At the top are five waiting bays, branching from the central line with a normal signal, and converging on the right with chain signals. From the top right the line branches to the various stations, all ending with normal signals. Each station has 2x14 inserters that insert onto 2x2 belts, currently yellow but easy to upgrade. From there the coal/plates are transported to my central bus starting in the bottom left, with an extra iron resupply going to the top left.
The leftmost two waiting bays have a "shortcut" to bypass the stations. Since these waiting bays are also the longest route to the stations, they are the last to be filled. I could remove the link from the lieftmost bay to the unloading area, but if all bays are full there will be a backup anyway, so it wouldn't help.
I set my trains to unload and wait indefinitely, so my trains function as a sort of extra buffer (and what use is an half-full train going back to the outpost...)
On the returning track (my trains drive on the left) is first the "home" station, where my passenger train waits, with indicator lights to show stock levels for local iron, copper, and steel, crude and petroleum from my chemplant, and coal at my power plant (which is in a different station built on the first coal patch I found). Next on the top left is the FARL station, with automatic loading via a double row of request chests and long inserters (thanks @DaveMcW!) to keep the farl wagon always loaded with rail and outpost building material via reserved cargo slots.
(and on the bottom left you see the edge of the glorious mess called "my factory", with as only design rules that everything is built when and where I need it, no logistics are used for production (except for the speed module), and inter-machine inserters are maximized. As you can see the landscape is highly fragmented, which I find good fun as it constrains the sprawl and allows for complete eradication of aliens from islands / peninsulas. I didn't reapply concrete after building the station, so the green parts are where I filled in land to allow for construction - like a good Dutchman, I suppose)
All comments welcome. Is the current setup optimal for waiting and unloading of trains?
Also, as stated above I set my trains to wait indefinitely until empty. I noticed that there often is an imbalance, with the front wagon unloading quicker (or more plates drawn from the front chests) than the back. This can lead to a train waiting with 100 copper remaining in the back wagon, while there is room for more plates in the front chests? Is there a good way to balance that? I use smart trains, so I could use a smart train stop, but I can't see whether either wagon is empty as these are summed up.
