Episode 21 is another live stream. Trains have just been unlocked, and Basket wants to start on them, but the first look around the base turns up two other problems: not enough iron, and not enough power once the sun goes down. Most of the hour goes into those. Old coal-fired furnaces go back in, an engine line gets built, a second block of steam power goes up by the lake, and then the water supply keeps running dry. By the end the first engine is made, nothing is researching, and the trains are still waiting.
Iron runs short at night
The opening tour covers changes made off camera since the last episode: the copper from the north now feeds straight into both sides of the copper line, and a separate copper line runs to the science area. The science assemblers are full, and blue science even has "a little buffer."
Iron is the problem. "I am terribly short on iron." The commentary blames the electric furnaces that replaced the old ones: "apparently they are much slower, especially when my power is low. So that whole choice was a mistake." At night, with the solar panels doing nothing, iron slows to a trickle.
The fix is "the old style way." Basket clears a spot and puts in four furnaces that burn coal, with a splitter and a filter inserter bringing the coal in, so "if the power is low, we can still produce stuff." One more change: the speed module chips are paused for now, so fewer circuits pull on the iron.
Parts for engines
Trains need engine units, and engine units need steel, gears and pipes. There is no pipe production yet, so Basket builds assemblers for pipes and gears on either side of a belt, steals steel from the furnace line with a filter inserter, and sets an engine assembler at the end. The new line sits idle at first: "I don't have an answer for you yet for the lack of iron."
Then combat breaks out. "Why is there combat? Oh no, run back." The commentary says the laser turrets on that side make the lights flicker whenever they fire. "Here, I'll just turn off the lights." More regular turrets go on the list. Research picks up again with Automated rail transportation.
More steam
When a viewer suggested building more steam power, the commentary agreed: "when I have power everything runs really well." Old dead machines come out to make room, and a new block of boilers and steam engines goes in, with splitters feeding coal down the line and power poles in between. More offshore pumps go in at the lake.
At night it still is not enough. The steam engines report low water. "I'm out of water? That's weird." Water tanks go in to hold some back for the night, then a second pipe line and finally a set of direct pipes to the new block. "Why is the water dropping to nothing?" By the last change the commentary thinks "that might have helped actually," but the answer will have to wait for the next night.
A viewer's question about small pumps leads to the research screen. The small pump is under Fluid handling and needs electric engine units, so it waits. Research runs through Advanced electronics 2, Concrete, Bullet damage 1 and Laser turret shooting speed 2, then Basket stops it: "I don't want to research anything else."
Where it ends
"We spent so much time trying to get the trains, we never got the trains." Basket carries iron to the engine line by hand, fixes an assembler that was not set to engines, and the commentary greets the first engine: "ta-da." A chemical plant is set to make lubricant into storage tanks for later. The research box reads "Press T to start a new research." Next time, the commentary says, is for getting iron settled, and "maybe trains." The video ends on the base at night.
