steamboateng
New member
Introduction
I have never done a blog before, and since I've just started a new route in TS12, I decided to combine the two and invite you, the reader to participate.
I intend this to be a log, if you will, of activities as I progress through the various stages of route building.
Your comments, suggestions, preferences, techniques and even your criticisms are invited.
Perhaps we can learn a few things together.
The Route
The NE Mass route is just that; a route covering nearly all the Boston & Maine Railroad trackage in northeast Massachusetts. It is a 'historical' route in the sense that it is based on USGS 7.5 Minute quadrangle maps, circa 1942 to 1950. The B & M served the area not only as a primary link to northern New England, but also as a dominant urban freight hauler to Boston's north shore, as well as the north shore's primary commuter rail service. Much of the trackage remains today as MBTA commuter routes. Just about all of the freight facilites are long departed, and overgrown or converted to other usage. Urban freight service in the area is now a part of local railroad lore.
The route covers pehaps 175 miles of trackage.
The Power of TransDEM
An udertaking of this size simply wouldn't be possible without a few good tools. A servicable photo editor is one, Paint Shop Pro 9, in my case, to peice together maps and collect photos of the areas covered. Also invaluable is a word processor for arranging notes and information. A speedy inernet connection is most usefull for collecting that information and photos, as well.
However, the one tool I found most usefull for actual route building is TransDEM. For the uninformed, TransDEM is a program which will generate a DEM (Digital Elevtion Model) from downloaded data, of a specified geograghic area. The program, with route data supplied from georeferenced maps, map server data or Google Earth will then generate files which can be imported into Trainz; building a collection of base boards with route data and terain applied to the whole.
In my case I downloaed the elevation data into TransDEM from the USGS NED server (National Elevation Database). The service is free. The USGS maps were obtained from the University of New Hampshire map collections., also free to download.
TransDEM generated files for a route aproximately 52 miles north to south and 46 miles east to west. It generated data for approximately 1800 base boards, with terain applied. It did this at one sitting. (Although it did take several weeks to collect and process map info.) The route data is contained within the USGS maps which were overlayed on the base boards in Trainz.
Below are links to screenshots of the maps:
The TransDEM map as it is appears for generationg the terrain data for Trainz, http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/688/nemassroute.jpg/
The map base boards generated in Trainz: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/nemastrainz.jpg/
The Trains map is an arial veiw from TS12. The entire map doesn't quite fit the screen shot; but does give a view of the way base boards are generated when set to follow a defined route. In this case the program was set-up to define the route with one base board to either side.
The entire route was a 280 Mb install ino Trainz. That's about 160 Kb per baseboard. Not a bad price to pay at all.
The route was generated from 3 arc-sec NED data, which has about a 10 meter resolution. I checked the Trainz basebord map elevations against the georeferenced map elevations, the average error was about 10-12 feet lower than the map references. Not a bad error for a Trainz map!
The USGS map overlay not only provides track locations, but road and building locations, also. Ocean, lake, pond, and stream locations are noted, as well.
With the route installed, I'm ready to add some track and buildings. Water bodies will be defined and roads laid.
Until the next time..........and
Thanks for reading
steamboat
I have never done a blog before, and since I've just started a new route in TS12, I decided to combine the two and invite you, the reader to participate.
I intend this to be a log, if you will, of activities as I progress through the various stages of route building.
Your comments, suggestions, preferences, techniques and even your criticisms are invited.
Perhaps we can learn a few things together.
The Route
The NE Mass route is just that; a route covering nearly all the Boston & Maine Railroad trackage in northeast Massachusetts. It is a 'historical' route in the sense that it is based on USGS 7.5 Minute quadrangle maps, circa 1942 to 1950. The B & M served the area not only as a primary link to northern New England, but also as a dominant urban freight hauler to Boston's north shore, as well as the north shore's primary commuter rail service. Much of the trackage remains today as MBTA commuter routes. Just about all of the freight facilites are long departed, and overgrown or converted to other usage. Urban freight service in the area is now a part of local railroad lore.
The route covers pehaps 175 miles of trackage.
The Power of TransDEM
An udertaking of this size simply wouldn't be possible without a few good tools. A servicable photo editor is one, Paint Shop Pro 9, in my case, to peice together maps and collect photos of the areas covered. Also invaluable is a word processor for arranging notes and information. A speedy inernet connection is most usefull for collecting that information and photos, as well.
However, the one tool I found most usefull for actual route building is TransDEM. For the uninformed, TransDEM is a program which will generate a DEM (Digital Elevtion Model) from downloaded data, of a specified geograghic area. The program, with route data supplied from georeferenced maps, map server data or Google Earth will then generate files which can be imported into Trainz; building a collection of base boards with route data and terain applied to the whole.
In my case I downloaed the elevation data into TransDEM from the USGS NED server (National Elevation Database). The service is free. The USGS maps were obtained from the University of New Hampshire map collections., also free to download.
TransDEM generated files for a route aproximately 52 miles north to south and 46 miles east to west. It generated data for approximately 1800 base boards, with terain applied. It did this at one sitting. (Although it did take several weeks to collect and process map info.) The route data is contained within the USGS maps which were overlayed on the base boards in Trainz.
Below are links to screenshots of the maps:
The TransDEM map as it is appears for generationg the terrain data for Trainz, http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/688/nemassroute.jpg/
The map base boards generated in Trainz: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/nemastrainz.jpg/
The Trains map is an arial veiw from TS12. The entire map doesn't quite fit the screen shot; but does give a view of the way base boards are generated when set to follow a defined route. In this case the program was set-up to define the route with one base board to either side.
The entire route was a 280 Mb install ino Trainz. That's about 160 Kb per baseboard. Not a bad price to pay at all.
The route was generated from 3 arc-sec NED data, which has about a 10 meter resolution. I checked the Trainz basebord map elevations against the georeferenced map elevations, the average error was about 10-12 feet lower than the map references. Not a bad error for a Trainz map!
The USGS map overlay not only provides track locations, but road and building locations, also. Ocean, lake, pond, and stream locations are noted, as well.
With the route installed, I'm ready to add some track and buildings. Water bodies will be defined and roads laid.
Until the next time..........and
Thanks for reading
steamboat