Posted on 2022-01-03, in Gaming, tagged with factorio

Automate Personal Transportation with Handy Car

The Problem

My Base is hard to navigate without Spidertron or train. There are train tracks everywhere, lots of trains trying to roll over me, and no safe path to drive a car in.

The Solution

The solution is Handy Car¹. (I considered calling it uber).

You place a Train stop called [entity=character] L using a blueprint on the nearest track. Pretty soon there comes Timmy (A Train) and waits for you to enter. It will start driving immediately. You can:

Do nothing and get transported to Timmy's HQ
Use CTRL+LEFT_CLICK in the map to place a temporary Waypoint
Let Bots (or other players if you have friends) place a Station U and automatically get taken there.

Once you leave the train, it will drive back to Timmy's HQ .

With some circuitry, the pickup and drop off stations will deactivate automatically after the trains topped there, so that they do not interfere with your transportation needs later. Disabled train stops add a pathing penalty so you should remove the unused stops eventually. A speaker places a blinking icon on the map reminding you to remove the train stops. You can just hit CTRL-Z to let bots undo the placing.

Implementation

Train

A dedicated Train With the following configuration:

The Timeout is to give you some time to enter, but eventually get over it if you forgot about your appointment.

Timmy's HQ

A Train Stop somewhere in the middle, well connected, with refueling. If your base is large, you can have multiple trains and multiple stations, each with limit 1.

Pickup and Dropoff Site

Apart from the Name, the Pickup and Dropoff Stations are the same Blueprint.

The Station with this configuration:
Combinator that sends nothing in the beginning (T == D == 0). Once the train comes (e.g. T == 4267) it sends D until you destroy it.
Speaker that shows the map icon.
an opportunistic power pole to make the speaker and circuitry work.

Blueprint

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

The Blueprint is a book that contains:

Station with train
Another Book that you can place in your hotbar
- Pickup
- Dropoff

You can select the inner book from the hotbar and cycle through the blueprints with SHIFT+MOUSE_WHEEL.

Random Tip

Instead of going through the Train's Menu to switch it to manual driving, you can add or remove a wagon. Modifying the train puts it into manual.

There are two ways:

Quickly add a Wagon: Put a Cargo Wagon on Hotbar 4 slot 4, so SHIFT+4 4 Click does the trick (if your aim is good). Use CTRL+Z to let the bots undo.
Quickly remove a wagon: using a deconstruction planner, remove the wagon and attach it with CTRL+Z. Do not start driving before, or the bots will place the wagon at the place you instructed them, while the train will have moved on.

On the handy car train I haul around an empty wagon for just that.

Using CTRL+Click on the map adds a temporary waypoint and switches the train to automatic.