Routes, Chaos Theory, and YOU!

[Xengeance]

So earlier today I discovered a fun little way of coming up with realistic fictional routes I thought I'd share with you all. I had been making some little LDE tiles when I came up with the idea of using them in a game of '52-card pickup'.(For those who don't know, LDE's, or Layout Design Elements, are little modular pieces you can use containing various track and scenery objects you combine into a larger layout. I believe Slugsmasher used something similar on the Clear Lake Logging route.)

What I did was take the stack of LDE cards I made and sprayed them all over the floor. What resulted was a completely random, unique, and semi-prototypical track plan. I simply only needed to rotate the cards in place on the floor to get them to somewhat line up with each other, and then did a little doodle of how I thought they'd fit together. Here's what I came up with:

Forgive the poor picture quality, my camera isn't used to taking low-light interior photos. I included the red squares as shown in the mockup image on the bottom to illustrate each of the individual LDE pieces.

Of course, I got lucky on my first try. You may not get everything where it should be right off the bat (like a roundhouse out in the middle of nowhere, for example), but that's the nature of randomness, and part of the fun!

 

[Milaga]

This is kind of neat. Is there a standard for modules? Is there a group of modules on the DLS I can try this out with?

Hmm... you can't rotate routes as you add them to each other, can you?

 

[EdrickV]

There are "modules" on the DLS that are intended to be merged together in Trainz. They should have standardized locations for the connecting track. Also, a while ago I found and downloaded a yard layout that's designed to be modified and added to a larger layout but doesn't seem to be part of the module series. (That yard may be a bit big for me though.)

I could be wrong, but I think I also remember seeing a payware module set somewhere.