marmalade32
Active member
I was today years old when I learned about the bermuda railway. I thought there was only a triangle!
The Bermuda Railway... Neat little railroad with unique equipment.
- Thread starter JCitron
- Start date
Absolutely! There are things that we can always fix and even extend. If the actual railroad survived, I'm sure the company would've built out to the international airport and to other places on the island.
The problem I have with the map is the really, really poor resolution. When working on the route, the textures look like smears and blobs with little or no discernable details, making placing any objects next to impossible.
What a difference a decade makes! Your issue with the resolution got me thinking, was it really that bad 10 years ago? So I made a quick dip into TransDEM and using 30m SRTM data for the DEM part and the current JOSM for the land features I made me a Bermuda map.
Getting a little closer, here is looking north on Court St.
The building are just dummy place holders as are the roads
Outside of town, there is a walking trail that follows the old ROW and OpenStreetMap has some abandoned track splines to start the ball rolling, so to speak. Threading it through the old downtown will require some imagination but like I said, who will ever know.
Getting a little closer, here is looking north on Court St.
The building are just dummy place holders as are the roads
Outside of town, there is a walking trail that follows the old ROW and OpenStreetMap has some abandoned track splines to start the ball rolling, so to speak. Threading it through the old downtown will require some imagination but like I said, who will ever know.
That is really, really cool. Can you explain to me how you did this? I would like to try this myself.
Today, I downloaded new images using TransDEM tiles. The original imagery was a Landsat imagery from 1992 when all there was available was really low-resolution images great for viewing but not good for what we wanted them for. Indeed, what a difference a decade makes. The Open Maps Topographic map does show where the railroad used to be. Using Google Earth, it's easy to see where bridges used to be. I agree a lot of artistic licenses and a bit of TLC will produce a nice route.
Today, I downloaded new images using TransDEM tiles. The original imagery was a Landsat imagery from 1992 when all there was available was really low-resolution images great for viewing but not good for what we wanted them for. Indeed, what a difference a decade makes. The Open Maps Topographic map does show where the railroad used to be. Using Google Earth, it's easy to see where bridges used to be. I agree a lot of artistic licenses and a bit of TLC will produce a nice route.
Several years ago I stumbled upon this Youtube tutorial TransDEM Tutorial - Basic Trainz Route from Scratch
I printed a summary of the tut and have it close by my computer every time I want to make a new map based on DEM data. The DEM data I use comes from 30m SRTM Tile Downloader That has DEM data from just about the whole globe, every place that had, has or should have a railway. Then using JOSM, I use OpenStreetMap to get the map infor. I also save roads, rails, and any other map features as individual gpx files. These will later be used in TransDEM to create splines of those features and have them placed on separate layers in the Trainz map. Once the Trainz map is created, I open it in Trainz and can start trimming extra unneeded baseboards and generally cleanup the raw splines.
The JOSM data seems pretty up to date but also contains historical data about abandoned railways which makes recreating those old lines just a bit easier.
One slightly annoying feature of TransDEM is its habit of using too many spline points in curves as if every track is made of straight line segments. The other annoyance is how many spline type will be joined where they intersect even if the splines are not compatible - where a road and track spline cross, they can be attached. This has to be split and the separate parts rejoined to the correct matching part. A small price to pay for all the other work it saves.
Thank you, Martin I'll watch the tutorial and search for more info on JOSM. I use Earth Explorer website, aka EROS. This site requires a login and is run by the US National Geologic Survey office. There are all kinds of data supported including SRTM.
I noticed that issue with TransDEM when using splines but in this case, it really is a small price to play given route size and density of roads.
I noticed that issue with TransDEM when using splines but in this case, it really is a small price to play given route size and density of roads.
blueodessey
Well-known member
WOW Sir, Your DEM Route creation n dummy buildings knocked my Socks off.What a difference a decade makes! Your issue with the resolution got me thinking, was it really that bad 10 years ago? So I made a quick dip into TransDEM and using 30m SRTM data for the DEM part and the current JOSM for the land features I made me a Bermuda map.
Getting a little closer, here is looking north on Court St.
The building are just dummy place holders as are the roads
Outside of town, there is a walking trail that follows the old ROW and OpenStreetMap has some abandoned track splines to start the ball rolling, so to speak. Threading it through the old downtown will require some imagination but like I said, who will ever know.
Very cool work. Necessity is the Mother of Invention, and you clearly show the Form and Theory works.
Thank for Sharing.
Thanks all for the kind words.
Just completed my first end to end test run, almost 31 km without any major issues. The Bermuda tourist brochure mentions 34.9 km so I must be missing some track at one or both ends. The track is all on the surface as-is so it is quite a roller-coaster ride but at least is looks OK. Several of the newer buildings are located from recent data so the track goes through many of them
Now for a closer look at the terrain and track to see how best to have a reasonable profile. Haven't decided yet whether to stay era correct for when the railway was active or update it as if they wisely decided to bring back trains as a better transportation solution. At least I don't have to deal with special interest groups who have a NIMBY attitude.
Just completed my first end to end test run, almost 31 km without any major issues. The Bermuda tourist brochure mentions 34.9 km so I must be missing some track at one or both ends. The track is all on the surface as-is so it is quite a roller-coaster ride but at least is looks OK. Several of the newer buildings are located from recent data so the track goes through many of them
Now for a closer look at the terrain and track to see how best to have a reasonable profile. Haven't decided yet whether to stay era correct for when the railway was active or update it as if they wisely decided to bring back trains as a better transportation solution. At least I don't have to deal with special interest groups who have a NIMBY attitude.
My bad. There were a couple of disconnected track segments at the East end. Once connected with the rest of the track, my little test car completed 34.9 km, just like the brochure said. I wasn't yet familiar enough with the route that I had not noticed that the track didn't terminate at the docks in St George.
Now back to regularly scheduled programming (adjusting the scenery)
Now back to regularly scheduled programming (adjusting the scenery)
Nice! I went about this the old-fashioned way using TransDEM. The Open Topo-map imported perfectly onto the SRTM DEM I downloaded via ERORS. I could have placed the track in place but I prefer to manually lay it down. What a difference this is compared to the 72 dpi (it seems that way) Landsat image I used before.
I've always used OpenStreetMaps as the source to locate objects in JOSM and importing the resulting GPX files into TransDEM to create the splines for Trainz.
Will have to give the OpenTopoMap as a source a try in my next project to see the difference.
They have announced a complete rail network on an island where none existed before so my interpretation will be pretty free, based more on logic than facts on the ground. If you're going to dream, dream big - they're only pixels.
Will have to give the OpenTopoMap as a source a try in my next project to see the difference.
They have announced a complete rail network on an island where none existed before so my interpretation will be pretty free, based more on logic than facts on the ground. If you're going to dream, dream big - they're only pixels.
OpenTopoMap isn't bad. It shows the old railbed and what is now trails which is good because all we need to do is connect the dots. I'm still thinking this might be nice as a narrow-gauge route probably in either 2ft or 3ft 6in due to the steep grades and narrow ledges that the line traverses. A steam tourist line will fit perfectly into the theme as well as running some "modern" diesels for small freight trains.
What are you doing about houses and buildings?
Thanks for reviving this interesting thread. I missed it the first time around.
I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a long time to discover Transdem's right click menu for JOSM polylines. It is quite helpful to edit out spline points where polylines cross each other.
Thanks for all the tips shared in the thread!
I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a long time to discover Transdem's right click menu for JOSM polylines. It is quite helpful to edit out spline points where polylines cross each other.
Thanks for all the tips shared in the thread!
Well, since it is easier to delete than create, I get JOSM to identify all buildings in the map and then have TransDEM bring them in as splines. I use a concrete wall spline because it has quite long straight sections so the building is not too bendy and looks rather good too. Once in my route, I can replace those that have previously been modelled (the exact building or a reasonable representation) As for the rest, if they are far enough in the background I usually leave them. If not imagination can cover them.