"Train tracks are just a bunch of straight lines"

[malaru]

I once heard someone say - BALONEY! - - I have been working on my mammoth project of creating the Florida RR system (with initial/main focus on the CSX and related lines) - and when I started I had (more the one person) say to me- how dole, its just a bunch of straight lines. ...

True around where I live you have MILES of very straight track... but the engineers got a little tipsy when they hit the Florida panhandle.. Good GOD is it full of curves. - I have constantly been having 1000+ ft long curves between straights half as long, and lots of multiple S curves...

It got me to thinking- Back when the RR companies got their land did they try to buy as straight of land as they could, and the insainly curvy areas like im working on now were perhaps areas already with private land owners they had to finagle around (along with getting to sidings that demanded services)? or were they pretty much unchallenged or given the land and this was just forced on them by land and natural barriers to get to the next client/across the land?

- anyhow, I just had to make a quick hell no yelp about people saying that the lines are boring straight bunces of nothing... granted the curves tend to be a bit wide and sweeping to help the trains along, but still.

So whats common? Are most places pretty curvy (say the industrial north) or straight as an arrow (how I picture the desert-west to be)? or pretty 50/50?

 

[ecco]

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

ETA: Have you done the Rockport Yards in Tampa?

 

[pware]

Back when the RR companies got their land did they try to buy as straight of land as they could, and the insainly curvy areas like im working on now were perhaps areas already with private land owners they had to finagle around (along with getting to sidings that demanded services)? or were they pretty much unchallenged or given the land and this was just forced on them by land and natural barriers to get to the next client/across the land?

The very first railway, from Liverpool to Manchester, was mostly straight because the locos and wagons (if my memory serves me) were not good at handling curves. So obstacles were build through or over where later engineers with more more flexible trains would prefer to go around (where possible). In the steam era the routes taken were often dictated, particularly in the more arid regions, by the available water supplies. Other factors, such as how much local landowners were prepared to pay for the railway to run past their properties or deals with politicians to bring the railway through certain towns, were often just as important as where the freight and passengers demands were in determining the route.

The gradient and curvature of the track would also play a significant role in determining which of the possible route would be chosen. This would, of course, be dictated to by the power and size of the locomotives available at the time.

 

[pware]

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

I cannot speak for other locations, but that map does not do any justice to railways in Australia and New Zealand.

EDIT: I withdraw that criticism - it just took a long while for all the data to load in.

 

[ecco]

The more you zoom in, the more detail you get. I used Google Earth and Google maps when I did the Tampa Rockport yards. This site has much clearer detail.

I just took a peek at the Melbourne area yards. Yikes! That looks like a fun (five year) project.

The combination of Google Satellite 3D views and the OpenRailwayMap are great for making prototype Trainz Routes.

 

[PC_Ace]

ecco - Thanks for the link to the Open Railway Map - What a terrific resource. Good example of the value of GIS.

 

[pware]

Thanks - link bookmarked for future projects.

 

[malaru]

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

ETA: Have you done the Rockport Yards in Tampa?

I am starting on North Florida- but I took a peek at it, it dont look too difficult- not more so then Moncrief yard was- Holy cow that was a monster especially when you added in the areas just north of it and south- i feel like if i could map those out i could map anything- honestly rockport yard with its huge 'u-turn' look kinda looks fun.

As of the moment I have all of Jacksonville done north of the St Johns river - and I have the line west out of Jacksonville done to the Chatahoochee. Right now I am focusing on lines in the panhandle before I start my way south out of Baldwin and Jacksonville. - Yards I have done so far: Baldwin, Jax "the ramp", & Moncrief. Right now Im also starting to add industries to the completed sidings. - my biggest "artist licence" I have taken with the lines is that all pass sidings are 8,700 feet long- I am using that as my default length for all of them after checking the lengths of 13 and seeing that roughly 1 & 2/3 miles was the most common - by far- length. - evening it all out to the same ot prevent AI issues.

my biggest cursing is from handling the multiple industry new feature and trying to work those out plus every once in a while it seems one forgets details- usually which type of railcar i want it to use- which is frustrating.

where I can (for instance like forestry) I been using the game-installed buildings- ive downloaded a few- for the budweiser factory in Jacksonville I downloaded one- not realistic on the lines/use of lines but it was nice to have a bud building and cargo to use.

I will say as a first-time to attempt something like this- Moncrief yard was daunting- but i sectioned it up into about 600 foot sections and went from there.. had to go back over it a couple times to space it out and straighten curves. - the biggest untrue to life aspect im finding is spacing out the tracks for the signals and such to fit- Im usuing only safetran signals - not trying to replicate even close to everything- but sometimes a dwarf or speed sign would be posted into the middle of the neighbor track and and id have to stretch out 40 tracks to get the one in the middle corrected... but on I go...

 

[malaru]

https://ibb.co/eThMtS

Moncrief yard I been working on- I cant make it work as an image in here- it dont seem.- zoomed out a bit so it coudl show the associated yards north and south of