Railways

Rails move goods over long distances. In Epoch 1 a Goblin pushes a Goblin Cart back and forth between two Buffer Stops. From Epoch 2 on you run real trains with locomotives, wagons, stations, schedules and signals.

Rails

	Rail	Buffer Stop
Epoch	1	1
Unlocked by	Goblin Carts	Goblin Carts
Size	1 × 1	1 × 1
Recipe	1 Wood + 1 Iron Plate → 2	4 Wood + 4 Iron Plate

• Rails connect to rails on their four sides at the same height. There are no slopes, so keep your track level.
• The shape follows from the neighbours: straight, curve, or a switch where a rail has three connections. Trains choose their way at switches by themselves.
• A Buffer Stop ends a track. The rail attaches at its back.

Goblin Cart (Epoch 1)

	Goblin Cart
Epoch	1
Unlocked by	Goblin Carts
Speed	about 3 blocks/s (walking pace)
Cargo	8 slots
Energy	none
Recipe	1 Trapped Goblin + 10 Wood + 5 Iron Plate + 4 Iron Gear

1. Lay a track with a Buffer Stop at each end.
2. Hold the Goblin Cart, crouch and Use one Buffer Stop. That stop becomes the cart's home.
3. The cart shuttles between its home and the stop at the other end. At each end it halts on the last rail, where Grabbers can load and unload it.

The cart leaves when its cargo has not changed for 2 seconds (at the earliest after 3 seconds, at the latest after 20). Use the home Buffer Stop to see the cargo. Crouch and Use it with an empty hand to take the cart back.

Trains

	Steam Locomotive	Golem Locomotive	Cargo Wagon	Fluid Wagon
Epoch	2	4	2	3
Unlocked by	Railway	Golem Locomotive	Railway	Fluid Wagon
Length	4 rails	4 rails	4 rails	4 rails
Speed	up to 10 blocks/s	up to 15 blocks/s	–	–
Energy	600 kW from fuel (3 fuel slots)	none	–	–
Holds	–	–	32 slots	25,000 units of one fluid
Recipe	10 Engine Unit + 30 Steel Plate + 10 Electronic Circuit	1 Steam Locomotive + 2 Golem Core + 10 Rune Slate	10 Iron Gear + 20 Iron Plate + 20 Steel Plate	10 Iron Gear + 16 Steel Plate + 8 Pipe T2

• Place a locomotive: hold it and Use a rail. It faces where you look and needs 4 free rail cells behind it.
• Add a wagon: hold it and Use the rail right behind the train. A train has at most 4 wagons.
• Trains only drive forward. They never reverse, so build a loop at each end of a line, or a loop around the whole network.
• Fuel the Steam Locomotive with Wood, Coal or Solid Fuel, by hand in the train window or with Grabbers at a station. The Golem Locomotive needs no fuel.
• A moving train hurts players standing on the track.

Fluid Wagon

While its train waits at a Train Stop, a Fluid Wagon connects to pipes on every side of its four cells. Pipes or a Fluid Pump next to it fill or empty it. Grabbers cannot load it. See Fluids and Oil Processing.

Train Stop

	Train Stop
Epoch	2
Unlocked by	Railway
Size	2 × 2
Recipe	5 Concrete + 5 Steel Plate + 2 Electronic Circuit

Place the Train Stop next to the track, front facing the rail. A train halts with its locomotive on the rail cell in front of the stop. Grabbers load and unload wagons only while the train is halted there.

Use the stop to rename it. Several stops can share a name: a train heading for that name takes the nearest free one. If all are taken, it drives to the nearest and waits in front of it.

The train window

Use the rail under a train to open its window. There you can:

• see the status (idle, moving, at stop, waiting at signal, no path, no fuel), the destination, fuel and cargo,
• add fuel from your inventory and take out the cargo,
• set wagon slot filters from the current cargo, or clear them,
• switch between Automatic and Manual,
• pick up the last vehicle (cargo included),
• edit the schedule.

Schedules

A schedule is a list of stop names. For each stop you add departure conditions. Any one condition is enough to leave:

Condition	The train leaves when …
Full	all wagons are full
Empty	all wagons are empty
Time	it has waited this many seconds
Inactivity	nothing was loaded or unloaded for this many seconds
Item count	the wagons hold at least this many of an item (take the item in your hand when you add the condition)

A stop with no condition is left at once.

Driving by hand

Choose Drive in the train window and you ride on the locomotive. Walk forward to accelerate; crouch to get off. In manual mode the train goes straight ahead at switches and the schedule pauses.

Signals

	Rail Signal	Chain Signal
Epoch	2	2
Unlocked by	Rail Signals	Rail Signals
Size	1 × 1	1 × 1
Recipe	5 Steel Plate + 1 Electronic Circuit	5 Steel Plate + 1 Electronic Circuit

Without signals the whole rail network is a single block, so only one train can move safely. Signals split it into blocks, and only one train may be in a block.

• Place a signal right next to the rail, with its lenses facing the oncoming train. It guards that direction only.
• Rail Signal: green when the block behind it is free, red when a train is in it or has reserved it.
• Chain Signal: lets a train through only if all blocks behind it up to the next Rail Signal are free. Use it in front of crossings and junctions, so trains never stop in the middle of one.
• A train never drives into cells occupied by another train, even without signals.

Warnings and the map

Every train appears on the world map. A train without fuel or without a path is marked as stuck, and you get the warning "A train is stuck (no fuel or no path)" with its position. See Status Icons and Warnings.

You can disable a Train Stop with the signal network: trains do not head for a stop that is switched off. Its train signal tells the network when a train is waiting there.

See also

• Grabbers
• Fluids
• Signals and Programmable Interface
• Goblins