I was going to respond to a few comments about dg track several posts back but got sidetracked. Might as well take advantage of some free time now:
Normhart, I'd like to let you know something about the dual gauge track featured on that route, particularly the curves. The dual gauge track is set up like bridges, meaning it is not intended to be used on curves. If you want the dual gauge track to curve, you need the 'MAN6 Joining Track' for the standard gauge track, and 'MAN6 Invisible Track' for the narrow gauge track. The way this is also set up makes dual gauge track even more complicated. The dual gauge track is like two separate tracks laid over each other. This means that if you want to use signaling on the dual gauge section or dual gauge switches, you need signals for the narrow gauge track and a separate set of signals for the standard gauge track, and a switchstand for the narrow gauge track and a switchstand for the standard gauge track. Because of this, if a standard gauge train has a red 'stop' signal and the narrow gauge has a green 'proceed' signal, they will literally pass through each other. Also, in the case of dual gauge switches, if the switch is set on the standard gauge track is set to the 'diverging' route, while the narrow gauge is set for the 'normal' route, again a narrow gauge train will pass through a standard gauge train. Because of these reasons, I replaced the dual gauge track with 'MAN6 Four Rail Track', which is set up like any other track for Trainz, though one set of rails is for standard gauge, and the other two rails are for narrow gauge. This also solves the signaling, switches, and curve problems. Just letting you know in case you want to take the extra time to make the change on the dual gauge section.
No. It is possible to have a real dual track. A guy in Portugal did it: 1668 and 1000 dual track. See somewhere in this post:
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?29047-T-TRZ-com Cheers.
@jpereira I only saw a 4 rail version of dual gauge track in your link - In the US most all dual gauge track I'm familiar with is 3 rail with a common rail used by both gauges. I've posted many pics of the dg track like this that I've made since I model the 36"ng East Broad Top RR that has almost 8 miles of dg track in its Mt Union yard and industry tracks. - edited rp
@jordon412 I agree pretty much with your assessment of the problems with bridge type dg track. I don't use it and prefer to lay 2 separate spline tracks (1 for sg and 1 for 36"ng) with the splines set at 10.25 inches apart and have since TRS04 days. My spline points are always duplicated and set normal to each other and in fact are a mathematical offset of 1 spline to create the other and this maintains a constant offset on tangent track and curves. I can work to this kind of accuracy because I don't lay track manually in Surveyor. I use my own utilities to read in 3-D vector data for the track route. The data is in files exported from cad drawing I make of the route. I believe it's as accurate as you can get in Trainz.
The problem with using a 4 rail track like MAN6 is that it's only just 1 track that both gauges run on. While it simplifies the signaling, switching and inter-gauge collisions it also it forces the equipment with different gauges to co-exist on the same "virtural" track. You have nothing stopping different gauge equip from coupling up together or even worse exiting the dual gauge track onto a section of track with the wrong track gauge. You might look into the track group assets and scripting to work around this but I always saw it as a problem and haven't found a way to prevent it - yet. Which is interesting since on the EBT the 2 sg 0-6-0 switchers in MT Union were used to handle both ng and sg consists on the dg track. They had 2 couplers at both ends with the ng one set off center to couple up to ng cars. I had to resort to some specials construction mods to Lee Ferr's generic 0-6-0 that I repainted to represent EBT no 3 so it would work both gauges on the type of track I use.
The 1 st pic is taken in Surveyor and shows the area of the EBT Mt Union yard near the engine house, wye and transfer shed. This is the type of dg track I use. In surveyor you see the orange "invisible in driver" track that carries the ng trains. Sg trains are carried on the visible mesh spline that includes all 3 rails. I could and have used this same mesh for bridge type dg but in this case I use 2 invisible splines to carry the trains. On the EBT the 2 sg switcher always ran facing track direction north. The wye had 1 ng leg and couldn't be used to turn them. There was a very long wye formed by the PRR track around the NARCO brick factory but if they were turned on it the ng couplers would be on the wrong side of loco and tender.
The next shot also in Surveyor shows the turnout leading to the engine house and the one on the end of the ng leg on the wye. As noted in the jordon412's quote the full dg turnout leading to the engine house requires 2 switch levers in Trainz while in real life switch blades for both gauges are controlled by a single lever. What you can't see here in Surveyor is that one of the levers (jn 1244) is "invisible in driver" and is controlled by the visible one (jn308). The turnout (jn100) leading to the ng only track on the wye needs only 1 switch lever and works in the usual way. The red cube near the turnouts is a scenery asset that provides a script to allow the 2 levers to be linked together so one becomes the slave of the other.
The next one is the same set of turnouts taken in Driver with the junction overlays displayed. Using visible and invisible levers linked together with scripting make it look and work like the real 3 rail dg turnouts. This is old track I made long ago that was updated from 2 lod mr track to a 2 lod version of the new spline track and really shows its age. I've discussed using the new proceedural track in TANE. In concept it's similar to bridge type track using attached splines with a lot of extra parts added in. Unlike the old bridge type it will make dg junction automatically and will have 1 of the 3 frogs and sets of check rails and 2 of the 3 movable switch blades. Curves seem to be not much of a problem either. So we can use it and add in some missing parts but not as many as we would if we worked with the new track splines. So the future in TANE is a bit brighter but still partly cloudy.
Anyhow that's TANE and this route in the pics is TS12 and I've discussed the short commings of the PT type track elsewhere in the dev forum. [edited-rp]
Next one is in Surveyor. I think I posted a few pic of this model last year (my repainted and modified version of Lee Ferr's 0-6-0 generic switcher) but I haven't worked on it since. I'm using sg switchers to handle ng consists on the dg track. You can do it easily with 4 rail types of dg like the MAN6. But that's not what the EBT used and I don't want ng cars being dragged along the sg only track where the switcher could run or the sg locos escaping on the ng only sections. The project is a proof of concept that works with limitation that only some scripting will remove. I'm pretty sure I can develop the script to make it all work and only the 0-6-0 loco when it operates with ng consists is affected. I'm not as confident I can fix the collisions between sg and ng consists though that remains to be seen. Some of the new code developed for the interlocking towers in TANE might be usable here when I get the route all ported over. The EBT didn't have any track side signaling except thru the tunnels. So some kind of token system for ownership of a track block will be necessary or something like that for at least the dg track in Mt Union. But that's another subject. The ng cars on my EBT route can never get on the sg track unless they are set out there by mistake in Surveyor or by some rule that adds consists without checking for track compatibility (and I'm not aware of any that do check) and so must be coordinated by the user and I'll be looking into the track group assets for help in that.
The next couple show how the couplers work with sg and ng cars. Pennsy boxcar in background is sg and the EBT hopper in foreground is ng. [edit-rp]
In this one please ignore the fact that the ng coupler on the pilot beam of No 6 is on off center on the wrong side. 8-( Mistakes happen - still under development - and I though I'd fixed that one last year some time. No. 3's is correct and lines up over the centerline of the ng "invisible in driver" track spline.
Last are a couple of pics in driver with No 3 moving along the dg track pulling a string of 5 ng hoppers behind it.
Bob Pearson