Need help with yard

[Forester1]

Hi all. I am new to trying T:ANE Surveyor and thought I would start out with a yard. I watched a video of a person laying tracks closely in parallel and then cutting across them at about a 30 degree angle to create the junctions. I thought it was going to work, but ran into several problems:
- I could not lay tracks closely in parallel. The surveyor wants to join them together. I got around this in the following ways:
- I laid them farther apart and then used "move" to move them close together
- That only worked if the ends were not close to each other, so instead of the same lengths as in the video, I had to alternately stagger the ends shorter and longer.
- No problem, I guess, as it is trim anyway.
- After cutting across the parallel tracks at a 30 degree angle, the video then adds short pieces to create the junctions and then trims the excess.
- the video is an older version and does not show the automatic switches
- Using this method in T:ANE, I end up with two switches. One, the one you would expect, and then another at the upper spline point where the short piece merged in. This one has red arrows in both directions and is not actually a switch, but it appears to keep the actual green/red switch from working. If I try to delete this by deleting the spline point, it messes up the track and causes the junction to take on more of an elbow shape. Also, the lever stays there even though the rest is gone.

I am guessing there is a better way than this to make a yard in T:ANE? If there is a post for this please point it out, a search did not help me find one. Any assistance you can give me is much appreciated. A couple of screenshots are posted below:

 

[cascaderailroad]

That yard ladder angle could be allot more of a wider angle than 30 degrees, closer to 20 degrees, or maybe allot more relaxed.

When I lay curved track switch spline points, I lay them right on the frog exit, and they look good, even though that would be different on the prototype RR

However the first switch off the main needs a tricky double spline point placement, (with a straightened section between the 2 double spline points), so the curve is not wacky looking

https://www.google.com/search?q=cas...w=1136&bih=559&dpr=1.25#imgrc=RLUvftiZixY5RM:

The red splotch, withe the pine track arrow shows a track spline point that is too far away from the frog, and makes the switch curved lead too sharp

The temporary straight edge track helps align the turnouts, and is later on deleted after fine tuning the switch spline points

The Hold Shift KB Key is the most handy tool, so as to prevent tracks from joining like manganets
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_001-43.jpg

 

[HiBaller]

You also need to hold down the SHIFT key when you place spline points in close proximity, but don't want them to join. Press the mouse down to start a spline. When you reach the end, hold the SHIFT key until AFTER you let go of the mouse. You can move splines right on top of each other and they won't join.

Bill

 

[Forester1]

Thanks HiBaller! That is something there was no way to pick up from the video, as there was no sound or captions. I appreciate the tip!

 

[Forester1]

Thanks CascadeRailroad! I didn't pay much attention to placement because I did not appear to have much choice, but your tips will help. I am going to study your post a few times to get the most out of it...

 

[Forester1]

Overall, the yard junctions look good, but can someone suggest how to get rid of those spline points with the double red arrows that appear to be leftovers? If I use the button to delete a spline the whole track and junction mess up, but with them there, the real switches don't seem to work...

 

[HiBaller]

On the track pop-out menu at the right, there are three buttons at the top. Click the middle button. That's for adding trackside items. You can click the "X" button and delete which switch arrows you don't want by clicking on them. That way, the track remains, but the switch machine goes away.

Using the content under the trackside icon, you can also find better switch machines than the usual default ones (a red bar sticking up from a square box). Delete all the switching arrows and add in the machines you like. If you still see two red arrows, use the "Move" button and gently slide the switch machine to or from the frog. It should eventually turn red/green.

Bill

 

[Bill69]

Hi Forester1,

I use a similar method to cascaderailroad but I use the arrow instead of fixed track. In T;ANE the arrow has an angle showing so it is even easier than in earlier versions.



Use the arrow first on your main line to find the angle it is on then add or subtract 15-20 degrees and lay two parallel arrows as in the picture.

Use one arrow to lay the yard entry track and the second one to place the spline point for the siding. The first siding can be laid with the arrow as well to get it parallel to the main track the subsequent sidings can use the spline points for spacing. The double red arrows you have are caused by having more than one junction lever to each junction, you can turn off automatic junction levers in settings if you want to.
Track between the junctions on the entry track may have to be straitened after making the junction.

Cheers,
Bill69

 

[JCitron]

Don't try to be too perfect with your yard tracks. Prototype example of the Pan Am Railways (formerly B&M) Deerfield Yard.

 

[boleyd]

Lovely yard but will TANE allow you to become so sloppy?

 

[JCitron]

Lovely yard but will TANE allow you to become so sloppy?

It can be done, but it would take a lot of work just to barely come close.

In the photo I see Grazzy Grass lumps,

CL Ballast

LRW track and JR NS track.

JR SL (04) dwarfs signals

JR SL (08) Center head 15-foot signal

CNR Switch stands

Loose rails

old ties

etc.

In the background are st_RMM and those forest-series trees. On the right too is an RMM Birch (Bereza) tree clump. If it was done in TS12, I'd use Pofig's trees.

It's weird when you look at a real place and think of which assets are used to create it!

 

[HiBaller]

I do that all the time, John. I see a great vista coming over a rise and automatically catalogue all the assets i'd use to recreate it. occupational hazard after 14 years of Trainz, I'm afraid.

EDIT: Are those sanding towers in the left background? (The two tall, yellow things).

Bill

 

[JCitron]

That's what they appear to be, Bill.

The yard is quite extensive, still, and extends around the corner for some distance. There used to be a through road around the back side of the yard where those sand towers are, but it's now closed.

On the right, behind the interlocking signal, used to be an ice house with an extensive platform and sidings. The building of course was closed for years, but remained intact until recently when it was torn down. The spur still exists and they use it occasionally for storage from what I was told. When Trainzer, steamboateng, and I were there we had the opportunity to speak with an old railroad guy approaching retirement. He now works as security and was sitting in the parking lot where we parked, which is used for a rail trail up to Turner's Falls. He gave us the ins and outs of what goes on there, and it's pretty sad to hear so much was removed because they could. The switch tower, now a MOW office, used to control the all the switch machines in the yard, which were once all pneumatic. When Pan Am took over, the got rid of all that and turned the yard in to a manual operation. The traffic is also substantially reduced even from what it was when Guilford had their name on the engines. Today there might be 4 or 6 trains a day, mostly at night, way down from the 20 or 30 before that. He did have a lot of good stories too, oh I wish I lived closer to East Deerfield! A trip out there is nearly 2 hours from my house back east.

 

[Forester1]

Thanks Bill69! Now I just have to find the arrow button....? I will give it a good look over....

 

[Forester1]

Thanks again, HiBaller. It is when I delete them I get into trouble. The track bends and when I hit Straighten it lands right up against the next track, and when I move that splie out the junction gets jagged. Although looking at JCitron's post maybe that's not a bad thing if it works!

 

[Forester1]

Thanks JCitron! Great example from real life!

 

[Forester1]

Thanks a lot guys. I think it must be the idiot using the surveyor. Is there a tutorial somewhere? I can't find the arrows Bill69 refers to. I found the setting to turn off automatic junctions, but then how do you add them manually? I don't see anywhere to do that. Gotta love learning curves....

 

[JCitron]

Thanks a lot guys. I think it must be the idiot using the surveyor. Is there a tutorial somewhere? I can't find the arrows Bill69 refers to. I found the setting to turn off automatic junctions, but then how do you add them manually? I don't see anywhere to do that. Gotta love learning curves....

The arrows are rulers and are found under the wrench (spanner) pullout menu in Surveyor. Once you get what you want, use it and are done, delete the ruler since they used to, and probably still do, cause a bit of a performance hit.

In addition to the arrows, I highly recommend a template which you use lay down the track on top of then delete afterwards. Look for CS Yard Template. There's a number-somethin after the asset, but I can't remember if it's 1 or 2. There's only one of these any so maybe the other was never created or distributed.

With this you put it down where you want your yard to be and carefully lay the track down over it. Wherever there are small indents on the length, put in a spline point. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, you can get a nice-looking yard.

I haven't seen any tutorials on this, but one of my recommendations for creating a yard is to use the grid as your guide. Yes, that baseboard grid is very helpful when placing the various junction points. So in the end, all of the methods mentioned here work well.

 

[Forester1]

Thanks JCitron. There are a lot of good suggestions, so I will give some of them a try. I tried another way, by putting down the first and then the last track, and pushing the ends of all the other tracks down aways. Then after I had those two junctions, I tried using Move Track to pull the spline points down from the other tracks and join them into the cross track. Worked great, except it is not creating any actual junctions for some reason. I just can't seem to please it... (screenshot below)

 

[blueodessey]

Evening John, found the CS Template on DLS, that is another handy Tool I can add to my arsenal of Tools for unwieldy Track issues!