What's the best way to identify towns and cities on a route?

[flatlander]

Is there an asset on the DLS that can help identify a city or a town both from an engineer's perspective (cab view) and from a visual perspective while in Driver?

Here in the USA towns will have a sign up saying something like "Anywhere town - population 32,000", or "now entering 'our town'. On the route I'm modeling there are a lot of small towns which are significant but are so small that they can go unnoticed. But I'd like to be able to put up some sort of board or sign identifying the town or burg.

What's the recommended way of identifying cities and towns on a route?

 

[Euphod]

There are re-nameable signs on the DLS that will allow you to type in the name of a town.

 

[ish6]

Like Ed said --- I've made a quitea few of these, from small signs to jumbo signs!:hehe:

Have fun
Ish

 

[cascaderailroad]

What is the biggest sign available, where I can type a long sentence, or sevral sentences, so that future downloader can read them ?

I have the Sign12BRLM (that hold 12 letters) all over my route, and even in the gauge of the tracks, to identify them.

 

[flatlander]

Thanks Cascade! That looks like it will work.

So back to one of my questions - this is a reality question. If I'm an engineer on a real railroad in the US and I come to a town, is it a standard convention to identify each town, or will I find the name only on railroad equipment to identify that piece of equipment?

Maybe I'm not asking the question right - should I be putting a town name at the entrance to each town?

 

[cascaderailroad]

I also name trackmarkers ... and I use the PRR Tower/Station keystone signs (but they require custom manual rotation, custom manual height, as well as a critical tedious manual manipulation on a buildings side).

 

[gfisher]

should I be putting a town name at the entrance to each town?

I would in general think not. The town boundry line would only be of interest to the railroads corporate lawyers in relation to taxes and lawsuits and stuff. It would not have much relevance for an engineer. In an earlier era almost any town you came to along a railroad line would have a depot, usually near the center of town, and that of course would be named. If you just want the name to show up on the route's mini-map you can pick any structure and name it and it will show up on the map. Some railroads like the PRR marked state and county lines with special markers along the right of way, but I don't know how general that practise was. Today the railroads tend to sign "control points" at junctions and crossovers, and those are sometimes named as well as numbered.

 

[Euphod]

I've noticed that the UP near me names their signal control boxes for the nearest cross street.

 

[flatlander]

If you just want the name to show up on the route's mini-map you can pick any structure and name it and it will show up on the map.

I like this one. I found a timetable for the P&E dated 1965. Many of the stops aren't even towns anymore. That's why I thought it would be nice to put the names somewhere.

 

[cpatriarca]

What about in Map View, will the town names show up when your zoomed out in Map view?

 

[cascaderailroad]

On the minimap the names will only be seen when you zoom moderately close to the route (at midpoint zoom, on).

I have dozens and dozens of signs, right in the gauge, to help me learn the right path through the complex yards in Altoona.

Trainz ghost right on through them !

I must have 4000 turnouts installed on my route so far ... and thousands more to lay !

 

[schweitzerdude]

Another idea

This will work in either minimap in surveyor or in the map view in driver:

Let's say you have a hamlet along the railway that is so small, it has no station, nor any industries, but you still want to see it in minimap or map view. Assuming it has at least a road/rail crossing, just click on the crossing with the "?" and name the crossing with the village's name.

 

[Satyr]

I must have 4000 turnouts installed on my route so far ... and thousands more to lay !

G'day,
Does that have anything to do with those cold long winter nights in the antartic?

Hope you keep warm:hehe:

E.C.