My express Trains use one locomotive: shorter stations, faster speed, "chain" incoming trains.
The basics:
Each Base has a express Station. The exit loops back into the train network
each express Station needs to be connected to each other express station station inside its network.
each station has an waiting train.
Setup of stations and Trains:
The station is wired to two signals behind it. The signals send their information to the waiting train. (1 green and 1 red in the image for example).
The Train is set to wait until the circuit network shows two red signals.
Two red signals happen when another Train enters the station. The front Train will be sent to the next station. the new train will halt and wait in the station.
You can enter any express Train, select it and choose any destination, and the train will go there. Because of the chain reaction of the your departure station will be filled with another train automatically.
The downside to this system is, that with increasing numbers of outposts you need to increase the number of trains waiting, and in return the chain reaction until all trains are back in the stations takes longer. Only one Train is on the move at one time, this prevents flooding your network with unnecessary train traffic.
One positive effect of the chainreactions is, that each train will enter each station at one point. You can use this to refuel your tanks in one station.
When adding a new train you can copy&paste from existing trains.
I named my express Stations "Xpress XYZ", that way my stations are at the bottom of the list when dealing with non express trains&stations.
Demo (0.13.6)
