How big/detailed can a Trainz tunnel get?

O

opus722

Electric Love!
The NS (ex-SOU) Appalachia District passes through a natural geological formation appropriately named "Natural Tunnel". I'd always considered something like this impossible to replicate in Trainz given that the tunnel, which is really a limestone cave, is 80ft high, 200ft wide, 850ft long, and also has a stream running through it. However, someone else's project made me wonder if people more experienced in this sort stuff could confirm or disprove my suspicions. I would think, if it is possible, it would involve either making a massive tunnel spline with an inordinate amount of digholes or something like a daylighted cut in the mountain and covering it up with a false roof. A few photos if you don't know what I am talking about:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/173546/
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=443334&nseq=3
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=424815&nseq=11
http://photoseek.photoshelter.com/image/I0000th.g.jQ5GfE (inside view)
 
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Well I figure the model itself is no big deal since plenty of content creators here have made more complex objects than that. It's more of what to do with it in game since it is too irregular to make a reasonable spline with and I don't know how you could orient a standard object and route track through it to replicate it.
 
I made the more famous portal where the state park's viewing platform is with some of the Amphitheater Cliffs just to try it. Trainz terrain wouldn't be able to properly do those either, but that is a another subject. Locomotive is there for a scale reference:



Now, once I had a model to play with I started thinking that the process would be similar to building any tunnel, but on a more complex scale - 1) Place tunnel object and sink it into the hillside 2) Cut down the terrain around the entrances to hide it and use digholes to cover up anything that can't be tucked away 3) Create a custom track spline to properly model the way the railbed goes through the tunnel and route it 4) Run a water spline through the tunnel beside the track to replicate Stock Creek.

It's hard to see in the photos, but there is a short man made tunnel that punches through the cliffs opposite the major Natural Tunnel. The track then crosses Stock Creek and enters Natural Tunnel in the space of about 100 feet. I have no experience with surveyor other than laying track to simulate operations so I have no idea how feasible any of this is.
 
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