Gantry on a Grade-aka roller coaster ride

[Stewartbf6]

Is there a way to fix this issue, its mostly a visual problem, but if we were actually able to ride our simulation this would be a stomach lurching drop. Probably break some knuckles as well.

I am modeling the Cajon Pass and it is no secret the grade is 2.2-3.0 on this route. I am using the norfolksouthern37's excellent Safetran signals and Safetran Gantry's ( I Love 'em). The problem occurs when the grade the track is on causes one side of the gap you have to create for the gantry is lower/higher than the other side. This causes a FLAT spot and usually forces uphill track down reducing the grade, and downhill track will be forced up, (if it is a long run of vertex free track the upward trend will send the track skyward to dizzying heights). I tried to Roll,not possible or desirable since gantry would be crooked, placed vertex immediately on either side of the gantry to help keep grades even, but this causes the visual roller coaster type movement of the train. The locomotives struggling up hill hit that flat spot, dip down, then suddenly heave upwards when they start up the grade again. HeyWhoeEEE.......it's what I would say.

I have messed around with this for a few days and cannot get a satisfactory result, I am looking for some track laying techniques from someone more experienced than my 8 months that may help me deal with this one issue. Thanks.


(Just as I posted this a thought came to mind to just place gantry over track and not attach it, that way the track will continue it's smooth run.....I will see of that is feasible but would enjoy comments still)

 

[Dermmy]

Easy fix - just don't connect the track to the gantry! You can connect it on level track if you want, but on grades just treat the gantry as a scenery object and ignore the track connections. When placing the signal heads you have to be careful that they associate themselves with the 'real' track and not the attached invisible track, but simply placing a loco temporarily will force an aspect change if the heads are over the actual track.

I never use the 'connected' track. My method is place the signal heads and move them as close as I can to the place I want them, them move a gantry till alignment is as correct as possible, then gently tweak the heads till everything lines up. You will probably find that the gantry needs lowered a bit (about .02 generally). Occasionally the signal heads will not line up exactly at 90 degrees to the track but very slightly rotating the gantry will line everything up and the very slight 'fudge' involved will never be noticed in normal viewing...

Andy

 

[Stewartbf6]

Yes, that is what I found, invisible track as well!! Thanks for the advice, it looks great now.

Stewart

 

[JohnnyC1]

You can make the gantry a scenery object and remove the reference to the track, clone the asset:
rename the kind "buildable"
to
kind "scenery"
change the mesh table to this:
mesh-table
{
default
{
mesh "gantry.lm"
auto-create 1
}
}


and remove the kuid table.

John

 

[Dermmy]

Why on Earth would you bother? Just don't connect the track....

 

[JohnnyC1]

1. I install the gantry then the signals, for me that's eaiser
2. I have some situations where there are four signals on a gantry and it's a lot easy placing them.
3. The signals will line up with the track all of the time without tweaking
4. The signals are easy to replace or change.

John