Modern Bulk Rail Loaders: Pooled

by Florby

Bulk train loading/unloading silos that share a single pooled inventory per station. Contents can never get unbalanced between wagons, so automated deliveries (e.g. Cybersyn) always complete when the station total suffices. Pooled-architecture rework inspired by Modern Bulk Rail Loader by Vyl.

Utilities
5 hours ago
2.0
0
Transportation Trains
Owner:
Florby
Source:
https://github.com/solvemon/bulk-rail...
Homepage:
N/A
License:
GNU LGPLv3
Created:
5 hours ago
Latest Version:
0.1.0 (5 hours ago)
Factorio version:
2.0
Downloaded by:
0 users

Modern Bulk Rail Loaders: Pooled

A pooled-inventory rework of the bulk rail loader concept. Every station has
one hidden cargo inventory (the pool); each visible silo is a Factorio 2.0
proxy-container — a physical window onto that shared pool. Because there is
only one inventory per station:

  • Contents can never get unbalanced between wagons. A train's order completes
    whenever the station total suffices — no stuck partial loads.
  • There is no balancing logic and no recurring UPS cost for it.
  • Factory inserters/loaders can feed or drain any silo; it all lands in the
    same pool.

Requires Factorio ≥ 2.0.38 (the version that introduced proxy containers).

Usage

  1. Open a train stop and use the Bulk loaders panel: pick the wagon count,
    locomotive gap, and the station mode (Load / Unload).
  2. Silos are placed automatically over each wagon slot; blocked positions get
    ghosts you can revive after clearing obstructions.
  3. Loading stations show a hopper structure over each wagon; unloading
    stations show a tipper grate beneath the track.

Circuit network / Cybersyn

Wire exactly one silo (any of them) to your circuit network or Cybersyn
combinator — every silo reports the full shared pool, so wiring two silos
doubles the reading.

Design notes

  • The pool is a hidden, indestructible container placed at the train stop. Its
    usable size is silo capacity × silo count, enforced with an inventory bar.
  • Mining a silo loses nothing (items live in the pool). Removing the last
    silo of a station spills the pool contents on the ground rather than voiding
    them.
  • Stations are uniform: the whole station either loads or unloads. Mixed
    stations would mix incoming and outgoing cargo in one pool.
  • Hand-placed silos attach to the nearest train stop within 100 tiles
    (preferring stops that already have silos), or get a private pool if none.

Licensing / attribution

  • Code: original to this mod.
  • All graphics (graphics/loader-*.png, graphics/unloader-*.png) are from
    railloader by mspielberg (therax),
    licensed LGPL-3.0 (see LICENSE-railloader-graphics). Keep that license
    file and this attribution if you redistribute the mod.

Development

Symlink into your mods folder under the mod's name (the folder name must match
info.json):

ln -s /path/to/this/repo ~/.factorio/mods/modern-bulk-rail-loader-pooled