Advice on L-rail lines

[Lo_Poly]

I was wondering if anyone here could share advice or thoughts on creating realistic elevated rail lines in Trainz, possibly similar to the Chicago L? I have to admit, I don't have any talent in this area. What I've created so far has always either been functional and good-looking, but completely unrealistic, or vice versa (hmm... these kinds of trade-offs seem to be a recurring theme for me :hehe.

-Chris

 

[JCitron]

I was wondering if anyone here could share advice or thoughts on creating realistic elevated rail lines in Trainz, possibly similar to the Chicago L? I have to admit, I don't have any talent in this area. What I've created so far has always either been functional and good-looking, but completely unrealistic, or vice versa (hmm... these kinds of trade-offs seem to be a recurring theme for me :hehe.

-Chris

Hi Chris,

Try looking at Bing maps and the bird's eye view of areas you want to model. I have found this to be valuable for track layouts such as elevated lines, yard, and station areas.

EL-tracks can be difficult because they vary from region to region, and because they are generally custom to the area being modelled. What is interesting, and perhaps a little bit more thought could go into this later, the modern way of building mass-transit lines is to use existing steam road (regular railroad) ROW for the transit lines. All they have done then is to replace the existing rail and added the 3rd rail or catenery, or left the existing track and added the electric service.

Check out the Blue Line in Boston where they added the catenery for when the T comes out of the subway. The Orange and Red lines, for example, are 3rd rail running on the existing ROWs of the former B&M and NH main lines.

John

John