Advice Please

[TomBauman]

Hi,

I am brand new to Model Railroading and have just purchased and installed TRS2006. I have printed and am working my way through the Users Manual.

I do not see this issue addressed anywhere. Perhaps it's there but I can't find it.

I know that each Baseboard is 720m x 720m and each square in the grid is 10m x 10m. I know how to add Baseboards using the Extend Function.

My question concerns scaling the railroad. I saw something called Working Scale and Real Scale, but I found no description of what they mean. I am not familiar with Model Railroad Scales, ie: HO Gauge, N Gauge, etc.

How do I scale my Railroad? If I am building a 200 mile long line do I require 5000 squares? I'm not sure how this is done.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Tom

 

[Shortline2]

Hi,

In Trainz every thing is is 1:1 scale - but as a "leftover" from the "younger Trainz" days there is something called Scale in the program that you can use to sort of scale a plan from a model railroad or something.
As a extension of that you have a Ruler that will show various lengths depending on which scale you set up the map in.

The downside with this is that the ground grid is still 10m and the baseboard is still 720x720m - and all that happens is that the ruler sort of changes the measurement shown - so the smaller the scale, the smaller the length shown on the ruler -> and the worse impact on ground you get from the always existing 10m grid...

I always looked at the scales as a left over from the early Trainz dream about being a virtual model railroad, but quite never found any good use of it - so I always work in the 1:1 scale.

If you want to build in for instance H0 you just set up the map with H0 scale and use the rulers and mathematic to set out your track and items - they will always be in 1:1 size anyway - but you will need a lot less baseboards to reach the 200 mile length.

Hope this helps some?

Best of luck - and plenty of good wishes for your adventures into virtual Model Railroading, the one place where space is sort of unlimited.

Linda

 

[Kelly88]

I aslo tend to work only with real scale
This week I tried to reproduce a real model layout that had been done in N Scale but it was impossible
after marking out the base board size I then tried to position the 2 tunnels on the layout, problem was with 4 tunel entrance/exits there was no room left within the boundry lines set out (5ft6ins x 3ft)

So yesterday we scraped this idear and have started the layout just using 1 board , so far it is working OK

only problem npw is wi have to make a slight modification to the track layout as on the model with 1 tunnel it goes in as a 2 track entrance but comes out in 2 different exits, I have not found a way in trainz to do this
we need a tunnel section to split the 2 in tracks to 4 tracks inside the tunnel !!?

 

[Shortline2]

Hi Kelly88

Using the tunnels in Trainz is very limiting, and there are no way to have them to split without breaking the tunnel with a short piece of track between two tunnels.

In order to make a junction inside the tunnel, you either have to break it in two parts as above, or you have to use tunnels that are not tunnels for the game engine, but normal track - even if they look like tunnels.

There are some of this type out there, I suppose some are on the DLS, but as I don't use them (I made my own ) I can't point you to any - but maybe one of the readers of this thread might help further.
This tunnels are set up like track, and in order to get a hole through the ground one needs a so-called dig-hole item - with a normal Trainz tunnel, they are sort of built into the tunnel, but that again limits the user to only 90/45 degree angles to a gridpoint, a limit not on the "track tunnels".
They only limits you to fit inside a grid or two, any angles might work.

The hardest part with "track tunnels" is to hide the large 10x10m opening - but it is manageable.

Hope this helps some?

Best wishes for the new year BTW

Linda

 

[Merv0728]

Real scale

To me the 10meter square seems all wrong anyway.
I placed a carriage on a piece of track & lined it up with the edge of a square & it takes up 2 and a half squares, 25meters. A consist of 8 carriages ,say, would be 200 meters long, which although I haven't any measurements to go on I don't think can be correct.
Any thoughts anyone ?

Alan

 

[geophil]

German carriages built for Deutsche Bundesbahn were either 26.40 m or 27.50 m.

 

[Merv0728]

Real Scale

Hi Geophil, well i have found some carriage dimension & i am completly wrong. The carriages I was talking about were the BR HST MK3 which apparently are 23m in length. It still seems too long to me but then I haven't been on a train for years.
Anyway we all live & Learn.

Alan

 

[SuperFudd]

If you want to see a model RR layout that looks like a model railrod layout only using a small portion of a base board, try "N Scale" on the download station.
I once built a 5.5 ft by 10 ft N scale layout in the garage. I got it about 70% completed before tearing it down. When I got Trainz I built it, finally finished it, using a full base board giving me broader curves and longer "straight aways" with a few more sidings. It is on the DLS as Elko and Lincoln TRS. Please check it out.

 

[Harry_James_Potter]

To me the 10meter square seems all wrong anyway.
I placed a carriage on a piece of track & lined it up with the edge of a square & it takes up 2 and a half squares, 25meters. A consist of 8 carriages ,say, would be 200 meters long, which although I haven't any measurements to go on I don't think can be correct.
Any thoughts anyone ?

Alan

Depends on the type of coach... Figures are a rough guess...

BR built Mark 1s and 2s are 64ft.
BR Built Mark 3s and 4s are 72ft.
The EPB style coaches are 65ft
The MLVs are 67ft.
First gen DMMUs are nearly all 57ft apart from some of them that were 64ft.
ElectroDON'Tstarts are nearly all built to 68ft (tightness of curves and resulting closeness to buildings in London being the reason why.)

8 coaches stretching over 200m sounds right to me.

regards

Harry