Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

[DarkDexter]

You did an amazing job. I have to mention, that I came just back to Factorio after 2 years of absence. But this system is quite handsome.

....
I'm trying to figure out a way to make distant settlements connected to my main base only through rails. I don't want to bring any belts, pipes, or even power lines. I'll make another post soon, but I'm trying to figure out a way to ship electricity on a train. I'm going to store the electricity as steam in a tanker car. I heard that you can't put steam in a barrel (i'll still try it though), but that it works to load it in a tanker on a train.

Anyway, for storing electricity: why not ship fuel to the outpost and generate via water and boilers?
Problem might be the supply of water. Which, I doubt, no one has ever done such thing. So storing the steam inside might be a good solution.

[mrvn]

You did an amazing job. I have to mention, that I came just back to Factorio after 2 years of absence. But this system is quite handsome.

....
I'm trying to figure out a way to make distant settlements connected to my main base only through rails. I don't want to bring any belts, pipes, or even power lines. I'll make another post soon, but I'm trying to figure out a way to ship electricity on a train. I'm going to store the electricity as steam in a tanker car. I heard that you can't put steam in a barrel (i'll still try it though), but that it works to load it in a tanker on a train.

Anyway, for storing electricity: why not ship fuel to the outpost and generate via water and boilers?
Problem might be the supply of water. Which, I doubt, no one has ever done such thing. So storing the steam inside might be a good solution.

You can always ship in water. But at that point I think steam is the way to go. You need the same number of water trains as steam trains, right?

[slippycheeze]

Anyway, for storing electricity: why not ship fuel to the outpost and generate via water and boilers?
Problem might be the supply of water. Which, I doubt, no one has ever done such thing. So storing the steam inside might be a good solution.

You can always ship in water. But at that point I think steam is the way to go. You need the same number of water trains as steam trains, right?

Steam storage density per task is vastly higher than accumulator storage per tile dedicated to it. I'd definitely agree with that. There is a 1:1 transformation of water to steam, so yes, the number of trains would be identical in either case.

All that said, water supply issues are not so common as people think, I suspect: 1.8MW of power per boiler, consuming 60 water per second. At 1,000 tiles of pipe between the offshore pump (no energy cost) and the boiler -- with no pumps, no power consumption to move water -- you get 230 water per second, or 6.9MW of power production. Given underground pipes that is a total distance of 5,000 tiles -- 2 pipe units for 10 tiles distance -- in any single direction maximum range for a water supply for each 6.9MW of power consumption....

Oh, and 24MW on a single pipe is 261 pipe entities, or 1,305 tiles distance to the water source, per pipe run. You can probably beat that with trains, but also, you probably don't need to most of the time. Oh, and you can pump happily with one solar panel and one accumulator, with minimal pollution output, if you feel the need. Though I wouldn't, myself, since underground pipes are pollution free, and spread far enough that they should never block a bug, so never trigger them to eat it unsolicited. Two pipes would be simpler.

[mrvn]

Anyway, for storing electricity: why not ship fuel to the outpost and generate via water and boilers?
Problem might be the supply of water. Which, I doubt, no one has ever done such thing. So storing the steam inside might be a good solution.

You can always ship in water. But at that point I think steam is the way to go. You need the same number of water trains as steam trains, right?

Steam storage density per task is vastly higher than accumulator storage per tile dedicated to it. I'd definitely agree with that. There is a 1:1 transformation of water to steam, so yes, the number of trains would be identical in either case.

All that said, water supply issues are not so common as people think, I suspect: 1.8MW of power per boiler, consuming 60 water per second. At 1,000 tiles of pipe between the offshore pump (no energy cost) and the boiler -- with no pumps, no power consumption to move water -- you get 230 water per second, or 6.9MW of power production. Given underground pipes that is a total distance of 5,000 tiles -- 2 pipe units for 10 tiles distance -- in any single direction maximum range for a water supply for each 6.9MW of power consumption....

Oh, and 24MW on a single pipe is 261 pipe entities, or 1,305 tiles distance to the water source, per pipe run. You can probably beat that with trains, but also, you probably don't need to most of the time. Oh, and you can pump happily with one solar panel and one accumulator, with minimal pollution output, if you feel the need. Though I wouldn't, myself, since underground pipes are pollution free, and spread far enough that they should never block a bug, so never trigger them to eat it unsolicited. Two pipes would be simpler.

And then you run over an underground pipe with your tank without noticing and the base goes dark. No thank you.

Plus I like trains zipping around.

[slippycheeze]

Anyway, for storing electricity: why not ship fuel to the outpost and generate via water and boilers?
Problem might be the supply of water. Which, I doubt, no one has ever done such thing. So storing the steam inside might be a good solution.

You can always ship in water. But at that point I think steam is the way to go. You need the same number of water trains as steam trains, right?

Steam storage density per task is vastly higher than accumulator storage per tile dedicated to it. I'd definitely agree with that. There is a 1:1 transformation of water to steam, so yes, the number of trains would be identical in either case.

All that said, water supply issues are not so common as people think, I suspect: ...snippity...

And then you run over an underground pipe with your tank without noticing and the base goes dark. No thank you.
Plus I like trains zipping around.

I'll confess that I used the "Advanced Underground Pipes" mod precisely because it includes non-colliding underground pipes. So I feel you on that. I was kind of assuming "for outposts" there, though. Placing the core base near enough you don't have a long run from water to electricity is common and smart. Outposts have their position dictated to you more than the reverse, though, because they are usually for a specific resource.

Anyway, no argument on doing what you like, rather than the "optimal" thing.

[gabriel]

So in a more recent game I actually ended up tweaking the technique to include steam powered electricity. A train delivered the steam from my nuclear power plant down to the remote bases whenever any of them detected that they were getting low and the Steam Supply station turned on. This way all I needed to run was tracks, in my ever expanding quest to conquer the infinite plains.