Once I unlock trains I pretty much tear down my base and switch it over to city blocks dedicated to individual components, each using 1-1 or 1-2 trains for inputs.

I go for 1-1 because I’m bad at trains so every line directly from a single ore patch to a drop off with no signals or overlaps on other tracks.

Usually start with 1-1s and stick to that.

Depends on the map and base, though. Never had a huge megabase that needed more than 1-2s with LTN mod

If I have the option of mods, I’m going LTN every time. If not, it’ll be 1-8-1s, duplicate names, one train per requester station, provider stations disabled by circuit if insufficient supply. No need for stackers - waste of space.

I tried building a grid with two-lane intersections, my trains weren’t able to plan routes where they need to go around a grid cell and turn around (which was definitely possible without using the same rail twice), then I tried troubleshooting it for 1-2 hours and decided to give up on trains until I need them to bring in ore from far away.

I like 1-4 to distribute items in the main factory and 4-12 to carry stuff from the resource outposts