Tear it down and build it again and again?

T

Thai1On

Slave to my route
As I am waiting for TranDEM to download a bunch of raster maps it started me thinking of how much this hobby mirrors my old model railroading days. I would build a layout and get about 1/4 of the way through and realize a major problem or learn a new technique only to tear it all down and start again. As a newbie to Trainz I am seeing a similar pattern developing :confused:

My question is 2 fold. First, to the more experienced route builders. How long were you making routes before you felt you were "completing" your routes to your satisfaction?

Second, for the rest of the community. Do you tear down/delete/abandon your route and start a new one when you find your not happy with the results or do you try and correct the mistakes? As you make have guessed I am abandoning my second attempt at making my fictional railroad. The job isn't any easier because the part of Kentucky I am modeling only had a few short lines that disappeared many years ago and only a paragraph in a book or faded picture remains.

What's your story?
 
It was almost 5 years before I stuck with a single route. I've been working on it now for 8 months on and off and only completed 4 of 80 miles so far. It's a TransDEM created map so is prototypical.

As for part 2, I've lost count of the number of routes I've created and abandoned. I don't think I've ever completed a route of the many I've started. I like fairly heavy details levels but it takes a huge amount of time to do this.

On the oppossite hand, I've seen one route 'builder' who's spat out a route a week which, as you'd expect, really amounts to nothingmore than tracks and little if any scenery. I guess it's whatever makes you happy, quality wise.

My N guage layout was never completed. I think I got my starter set in 1986 or so and there's a 2 x 4 board under a bed at my folks place to this day with about the 9th or 10th incarnation of a layout on it...
 
Oh the memories! I got my HO starter set back in the early to mid 70's and I learned to number of skills like carpentry, wiring, model building, and track laying just to name a few. I now see myself learning new skills like fixing files and re-skinning just to name a few and I love it! :cool:

After reading your post it looks as though this is going to be a long term hobby, good!
 
I've really only ever made one layout. It took about 5 years before I declared it complete. In that time, 2 new editions of Trainz were released. I was so sick of the thing by the time it was done, I've hardly ever looked at it again since.
 
Models

I began into making a model exhibition model because my dearly departed first one) had started it so I decided it should be finished.
Then came the fun and game learning all sorts of new skills, and worse the model was in P4 scale so there were not many models in shops for it, all had to be either made or bought from th P4 Society. I think we called it Scalefour (S4) but it was the same thing, P4 was Protofour I think. This was exact scale, very fine track and every sleeper laid by hand using chairs, it took ages.
The model? It was Hayling Island and can be seen on my site.
Then I had the bitt between my teeth and went to make a 'OO' model loosely based on Lyme Regis.
Just to round off gauges and to recreate a landscape I fell in love with as soon as I saw it I went down to N Gauge and built Horse Cove. This is the coastal run just past Dawlish station and included tracks about halfway to Teignmouth. It was a no stations layout, no shunting , just trains running along the coastal tracks with the sea crashing against the sea wall.

I sold all of those and there was a lull, but then I got Trainz, the original and first release. I fiddled for a year I think experimenting with various things and trying to make a route with varying success, but I was never happy with them. I had moved on to UTC by then and was in contact with Henke from Auran also. I met him when he came to England once and he said I should go for the next version which would be much better, that was to be called Trainz 2004, which gives you an idea of the timescale I have been involved with Trainz. He was right, it was better and I soon had the hang of it.

Then the penny dropped, if you struggle inventing a route make one that already existed, so the WCL series began life starting from Paddington. This section which runs to Reading took at least 2 years to complete and a very kind content creator made some specific assets for it, like Reading station and several of the larger buildings in the town.
Of course newer assets came onto the DS all the time and I did gradually update as I went along, but redoing the Paddington area was not an option.
By then I was at North Pole where the Eurostar trains are serviced and another kind person created the DEM maps right the way through to Penzance, a remarkable thing to do and extremely thoughtfull.
So the context change again but I felt I would leave the part already done as was because it was fairly flat and fortunately not very far out on elevation. So onward to Reading with a DEM which made life a whole lot easier, especially Old Oak Common depot, the amount of tracks in close proximity is mind boggling.
The next section used newer assets yet again, mainly trees by Trunda, which I like, and JVC, both excellent assets. I did go back over this whole section and replace all other trees apart from a very few.
The third section was again on a DEM but I was getting very bored with putting down a hundred or so miles of English coutryside which was very time consuming. I worked with two PCs, one running 2004, the other with Google Earth on the screen and tracked along as I went so I could get positions of buildings, hedgerows, walls and forests more or less right. I got a fair way along but with roads close by the track that had complex road markings on them I was getting stumped. Domsarto very kindly made a few junctions which were a great help but more were needed. In any case after several years on the same route I was getting stale and weary of it. So section 3 has not been finished.
Then I went over to learning gmax, which I somehow, and with a lot of help, managed to get going in a couple of months. That was just basic stuff and since then I have become more familiar with the various options and have become more 'adventerous'. I did try making Paddington station but hit so many problems I was force to give up on that. It's still on the back burner....

So there you are, my life with Trainz, it's been a long and interesting learning curve and I am still learning...

Angela

PS: I forgot to mention I followed on with TC 1 & 2 and then 3, then came 2006 and the last version I bought was 2010. Quite a selection.
 
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Thai1On said:
As I am waiting for TranDEM to download a bunch of raster maps it started me thinking of how much this hobby mirrors my old model railroading days. I would build a layout and get about 1/4 of the way through and realize a major problem or learn a new technique only to tear it all down and start again. As a newbie to Trainz I am seeing a similar pattern developing :confused:

My question is 2 fold. First, to the more experienced route builders. How long were you making routes before you felt you were "completing" your routes to your satisfaction?

Second, for the rest of the community. Do you tear down/delete/abandon your route and start a new one when you find your not happy with the results or do you try and correct the mistakes? As you make have guessed I am abandoning my second attempt at making my fictional railroad. The job isn't any easier because the part of Kentucky I am modeling only had a few short lines that disappeared many years ago and only a paragraph in a book or faded picture remains.

What's your story?
Click to expand...


I'm fairly new to trainz as well and have been enjoying all the modes of the game. I started out in HO model RR in the 1980's after watching my father for years mess ith a N Gadge layout that I am not sure he ever really completed. Later in life (around 2004) after his eyesight had diminished to much, I inherited all his N gadge stuff and had a field day playing and using it all. Now to answer your 2 questions before getting into trainz and even after I don't think I have completed more than 2 layouts ( none yet in trainz ) sense I have begun playing with model railroads. Also I will generaly try and get the railway to match what i want and spend more than a few days trying. However if I cant get it to the point I am happy I will scrap it.
 
I am on my third major operation since I bought 2009, and about ready to give it up (I'm in the process of getting TransDEM). You shouldn't be discouraged by giving up on a route because every time you do, the next one you start you apply the experience and techniques you learned from the previous one. It's not like in the old days where it's like a major investment to rebuild. And anyway, it's not like you're getting paid to build the route! ;)
 
Interesting thoughts on this. You'd never thing how much this virtual world copies the real model railroading world!

I started with N-scale when I was a kid. My dad and I, well mostly my dad built the layout for me. Later on during the mid-1970s, I worked on another layout that never made it to completion. There were track issues that had to be constantly worked on.

Later on I started another route. This one took up a good hunk of the basement, then one day I came home from work to find the family had chopped it all up. I was upset, but then again this layout had become a catch-all of anything that no one wanted on the floor, and the trains found themselves packed up in boxes.

Much later, perhaps 12 years later, I built a new layout again. This was a second incarnation of the basement route, only a bit smaller and in my bedroom. This was about 2000, and things went well until 2004, or basically until I had trouble with my hands and kept dropping very expensive locomotives and rail cars! When I was trying to scratch build or paint models, I'd blob glue randomly or I could easily paint one side, but would end up with random blobs on the other!

I didn't know it at the time, but I had the beginnings of Parkinson's and things were getting worse. I thought it was just my clumsiness that was getting in the way. Anyway, around the same time I discovered Trainz, and the spiders found a home in my N-scale layout.

My main route in Trainz started with TRS2004 and it has continued since right into the current version. I work on it in fits and phases, spurts and then nothing. It's one of those creative things where you can go for great guns for quite a bit then step back and do something else. At the moment, the route is about 180 miles long, and a few sections have been rebuilt a couple of times. This is the cool part about Trainz. You can do this a gazillion times and never have a mess, or worse waste money on expensive track switches, and track because a junction doesn't work out.

Oh my N-scale layout from my bedroom did get completed. It's in Trainz 2009 as the Scenic and Relaxed, which it was based on. The S&R is a layout from the Nine NScale Layouts book from Atlas. It's up on the DLS and is the only route I've ever uploaded.

John
 
I bought UTC for nine bucks, and immediately started a local London route that was dear in my memory. I stuck with it through TRS2006, TC3, and TRS2010. Then I decided to incorporate it into ECML, and found that it was so inaccurate geographically that I had to start again.
Mick Berg.
 
It seems to be a fallacy of mine, lay the track and that's the end of it. I have done that six times in the last five years with real ho layouts. The last one was in my 24x24 foot garage. I finish the track work, get bored, then tear it down. Very expensive firewood I must say.
Now I do that with Trainz. Lay the track and get bored. But no firewood.:hehe:
Now I take existing routes and modify to suit my needs. At least I usually finish this, and then get bored.:confused:
 
I became interested in route building immediately after I purchased my first copy of Trainz in September of 2002. For the next four years, I started building routes with hand made terrain only to have them drop by the wayside.

Being a Western Maryland fan, I was hoping to build a route involving that road, and then, in 2006, I found two of Fishlipsatwork’s HOG generated maps on the DLS. I merged them, bought my first copy of TransDEM, and added a third map.

This gave me the makings of the Cumberland to Connellsville route, which I completed almost two years later and uploaded on Feb 10th, 2008.

I found terrain generated routes to be very appealing, and went on to complete the Western Maryland Thomas sub which was later merged with the Cumberland to Connellsville, to form the WM & B&O Mega route. It was uploaded last fall.

After finding out that TS12 no longer included Compatibility Mode, I decided that all of my future routes would be built in Native Mode which is now catching on fast.

Earlier this year I started hearing about Pofig’s trees, and after downloading some of them, I realized that they were the answer to the tree problem in Native Mode, and so I started converting the WM & B&O Mega Route to Native Mode, which is now available on my web site.

So, looking back in retrospect, the conversion to terrain generated maps was what really helped me to start completing routes.

It’s so much easier to build a route based on the prototype than it is to design your own terrain.

TransDEM may seem overwhelming at first because of its numerous capabilities, but after you go through the learning curve, you’ll find it quite easy to use. Plus, you have the best one man support group of any software available on this Forum.

You don’t have to wait several years to build an uploadable route. Get a copy of TransDEM, find an area that you would like to model, and get started. Start off small, and by all means, complete the route one segment at a time, ready to upload. This is very important. If you start jumping around, you’ll get confused and rapidly lose interest.

My main satisfaction in route building is watching a section of bare terrain evolve into a completed route, ready to run. Secondly, I enjoy sharing my work with others. It makes you feel good when someone says “ Nice route, thanks for sharing it”.

Regards, Joe
 
I enjoy building a route historically. I am still working on the Ft Dodge Des Moines & Southern. I started out with the first 2-1/2 miles of mainline track they started with as the Boone Valley Coal & Railway company to service three coal mines inthe Des Moines River valley west of Boone, Iowa. I now have 103 miles of mainline track laid and the railroad has undergone its fourth name change. It will eventually have 86 miles of mainline track with 7 different branch lines. It will run under steam, wire and desiel and eventually become a short tourest railroad running a Chinese steam engine. I enjoy doing the historical research and making a route that is as acurate as possible in as many details as I can find.

I start with the DEM maps made for me by a fellow Trainzer. It is broken up into workable pieces and as the railroad grew, I add the appropriate DEM maps. I start with laying track. Then I add track side textures and structures. Then I add scenery farther away from the track. I do not go more than one square from the track. On this railroad and in this era, there is a town every 4 - 6 miles, so there are no long stretches of boring track. There are farms, creeks and rivers, all of which I include.

Every railroad it crosses or has an interchange with is included. These foreign roads are portal fed and have trains running as scheduled for the era based on the appropriate Official Guide.

I too can be a bit obsessive on the details, but then that is what makes this so satifying. I started this route in 2006 using Trainz2006. Here it is 5 yeras later and I am still enjoying creating on this route. It is not the only route I work on, but it has been a constant choice over the past 5 years.
__________________
 
When I first got 2006, I started tinkering with route building, but never really got anything done with it. Working 90+ hours a week, plus a family seemed to eat up most of my free time.

Now I'm in a much more relaxed job situation (40-60 hours a week), and I took it back up, then purchased 2009 (plan to get 2010 and 2012 in the near future) a couple of weeks ago. I am already on my 4th major revision (pronounced delete and try again) of the route I'm making.

I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, so my current layout is about 200 boards with track, industries and 0 scenery. The world looks kind of odd being flat and gray with yellow grid lines, but I'm mostly doing this one to give myself a better understanding of how things all work together (industries, switches, signals, markers and drivers).

I have made several major mistakes along the way, including making some drivers homicidal. They were throwing switches when another train was 1/2 way through it causing their buddy to derail. I have also discovered that 1 baseboard is no where near as large as it seems when you are building on it. They're actually less than 1/2 a mile across.

The great thing about Trainz, as others have mentioned, is the lack of major expense for trains, track, scenery, lumber and building materials.

Where my route(s) go from here is anybody's guess, although I've since learned that one needs to create mountain passes and such before laying track, so my current layout will probably go into the recycle bin once I'm finished with it. Then I will probably try taking someone elses mountains, hills, streams, etc and trying to figure out how they were created. Or if nothing else, I'll appropriate them for my own use in another building project. ;)
 
Probably i am the last of the mohican indian train nut tribe

Morning neighbor Dave,

nice thread you're started brings some good and bad memories back to life.
i got the train flue when I was 6 and my dad run only at Xmas granddad's marklin train at high speed over the bridge into the curb crashing into pillows put there for that reason.
I in the beginning 1954 I was to young to understand why he did this but just after WWII things had a life of there own.
My granddad's marklin set was from before the WWII or during that period.
Now i understand why my dad love to trash them only at Xmas it was german made stuff. No joke on this one bloody serious.
My love for trains was born and ever since i build a huge route in the cellars under the house of my parents till we left for another country some 18 years later.
Could not take my treasure with me and all my savings and pocket money I spent on my trains I had to leave behind and mom gave it away to the maid. I never forgave her.:(:'(
Life goes on and many sports hobbies took my attention when growing up I spare you the details.

MSTS was born and that was me reconnection to trains as my computer business made me more than skilled to do the job for the long and distant future.
My favorite route was the hoboken New Jersey route. This one I have in the fridge on TRS2004/2006 tracks only ready prototypical waiting for revamping and finishing in the next 5-10 years.
Main priority now is my Roy'z Canadian Classics routes collection to give birth over the next 2-3 years to come with Field Revelstoke as number #4 out of 5 to be the first to be released.

My experience with trainz in general and making routes is take something real to start with and keep it proto as far as you can and do not be she to give it some personal touch where you feel the urge to do so that is what i call the personal signature of you for that route.
Yes a good one (route) will take years and will to do it and vision and choose only the best objects etc you can find they have the best chance to make it till you finished 2-4 releases of trainz later and in a better condition i can proof.
Do not be satisfied very fast because you want to finish the thing that's where things start going south slowly.
If tired leave it for a few days/weeks and pick up again. Especially when trainz bugs irritate you tremendously hampering progress, do not fight it or have a go around like I do many times.
i love driving trainz but over the years creating changed my attitude to the design more than driving. Still look forward starting my first sessions to create on my number #4.
Well this is part of my story for who is interested visit my thread "Canadian Rocky Mountains 2011" than you know what I talk about.

regards

Roy;)
 
Depends what kind of route you are working on

For those who build prototypical routes using transdem going from real city A to real city B, there comes a point where it's done and a level of satisfaction is achieved. Put it on the DLS and move on to the next project.

But I have been working on a route since Sep 2009 which is faithful to a time and place (current era, west coast city in North America) but otherwise totally imaginary and I can't let go of it. Since this was my first large route since I got into Trainz, I am continuously upgrading it as well as expanding it. But I also have deleted multiple baseboards and eliminated entire towns and branch lines when I concluded that they were unneeded or lost interest.

My next route will be current era urban/suburban northern European (somewhere in Scandinavia most likely (water, bridges, trams etc) but I'm not sure I am at the point where I can work on two routes at once.
 
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