funnnyfarm
New member
I am trying to merge a couple of routes, the first one is at 365m and the other is at 25m in height. Is there a way to bring one up or down? So they would be close when merging. Thanks funnnyfarm
height
- Thread starter funnnyfarm
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cascaderailroad
New member
Use backdrop/backgrounds and Portal/iPortal ... either that or a really huge helix 340m high
blueodessey
Well-known member
Hello funny farm, I have been in your predicament more times than I care to admit,(taking the 5th here!)....
So here is something you can do also.......
Take your route and save a copy to like TEMP_My Routes Name,,,,,,whatever, so can try this and not have to worry about any unforeseen errors, and trust me, you don't want problems with all the work you've done with your Route to this point.
Take the Temp Route file and add about 10 baseboards parallel anywhere on your route close to where you might merge this other Route you like, then just take a piece of Track and draw it out straight across those new baseboards. Make the first start of new Rail 25m, and the other end of it 365m, you probably need to add some splines in there? Then check then check the Grade of that Temp Track, to see what the % in rise it is....This is quick and doesn't take more than 10-15 mins I would think to see how steep the difference is between your route and the one your connecting, also, look at the new route, as to where it connects, to see if there is part you drop some elevation, and possibly raise a little bit on your Route, that may be all you need to make it work.....
I usually have to add blank tiles to some of my Merges that have height issues, there is no easier way with exception of what other folks said here, IPortals, and/or Helix will get the Job done, but still it takes time, I for one have never drawn a Helix, and I don't know that I could.
Also one other thought just came to me, you could run a heck of a long Tunnel into the side of the new Route and come up underground ground, but you'd still need those blank tiles to buffer the height difference of 25-365, probably make it look like the Rockies on one side, I don't know, but necessity is the mother of invention.
Edit:
Mr's Bleu came in and I lost the rest of my Train of Thought, (actually was time for dinner) never keep a lady waiting!
So what I wanted to say, we r just doing a quick and dirty setup to see what it might look like visually between the two routes and even if it doesn't work as intended at least you can see the level the track will look like when it transverses the difference in height. I had a merge route of difference of 1000' and thought I could lower the other one and redo the hill heights but it was too complicated and I had to disband the idea after seeing I could do it that way.
However with 300m I think you might be able to pull it off, another thing,with the Tiles, you could have a mountain ranges dividing your the 2 routes to have say the track going up 1/2 on one side and then curve around and climb the other 1/2 height, like a loop back?
I hope this makes sense, also you can make curves in the straight distance, which actually allows your Track a longer distance to climb the difference in height between routes.
I hope this may help you......
So here is something you can do also.......
Take your route and save a copy to like TEMP_My Routes Name,,,,,,whatever, so can try this and not have to worry about any unforeseen errors, and trust me, you don't want problems with all the work you've done with your Route to this point.
Take the Temp Route file and add about 10 baseboards parallel anywhere on your route close to where you might merge this other Route you like, then just take a piece of Track and draw it out straight across those new baseboards. Make the first start of new Rail 25m, and the other end of it 365m, you probably need to add some splines in there? Then check then check the Grade of that Temp Track, to see what the % in rise it is....This is quick and doesn't take more than 10-15 mins I would think to see how steep the difference is between your route and the one your connecting, also, look at the new route, as to where it connects, to see if there is part you drop some elevation, and possibly raise a little bit on your Route, that may be all you need to make it work.....
I usually have to add blank tiles to some of my Merges that have height issues, there is no easier way with exception of what other folks said here, IPortals, and/or Helix will get the Job done, but still it takes time, I for one have never drawn a Helix, and I don't know that I could.
Also one other thought just came to me, you could run a heck of a long Tunnel into the side of the new Route and come up underground ground, but you'd still need those blank tiles to buffer the height difference of 25-365, probably make it look like the Rockies on one side, I don't know, but necessity is the mother of invention.
Edit:
Mr's Bleu came in and I lost the rest of my Train of Thought, (actually was time for dinner) never keep a lady waiting!
So what I wanted to say, we r just doing a quick and dirty setup to see what it might look like visually between the two routes and even if it doesn't work as intended at least you can see the level the track will look like when it transverses the difference in height. I had a merge route of difference of 1000' and thought I could lower the other one and redo the hill heights but it was too complicated and I had to disband the idea after seeing I could do it that way.
However with 300m I think you might be able to pull it off, another thing,with the Tiles, you could have a mountain ranges dividing your the 2 routes to have say the track going up 1/2 on one side and then curve around and climb the other 1/2 height, like a loop back?
I hope this makes sense, also you can make curves in the straight distance, which actually allows your Track a longer distance to climb the difference in height between routes.
I hope this may help you......
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Blue's got some good ideas, there. You haven't told us what kinds of trains you're running, but assuming modern Class 1 railroad freight trains, you can take your cues from the BNSF's Cajon Sub, which has a ruling grade of 2.3 percent, or 2.3 meters rise for every hundred meters of run. (They actually have curves which add to the grade rating for the line, at plus .04 percent for each degree of curvature in the track, but we can ignore that calculation.) At 2.3 percent on a straight piece of track, you'll gain or lose 17.25 meters of elevation per layout tile/board. Given the 340 meter difference in elevation, that works out to just under 20 tiles/boards, which you can shorten by putting S-curves in your main line up the "hill." What you'd end up with is operationally prototypical...take a look at the west side of Cajon Pass, though. Not exactly Rockies, more like rolling hills on top of rolling hills on top of more rolling hills. It would be a lot of work to shape the terrain by hand, but you could do it with some practice, and it would make for an interesting section of your layout.
What version of Trainz? In theory it should be very easy to do and the older the version the easier it should be.
If you have a copy of TransDem there is an option to change the elevation of the entire route. Roland has a warning that indicates it is not fool proof in all cases and strongly advises you backup the entire route if you want to use this option. IIRC it worked fairly well in older versions of Trainz. I have not used TD to do this but I have my own utilities that can do it in UTC thru TRS06. [EDIT: I just tried TD on a 2 board route in TS12 with track and a few scenery objects and it worked fine.] I think up to TS09 you only had to rewrite 3 files that contained any height data - gnd, trk and obj. That's probably still the case but I have not kept up with the new changes.
I'll take a pass on this opportunity to bash N3V on not following thru on Auran's decision to provide mapfile formats to the user community. I found it very short sighted on their part. There are a number of useful utilities that could have been developed if they had chosen to continue it. Re TransDem, I always had this image of Roland leading a squadron of undergrads hacking away at the inners of the Trainz mapfiles. He's done a good job of it in any case - without help from N3V - and thank God he has.
Sorry, I couldn't let it pass entirely.
Back on topic. This won't make for a seamless merge. You will still have to add some bridge boards to fake in a some continuity in the terrain.
Bob Pearson
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funnnyfarm
New member
Thanks everybody. I'd like to try the helix. I think there is a place in europe that has a couple of helix. I am running trainz a new era on a mac. I remember (I think) 2006 had something about changing height when merging. Anyway time to experiment. I feel like frankenstein's creature the mad scientist. funnyfarm
cascaderailroad
New member
Making a helix is pretty tough. I made one on a 1 baseboard route, and made a circle with 4 spline points, disconnected the end 4th spline point, and moved it, and all the rest (5, 6, 7, 8 ... etc ... aside a just tad ... raised each spline point by 10m, the second 20m, the 3rd 40m, the 4th 40m ... and so on and so on, until I had many, many laps ... then I looked down directly from above and lined up all the spline points
A helix will take many minutes for a train to appear, and will take many hours and days to complete ... My recommendation is use a Portal, as a train will appear in 1 minute
A helix will take many minutes for a train to appear, and will take many hours and days to complete ... My recommendation is use a Portal, as a train will appear in 1 minute
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