Making a city route??

[colhad]

Hi folks

I'm just struggling for ideas at the moment as to what I should do next with a route I've just started.

My plan is to make a city route, but just not sure what to do. I have a couple of screenies to show what I've done to begin with.





I'm thinking of using elevated walls around the tracks, either over or under if you get what I mean.

I know an easy thing to do is just place buildings side by side along a road, but I find that gets a bit boring. I'd like to be a bit more adventurous I guess.

Is anyone working on a city route, we are in the Surveyor forums but I'd like to see screenies of any city routes you are working on. Just so I can get some ideas.

I am also after suggestions as to how to go about making a realistic, detailed city.

Thanks folks.

 

[Steveo241]

Make them follow a river like in chicago, make the side between the tracks and the river grass and make a park, being accesible by a grade crossing pedestrian or car and put benches and swings in there and maybe even a bike path that sprawls throughout the city vicinity.

Steveo241 :wave:

 

[bchester]

Hello Colhad,

This is just a suggestion - since you are creating a city route perhaps you could load up google earth or similar and check a few cities you find interesting. This way, you can get a feel for how the city was formed. Most are based around rivers and or industries which were the reason they grew from villages or towns. Check out the rail lines and see if any interest you and use them as your guidelines. You can also use city maps for reference as well.

If possible travel around your city, town, or municipality to see what the structures look like, how they interact with the community and then see if you can find similar items on the DLS / internet or even create those structures your self using GMax or one of the other 3d tools out there.

Have fun with the project

Brian

 

[thepacesetter]

most modern cities have a public transport system as well - wich could increase oprerational potential . Things such as bus stops, ü-bahn staircases/signs, s-bahn, tramways could be ideas.

 

[ish6]

Hi Colhad,

As you know I am a huge traction faction fan, so allow me to pour my 2 cents here... :hehe:

I guess one approach would be like this:

1 baseboard ...
Place elevated, etc track on the center and straighten it.
Create whatever around it: streets, buildings are each side.
Then paint the board black (the whole board) -- continue adding boards ...
Every 2 boards have stations. (You can also have walls surrounding the tree for an underground effect but no roof, so you can see the buildings exterior's as you drive your train.)

Along the way is where you must be creative, in way, but it might be time consuming...

1. Between stations, you can have workers on the tracks which will force the train to stop and wait for a yellow signal.

2. Torch a building by adding Richo's fire and smoke effect and his fire trucks and firefighters. This will force the train to stop or take a different track.

3. Other scenarios can be construction on a single track which would force the train to switch to another track.

4. Also force the train to stop due to a sick passenger, etc ... since I was raise in NYC I have encounter all and more of these scenarios, etc ...

Anyhow, good luck my friend and I'll keep an eye on this thread in case you do decide and go forward with your plans!!:wave:

Ishie

 

[Tokkyu40]

Plenty of off street parking. When I look at the satellite pictures of cities I'm amazed at how much of them is asphalt and concrete parking rather than building.
One or two large parks, plus a lot of little pocket size parks tucked into odd corners. Even downtown Tokyo has a fair number of little parks barely big enough for a swingset, monkey bars and a few trees. If you check out your city, you'll probably come across a few.
Ciyies tend to be built in zones, with an area of mostly older residential, grimy industrial or gleaming skyscrapers. These zones are never solid blocks, so you'll frequently find a little two story apartment building surviving between new 20 story office buildings.
And last, I've noticed that skyscrapers tend to cluster together in tha average city, with a few downtown for the office and financial district and the tall hotels clustered near the waterfront or along a ridge with good views.

Claude

 

[MetroNorthFan]

regarding track elevation vis-a-vis the rest of your environment, I am currently working on a large region that includes multiple urban areas, including the largest, a city called Halsiburg which will be absolutely HUGE.

One of the things I've done is to put most of my tracks on either embankments or into cuttings. It's a handy way to build the tracks and provide grade separation where needed which is most of the trackage (most of what I'm doing involves passenger services, TGVs and a Metro system). But in certain areas, such as Halsiburg City Centre, which will be jam-packed with towers and whatnot, I run the track on a viaduct and can have buildings right up the edge.

To make good viaducts, look for tracks that either have no ballast or translucency, but where you need 3rd rail for a Metro style line, there are some 3rd rail tracks that come with Trainz (2006 SP1 at least) that can be used.

Look in Splines and you'll see a bunch of concrete decks. 1t, 2t, 3t 4t, all without colour tops like Grass, LGray, DGray etc. Use the spline "Bridge Pier Stone" or "Bridge Pylon" track objects to show support for the deck. I'll post some pics later of a section of track I've called the Halsiburg Viaduct for some inspiraton for what you might try to do.

 

[MetroNorthFan]

Ok heres one pic of a section of the Halsiburg Viaduct, a short-ish distance elevated section through the City Centre of my route's main city - this viaduct connects the less busy downtown commercial section with an interchange station where all the skyscrapers are, and one of the few points (Halsiburg Central station) where this Metro line interchanges with the main line.

This shot is looking away from Halsiburg Central towards the downtown, the suburbs and the Airport, but as you can see it's clearly within the city centre and I've used the Viaduct to easily place large buildings right beside the track.


Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

The spline for that viaduct is Concrete Bridge 2t DGray, and the support pillars are under Track Objects, Bridge Plyon Lg and Bridge Pylon Sm (there is a Bridge Pylon 1 but that should only be used with the NSW bridge track).
The spline Bridge Pier Stone can also be used with this.

 

[ish6]

Ok heres one pic of a section of the Halsiburg Viaduct, a short-ish distance elevated section through the City Centre of my route's main city - this viaduct connects the less busy downtown commercial section with an interchange station where all the skyscrapers are, and one of the few points (Halsiburg Central station) where this Metro line interchanges with the main line.

This shot is looking away from Halsiburg Central towards the downtown, the suburbs and the Airport, but as you can see it's clearly within the city centre and I've used the Viaduct to easily place large buildings right beside the track.


Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

The spline for that viaduct is Concrete Bridge 2t DGray, and the support pillars are under Track Objects, Bridge Plyon Lg and Bridge Pylon Sm (there is a Bridge Pylon 1 but that should only be used with the NSW bridge track).
The spline Bridge Pier Stone can also be used with this.

very nice set up!!! :wave:
Ishie

 

[Iced8383]

Oftentimes, i will just use monorail track and trams and see what happens. :hehe:

 

[StorkNest]

I would ask back what type of city are you after?
One that looks pretty new or recently had a facelift with new/freshly paved roads? Or one with some wear with cracked roads? Or somewhere in between?
Same with buildings. A brand new industrial park? Or a time worn area with some abandonded/condemed buildings?
I get ideas and questions like this from watching shows like the one I saw tonight about Corrosion & Decomposition. They talked a bit about Corrosion's effect on our society including city passenger transit, highways and buildings.
Get some details worked out as to what type of city you envision on the route and some answers will come to you.

 

[paulzmay]

Ask yourself where in the world the city is first. There's an awful lot of difference between European and American cities, with most Aussie cities having some elements of each. A good urban route should give a feel for the location.

Retaining walls and cuttings are a common feature in most urban environments (though not much in Adelaide). Bear in mind it's really easy to overdo the scenery on urban routes and bring even a fast computer to it's knees.

I've been working on a largish UK urban route for some while now. This thread may give you some inspiration: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=955

Look forward to seeing more...

Paul

 

[ish6]

Ask yourself where in the world the city is first. There's an awful lot of difference between European and American cities, with most Aussie cities having some elements of each. A good urban route should give a feel for the location.

Retaining walls and cuttings are a common feature in most urban environments (though not much in Adelaide). Bear in mind it's really easy to overdo the scenery on urban routes and bring even a fast computer to it's knees.

I've been working on a largish UK urban route for some while now. This thread may give you some inspiration: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=955

Look forward to seeing more...

Paul

Just checked out your thread -- will give anyone inspiration, indeed! Superb work!!:wave:

Ish

 

[colhad]

I believe I am getting somewhere, I have begun a thread in screenies forum showing a couple of early shots.

 

[AmtrakP42]

Underground

I am currently working modeling the track layout from Seattle to Everett, Washington USA. Both Everett and Seattle use tunnels to get the mains through the bulk of the city.

 

[MetroNorthFan]

very nice set up!!! :wave:
Ishie

Thanks ish6

Paulzmay
man your route puts mine to shame.:'(

 

[JCitron]

Colhad,

I have a few smallish cities on my route with Eastport being the largest. I got a lot of my inspiration from the cities near me like Haverhill, Lawrence and Lowell as mill towns, and Boston as the central hub.

I put my passenger terminal in the downtown section of Eastport, and the tracks come in through a cut after crossing over the river on some truss bridges. Above the cut are tall buildings (dmdrake's cityscape series) to give the impression that the city is all around the station. There are a couple of roads through the city forming a loop and a couple of crossovers these are for traffic and a tram line that runs around with stops at various locations like Riverside Apartments, Museum, etc. The trolley line then crosses over the river on a road/rail bridge to Radford Park to turn around and repeat.

This little bit of extra traffic, with the trains pulling in and out of the terminal, trams crossing the bridges and tall buildings, you get the feeling of being in a city that's larger than it really is.

I forgot to mention that in addition to the rail lines, I also have a highway that runs along the river and then up over the harbor on a high bridge.

One of the things that helps in making the cities look realistic is using many similar buildings clustered together. I have a "historical section" in Easport and at Willows Point where I used some old brick buildings from the UK and the Netherlands. These look like our Colonial and Georgian style buildings we have up here in New England. The Easport historical area has a large park and the buildings line a brick pathway up a hill. This area looks really neat when coming in over the bridge towards the passenger terminal.

I hope this gives you some ideas. When I get a chance, I'll post some updated pictures of my route.

John