So I opened my copy of TRS2006 that I bought a couple years ago, and started playing around with it.... I have spent a TON of time in Surveyor and I have a question for some of you more seasoned route creators. When you are creating a route, where do you start? I have worked on creating a couple small routes and just about every time I run into "I should have done this before that and that before this". So in reguards to things like topology, textures, tracks, industry, scenery and the "meat and pototoes" of a route, what part of the route do you create first, second and third and so on? :wave:
Planning a new route
- Thread starter reddogut
- Start date
Generally I would suggest laying all the track first, and setting up all your signals and junctions before touching any scenery. Make sure that everything is doing what you intend it to do - this also depends on if you intend your route to be AI friendly or for solo use only.
I've spend over a year on some routes and often have a few going at once - which can be helpful when a problem can occur because you know in future how to avoid it on other routes that are a WIP.
Any specific scenery items such as industry active stations/yards should definitely be placed as you are laying the track, as they give you a good idea of what your limitations are around the object.
Give yourself plenty of space to play with when starting, don't limit yourself to a single baseboard and don't over do the scenery, the most enjoyable routes are often the most simple.
Something I found of much value to learning the little important aspects of route building was to deconstruct an inbuilt layout, and rebuild it to how you'd like it to be. Highland Valley proved to be the most useful for this type of experiment.
Finally, just relax and have fun. Don't limit yourself to a time frame, you'll never get it done.
I've spend over a year on some routes and often have a few going at once - which can be helpful when a problem can occur because you know in future how to avoid it on other routes that are a WIP.
Any specific scenery items such as industry active stations/yards should definitely be placed as you are laying the track, as they give you a good idea of what your limitations are around the object.
Give yourself plenty of space to play with when starting, don't limit yourself to a single baseboard and don't over do the scenery, the most enjoyable routes are often the most simple.
Something I found of much value to learning the little important aspects of route building was to deconstruct an inbuilt layout, and rebuild it to how you'd like it to be. Highland Valley proved to be the most useful for this type of experiment.
Finally, just relax and have fun. Don't limit yourself to a time frame, you'll never get it done.
