I'm really struggling to get the crane to reliably load/unload cargo. It seems like when I copy-paste it into different orientations, it will work or stop working. Sometimes when I place cranes they work, and other times they do not. As far as I can tell, even using the debug grid to check, I am putting things in the same places. I can't see any visual difference in placement, even when I turn on the grid. I've tried judging the stations forwards and backwards. Placing them manually seems really error-prone. I have had slightly more luck when the station is towards the land-side than when it faces away. Also, the inactivity timer on the train schedule seems to just ignore any load/unload activity I think.

You have to place it with the arrow pointing to the sea, then flip it back after if you want it to unload.

I'm not experienced enough with modding to figure out the inactivity thing, hopefully someone else can help with that, although it's worked completely fine in my playthroughs.

Oh thanks - a mix of using the arrow pointing to the sea, and then double-checking exactly what tile the inserter arrow interacts with got me there. It seems that in different orientation, it interacts with different cells. And I can still only get it to work reliably with boats with ports to the shore side. But at least it does work. Thanks. I do love the idea of this mod :D It's very nice.