Originally shared on the public FactorioPrints / Factorio School archive (factorioprints.com · factorio.school). Authorship preserved from the public catalog.
This is a practical LTN set I sandboxed for use in the /r/factorio Monthly Community Map for Dec 2018--the purpose of this set was because my big 2-16 set wouldn't fit into the squares of the maze map, so this gives me reasonable throughput, repeatability, flexibility, and efficiency in a smaller space while not sacrificing throughput too much. This is "v1" because I really like how this set turned out and I will probably iterate on it in the future.
What is LTN? Logistic Train Network essentially turns trains into enormous logistic bots. Station A needs X quantity of a resource, Station B has X quantity of that resource, so a train sitting and waiting at a depot is assigned to go to B to pick up, then A to drop off, then come back to the depot. It is a phenomenal mod--a bit daunting to get into but it's a sharp knife, flexible and powerful.
This set utilizes the following mods:
Logistic Train Network (and I strongly recommend you get this mod too, so you can start using LTN as soon as you start building rails instead of having to wait until you're producing oil products first.)
Deadlock's Stacking Beltboxes - lets you compress items into stacks for better BELT throughput (for cleaner designs), but does not actually give TRAINS higher throughput, because I am tired of making "belt rivers" and wanted to try a more elegant approach.
Miniloader - basically a Deadlock's Compact Loader for trains
Features:
All station prints were creative mode sandboxed and throughput tested before I used them in my production environment. This means that the prints were provided a maximum throughput input and measured to ensure that they spit out a maximum throughput output, so they aren't just mathematically optimized, they're practically optimized as well. (This includes fluid production.)
All blueprints carry red and green wires on all power line connections (for network-wide data transfer), I like to use this kind of thing to monitor my overall supplies and deficits across all outposts so I know what to focus on
All rail pieces are designed to be reversible and cleanly interlock on power poles and signals.
Right-angle and T-junction pieces lay over existing straight pieces without needing to remove anything. T-junctions can be overlaid onto existing right-angles without needing to adjust anything.
Universal station templates for quickly building new station types, just plop in your loading/unloading stations as needed and build out the station.
Includes the following stations:
Simple depot stamp for refueling, but you're going to have to signal your depot and build the depot out--those are suuuper simple though compared to the rest of LTN.
Universal mining pickup station
Universal yellow-belted dropoff/pickup
Universal red-belted dropoff/pickup
Universal fluid dropoff/pickup
Midgame smelting station (steel furnaces)
Semi-lategame smelting station (electric furnaces, no modules)
Lategame smelting station (modules and beacons)
Early game oil (no modules/beacons, spaced in such a way to be cleanly upgraded to the late game oil print)
Late game oil (full modules/beacons, designed to be laid on top of the early game oil without having to deconstruct anything)
Plastic station (no modules)
Green circuit station (no modules)
Red circuit station (no modules)
Sulfuric acid station (no modules)
Uranium mining station (a standard mining pickup station prebuilt with a sulfuric acid dropoff)
Concrete station (no modules)
FAQ
I've never used LTN before. Can I just pick this up and use it? Kind of, but you need to play around with LTN in a sandbox of your own first. Fire up creative mode with LTN, build a depot, build a requesting station, and build a supplying station. You need to do this because LTN isn't just plug-and-play, you have to make sure you signal it right. My blueprints are all set to default values and switched to the "off" position to start, but you need to make sure that you understand how they work so you know how to troubleshoot problems. LTN is a sharp knife--it's powerful and versatile but you can cut yourself easily if you don't know what you're doing.
Why Deadlock's and Warehousing? I like them. I've done enormous circuit-managed banks of inserters before, and I'm tired of it. I've done rivers of belts and huge balancer arrays before, and I find them bulky and ugly. Deadlock's mods and the Warehousing mod allow you to make nice, clean, interlockable designs without having to design around the intentional engineering limitations so you can focus on parts of the game you enjoy more.
How do I signal your LTN stations? I have combinators set up to already apply the multipliers needed to request the correct amounts, all you need to do is put the size of a single stack of resource into the combinator and switch it on. All of these prints are designed to use Deadlock stacks of 5.
**What if I don't want to use Deadlock's mods?**If you don't like Deadlock's, you can request other stacks, but you'll need to do your own station blueprints; the stations can accept (in some cases) 5x more throughput than the pre-stacker belts can deliver, so you're totally out of space to put down more belts.
I put down a mining station blueprint and a smelting station blueprint but it's not requesting anything. I have all of the request stations set to the "off" position to start for safety, or you're going to end up with a train full of materials stuck somewhere because you weren't ready to request it yet. Once a print is done, plug in a stack of the thing you want and turn the requestor on. NOTE: DO NOT TURN OFF THE REQUESTOR WITHOUT ALSO DISCONNECTING YOUR WAREHOUSES. If you turn off the requestor but your warehouses are still wired up, LTN will think that you're now a supplier and will start sending trains to the station to pick up instead of drop off.
What is this loop blueprint? That's a "spin-up" loop. I use these mostly in super long train sets, but I always put one in my train sets because you don't want a train to go from a complete stop straight onto the mainline--it's like pulling out of your driveway onto a 70 MPH highway. You need an on-ramp. No, you won't always manage to hit the highway at full speed, but you will most of the time, and it helps ease congestion. The spin-up loop is just a compact way for a train to gain some speed just prior to hopping onto a mainline. Break some track and place it in.
Why do the loader/unloader stations go to two warehouses and not one? Needs for your station may vary--I just templated the complex part. Hooking up splitters or a shared warehouse is the easy part.
What's with the weird miniloader mod setup? Experimental. It has pros and cons. Mostly I just wanted to try something other than banks of inserters. I like it, I'll keep using it. Only snag is that unlike all other red-belt-based parts, red miniloaders require oil, which is suuuper weird. But with Deadlock's and warehousing there are few situations where multiple red belt miniloaders would ever be needed anyway.
Why aren't there more beacon/module blueprints? I don't really like building megabase stuff. At the point where you're using tons of beacons and modules, you've grown into megabase designing, and this book isn't about that. This book is about practical logistics for the midgame.
Why do your rails swap at the neck of each station? Only way it works with the following engineering requirements, two of which are arbitrarily self-imposed: right-hand drive (because my brain can't process left-hand drive), stations that stick out on the same side of the rail as storage, and plenty of room before the stations for 1-2 other trains to queue up off the mainline.
Why do you not have a 4-way crossing? I don't like 4-way intersections. I can't make them interlock cleanly onto existing segments without doubling the size of the segments, and if I cheat by moving some signals around I start violating the principles of building good intersections. At the macro level, you can do everything with T-junctions just fine.
