Road Recommendations?

[Trnman]

Im in the process of trying to build a downtown city with multiple roads, intersections, sidewalks, crosswalks, street parking, and other typical features of a city, with traffic. Looking at the download station, im seeing hundreds of various options, most of which include little description. So just asking for recommendations and advice on what road systems and methods to use to build complex road networks. I'm running Trainz Plus, by the way.
Thank you in advance!

 

[JCitron]

Yep, there's a lot of road choices up there on the DLS. Here are some that I've used and still use today.

The YARN series which are thick and work well when you want to embed tracks in roads because the rails sit just at the pavement level and also because they fill in the ground underneath and rarely float. There's a related Yarnish series of roads that expand on the YARN series with more options. These tend to run a tad higher and will obliterate fixed railroad crossing objects such as those by BNSF50, jjeff1955 and others.

In addition to the YARN roads, there are YARN compatible roads by Dave Snow and Jointed Rail. The Jointed Rail series has some nice dirt roads that feather down on the ends so that they don't end abruptly. They are quite thick and can be buried as needed.

These roads are also quite reskinnable. I have taken a 4-lane road and reskinned it with a cobblestone texture and use that in industrial areas or alleys after disabling the traffic.

The other series, which also has been around for a while is AASHTO roads and bridges. There are various kinds with and without sidewalks, various surfaces, and so on. These are thin roads and stick to the terrain unlike other thin roads that float above the surface.

Which ones to use is your choice.

The thing is some of the very old roads, including old built-in ones, will float above the terrain and this isn't what you want because it looks hokey.

 

[TSwenson]

I second the YARN/YARNish roads... totally worth getting, they are thick, but they take track well for street running and crossings. The route I'm working on now has some industrial/waterfront trackage and I'm using partially buried YARN roads for the "major" roads and painting alleys/lots. The trick is to put them just low enough to show over the terrain (and to put the rail down that far too). In my city areas I use them mostly at grade, though it is sometimes fiddly to line the buildings up (especially ones with indented entryways). I had seen a spline that edges them so they look more realistic, but I'd have to find it (and don't have time right now).

 

[Trnman]

Thanks both for your replies. I've been playing around with the yard/yarnish systems and am liking them quite a bit - they seem to have a lot of options in terms of intersections and roads. Not sure exactly how to best get traffic flowing on them though, but guess with enough tinkering ill figure it out

 

[TSwenson]

Most of the roads should auto spawn traffic if you have the traffic set to "on" in the menu. However, some of the roads do have a low rate of traffic befitting their intended usage (the 2 lane with no lines are one that come to mind).