any prototypical Atlanta & West Point routes for trainz?

[sfdfghhjh]

I want a place to run the a&wp locomotive by k&l trainz. sorry if im picky but im mainly looking for a route that is relatively recently made, prototypical, good looking/high quality scenery and isnt some giant mega route. im also looking for routes like this for western maryland, erie, b&o, etc. similar quality to routes by switchback simulations

 

[sfdfghhjh]

ive still been looking but i cant find any, i like making routes for train sim classic but im very new to routebuilding in trainz. gonna try giving it a go, gonna make the a&wp route from West Point to LaGrange. havent even started it yet while typing this and therefore i might change the destination over time, but i know it will start in west point

 

[JCitron]

ive still been looking but i cant find any, i like making routes for train sim classic but im very new to routebuilding in trainz. gonna try giving it a go, gonna make the a&wp route from West Point to LaGrange. havent even started it yet while typing this and therefore i might change the destination over time, but i know it will start in west point

Since this is your first route in Trainz, start small and plan on trashing a lot before working on the real route. While the tools are easy to use, there's a bit of a learning curve to get to the satisfaction level you are expecting.

I recommend starting with test routes to learn the tools and get used to the interface. There are times when using the old Classic Surveyor is faster than the new Surveyor 2.0. There's a guide for S2.0 on the Wiki as well as some other documentation on how to use this new version of the age-old Classic Surveyor.

Open up other people's routes to see how they're constructed. You'll be surprised by the number of objects required to fill a scene. Keep this in mind as you build your own route because the more content you add can impact the performance later on, and believe me, it's easy to keep adding stuff in Surveyor. The true test comes when you start driving and find that you've got a slide show in a particular area.

Plan on scrapping a lot of routes, if I had a nickel for every route I threw away, I'd be a millionaire today. Unlike a physical model railroad, we can scrap, trash, and rebuild without spending a dime and making a mess.

As time goes on and you become familiar with the tools and get the hang of track-laying, you can then start on your own route. Hand sculpting terrain is time-consuming even with the more advanced tools in Surveyor 2.0.

If you are serious about prototypical routes, you may want to invest in a third-party program called TransDEM. TransDEM will allow you to import real-world DEM data, topographic maps, and even orthographic images and export a route that's fully editable and ready for your route building.

TransDEM is worth its approximate $30 price and then some, but it does come with a long learning curve to achieve what you want to do.

By all means, I'm not trying to discourage you here. Route building is a big part of what makes Trainz and if you want to achieve what you want, you need to learn the tools.

 

[sfdfghhjh]

Since this is your first route in Trainz, start small and plan on trashing a lot before working on the real route. While the tools are easy to use, there's a bit of a learning curve to get to the satisfaction level you are expecting.

I recommend starting with test routes to learn the tools and get used to the interface. There are times when using the old Classic Surveyor is faster than the new Surveyor 2.0. There's a guide for S2.0 on the Wiki as well as some other documentation on how to use this new version of the age-old Classic Surveyor.

Open up other people's routes to see how they're constructed. You'll be surprised by the number of objects required to fill a scene. Keep this in mind as you build your own route because the more content you add can impact the performance later on, and believe me, it's easy to keep adding stuff in Surveyor. The true test comes when you start driving and find that you've got a slide show in a particular area.

Plan on scrapping a lot of routes, if I had a nickel for every route I threw away, I'd be a millionaire today. Unlike a physical model railroad, we can scrap, trash, and rebuild without spending a dime and making a mess.

As time goes on and you become familiar with the tools and get the hang of track-laying, you can then start on your own route. Hand sculpting terrain is time-consuming even with the more advanced tools in Surveyor 2.0.

If you are serious about prototypical routes, you may want to invest in a third-party program called TransDEM. TransDEM will allow you to import real-world DEM data, topographic maps, and even orthographic images and export a route that's fully editable and ready for your route building.

TransDEM is worth its approximate $30 price and then some, but it does come with a long learning curve to achieve what you want to do.

By all means, I'm not trying to discourage you here. Route building is a big part of what makes Trainz and if you want to achieve what you want, you need to learn the tools.

thank you very much for your advice. however, I am probably not actually going to commit to this project.

I really enjoy modeling prototypical routes, but when I do so, I want them to be as realistic as possible. to do this, my first step is to import a digital elevation model.

unfortunately, to do this in Trainz, I have to get TransDEM. not only is this program 30 dollars, but it is also extremely outdated and difficult to use. I simply dont have the patience to spend multiple hours learning how to use one program just so i can import terrain to Trainz. until N3V games comes out with a more streamlined way to do this, I'm probably just gonna stick to train sim classic.

I obviously didn't realize this until I already posted a reply saying that I was going to make a route. I tried deleting this thread so I wouldn't waste anyones time but that either isnt possible or i just have no idea how.

thank you so much anyway!! if/when Trainz has a better way to import DEMs, I will absolutely start developing routes using your advice.

 

[JCitron]

There's a possibility that these kinds of tools may be integrated in the future. N3V recently had the community fill out a survey on future additions and updates for the Trainz franchise. Included in the survey, among other really cool things that could happen, was the addition of TransDEM-like capabilities. When and if it will happen is the magic question.

With that said, there's no reason why you can't enjoy Trainz and learn Surveyor. Many people start by building routes manually and in some cases continue to do so rather than use TransDEM. It takes a bit of work measuring and converting topographic measurements into meters, and using various built-in tools to achieve the same thing.

TransDEM is not that difficult to use once you go through the tutorials. Like many programs, there are a lot of features that you'll never use or rarely use. After going through the tutorials, I imported my first DEM files and started building routes with that. I've worked on multiple projects with it and being a Trainz route the files can be merged into other routes or edited to create what if scenarios.

One of the projects I've been working on off and on is the NY&GL, a short line that became part of the Erie. The northern portion of this line was abandoned in the late 20s and early 30s when a dam was built across its ROW. This was the third dam in the area with Greenwood Lake being one of them. The other at Monksville killed the line.

Using 1930s and 1940s USGS topographic maps in conjunction with a modern DEM, I was able lay track. I've run into some issues due to the lower resolution of these topographic files but for the most part I had some success. The biggest issues I've run into have been recreating the ROW where the reservoir flooded over the ROW. I was lucky that the topographic map still showed the heights where the reservoir was created. Using the heights on the topographic map, I was able to recreate the riverbed and lay the track through the area. This area still requires quite a bit of work to get everything right. On the southern end near Pompton Junction, I had to recreate a hill that was ruined by a Tilcon quarry. The chunk taken out of Federal Hill was similar to a dome cake that a child bit a hole in. Using splines, I bandaged over the hole and recreated the hill.