile of extra space between each vehicle on a train.

• Note 1: When building parallel rail segments, it is recommended to have at least 4 tiles of space between them in order to leave space for infrastructure such as rail signals, connecting rails, or crossing buildings.

• Note 2: In case of bugs, be sure to save regularly. There is a known bug related to extending rails after building a train stop on an end rail.

• Shortcut for building right turn 45 degrees: CONTROL + RIGHT ARROW on an end rail.

• Shortcut for building left turn 45 degrees: CONTROL + LEFT ARROW on an end rail.

Train Building and Examining

• Place rail vehicles: LEFT BRACKET on an empty rail with the vehicle in hand. Locomotives snap into place at train stops. Nearby vehicles connect automatically to each other upon placing.

• Manually connect rail vehicles: G near vehicles

• Manually disconnect rail vehicles: SHIFT + G near vehicles

• Flip direction of a rail vehicle: SHIFT + R on the vehicle, but it must be fully disconnected first.

• Open train menu: LEFT BRACKET on the train

• Train vehicle quick info: L

• Examine locomotive fuel tank contents: RIGHT BRACKET.

• Examine cargo wagon contents: RIGHT BRACKET. Note that items can for now be added or removed only via cursor shortcuts or inserters.

• Add fuel to a locomotive: With fuel items in hand, CONTROL + LEFT BRACKET on the locomotive

Train Driving

• Enter or exit train: ENTER

• Break or accelerate forward: W

• Break or accelerate backward: S

• Get basic train info: L

• Get info for Train heading, speed, and position: K

• Rail analyzer ahead of train: J. Note: Does not detect other trains!

• Rail analyzer near or behind the train: SHIFT + J. Note: Does not detect other trains!

• When near a train stop, read precise distance: J

• Open train menu: LEFT BRACKET. The menu provides key information about the train, and allows renaming the train, or setting a schedule.

Next page: "Chapter 17 - Modules"