Episode 22 is another live stream, and this time the trains finally show up. After a quick look at an iron patch taken over since the last episode and a wall of turrets rebuilt where a stretch of them was destroyed, Basket pipes lubricant across the base for a second engine line. Then the first locomotive and cargo wagons get built, and most of the hour goes into learning how they work. By the end a two-wagon train runs on its own between a loading stop and an unloading stop, the unloading is far too slow, and Rail signals is researching.
Catching up, and the bigger engines
The opening tour covers work done off camera. Engines are now being made, and an iron patch farther down the map has been taken over, with defenses built "going all the way down." The mines there are "producing faster, more stuff than I can really use," though the laser turrets cause "power issues" every time they fire. Then a surprise from after the last episode: a whole stretch of turrets had been destroyed. Basket has rebuilt it as "a wall of turrets" with a couple of laser turrets mixed in.
Next is the other engine. It needs the first engines, green circuits and lubricant, and the lubricant is stored "far away." Basket runs a pipe along the fortified line to a new assembler, with a filter inserter pulling green chips off a belt. "So this is going to make the bigger engines." When fighting picks up nearby, another layer of turrets goes in, fed by a splitter and a filter inserter set to take only ammo.
The first locomotive
With the bigger engines started, Basket turns to trains. The locomotive's tooltip reads "Runs automated schedules and pulls cargo wagons." Basket makes one locomotive, two cargo wagons, and rail from stone and steel, calling it "sort of experimenting." The game pops up "Getting on track: Build a Diesel locomotive."
The first stretch of track goes down along the defensive line, and the train goes on it. Where the rail crosses belts, the belts go underground. Fuel is a puzzle ("diesel fuel huh"), but the locomotive takes the fuel the base already has too much of, which the commentary later calls "that solid fuel that I don't want."
No path
A test schedule sends the train between two stops with a short wait at each. It does not move: "No path." The train cannot just back up, so "it needs to go around in a circle." Basket crafts more rail, running short of steel and then stone. A loop goes in near the base, and the curves need room: "it's like a real train it needs like a lot of space to turn around."
A train stop goes in on the straight, and the commentary works out that it "has to be on this side if it's going be coming from this direction." Beside it Basket lays inserters and belts to empty the wagons, "a very weirdly designed thing just to give it a test."
Iron at the far end
At the other end Basket cuts down trees and lays a second loop with a loading stop. A splitter takes iron off a belt so inserters can fill the wagons. The schedule says to wait at one stop until the cargo is empty and at the other until it is full. On the first try the train still points at a stop that no longer exists, so Basket fixes the schedule and it sets off. "Oh, that thing was really fast." After a few tries with the Enter key, Basket is riding it.
Filling the wagons takes a long time. The commentary weighs it up: "I still don't think it's necessarily more efficient than this conveyor belt," but "the advantage of the trains is that you can reuse the same train track for different stuff."
Rail signals, and an attack
While the wagons fill, Basket opens the research screen and starts Rail signals. Its tooltip says a rail signal "Defines the rail system into blocks, allowing multiple trains to run on the same network." Then an attack hits nearby. A stretch of turrets has stopped getting ammo; Basket fixes the belt ("you suddenly now have ammunition") and adds more turrets.
Where it ends
To move things along, Basket sends the train to the unloading stop by hand from the locomotive's controls. It is quick on the track, but emptying is slow: "it's gonna take a while to empty it out with just this." Loading, the commentary says, "actually works fairly well." The plans are more fuel for the locomotive, maybe a buffer, and stack inserters to empty the wagons faster, plus defending the line "unless the monsters don't attack the railroad." The research box reads Rail signals. "Thank you everybody for coming," and the video ends at the base beside the train line.
