How-To - Making Realistic Turnouts Tutorial

I only found one "template" on the DLS and it's WAAAY too tight. Not the track spacing, but the turnouts - they are crazy for 40' boxes which I like to run.

I used this as a general guide while eyeballing a yard I have that's abour 15 degrees off of being exactly east-west and it worked well. So, thanks for the post!

No intense offended to the author of that template, but it is what it is.

Major BUMP ... I measure a turnout or crossover length on Google Earth ruler, and apply that same measurement with the Trainz ruler ... also with track spacing I have found that almost all US RR's have a 4m track spacing (which is when you just touch adjacent track spine points to the very outer edge of an adjacent RR crosstie end) Pennsylvania Railroad mainline set at 13 foot spacing center to center

No measuring degrees, no jigs, no guides, no spacers, no confusing templates, ... it is as easy as pie ... measure it, then eyeball it

Very nice, but how do you solve these 2 problems?
1/ Sleepers under the turnout - they should be all in one piece, not overlapping from two tracks.
2/ Crossing - how to stop trains from going through each other?

Form your switches/diamonds/slips with fixed track then replace with splines.

https://imgur.com/a/70BIpbM

obirek said:

Very nice, but how do you solve these 2 problems?
1/ Sleepers under the turnout - they should be all in one piece, not overlapping from two tracks.
2/ Crossing - how to stop trains from going through each other?

Click to expand...

That's something Trainz isn't capable of doing yet...

obirek said:

Very nice, but how do you solve these 2 problems?
1/ Sleepers under the turnout - they should be all in one piece, not overlapping from two tracks.
2/ Crossing - how to stop trains from going through each other?

Click to expand...

For 1, this is only possible using either fixed track junctions or upgrading to TANE or TRS19 and using the new Procedural Tracks (which will automatically place correct sleepers, frog, and animated point blades).

For 2, one option might be a 'signal link' object or junction link (with invisible catch points either side of the crossing), to set opposing signals to stop when a train is going through the crossing. For TANE and TRS19 we have introduced the new Interlocking Towers which are, in part, designed to help handle this by allowing to to override a signal (ie set it to stop) if a train is on a conflicting path.

Regards

MTH_ELECTRIC_TRAINS said:

That's something Trainz isn't capable of doing yet...

Click to expand...

I just showed exactly how it can be done.

That, or use procedurals.

Hello,

One thing I have not seen mentioned in this thread is the spline points on either side of the switch need to be the exact same height to keep the rail heads even. This also helps the black portion of the frogs look like more realistic gaps for the bogey (truck) wheels to traverse. Even the procedural track will have this issue if the spline points are too uneven. Good job on the tutorial.

Jacob

Making Realistic Turnout - Alternative Method

To build turnouts more accurately and according to their function I use slightly different method, based on simplified turnout geometry.

1. I add straight sections of the track at the required angle. This is approximately 6.3 degree (ratio 1:9) for yards, 4.8 degree (1:12) for main line with diverge speed limit of 40 mph, 3.1 degree (1:18.5) for main line with diverge speed limit of 60 mph. To do it quickly and precisely I join 3 pieces of fixed track, each 100 meters long, rotate at the required angle, connect flexible track to both ends of the fixed track, then use tools Split spline and Move object to separate flexible track from fixed track.
2. I use tool Ruler to plot the distance from the point where the track intersects to the point where spline connecting straight and curve should be. This is approximately 10.5 meters for turnout 1:9 and radius equal 190 meters, 16.5 meters for turnout 1:9 and radius 300 meters, 21.0 meters for turnout 1:12 and radius 500 meters, 32.5 meters for turnout 1:18.5 and radius 1200 meters. For other types of turnout or to get result in imperial system, you can paste the following formula in Excel or Google spreadsheet:
   =B2*TAN(RADIANS(B3/2))
   where:
   B2 is reference to the cell containing radius (in meters, feet, or any other unit of length)
   B3 is angle expressed in degrees
   One challenge here is to find the intersection point. It is very easy on the old, ubiquitous track like ‘1 track wood’, but quite difficult on newer, realistically looking track like ‘Auran Track TS2009 Oak’. Sometimes I use the former and replace with the other when the turnout is completed.
3. I use tool Insert spline point to insert splines connecting straight and curve sections of the track.
4. I use tool Delete track to remove the track between inserted spline and point of intersection.
5. I use tool Straighten track for the track to stay in straight line after it will be connected with curved track. This is very important step, first and only time to use Straighten track tool. Unfortunately, this tool works in a toggle manner, i.e. clicking on the track 2 times will undo the expected result. Also, it is hard to tell whether the action took any effect. It is possible to attach flexible track to the ends of the straight track and check radius on both sides of the spline, but this is slow and messy, so I place a track mark to indicate that the track had been acted upon. This is really helpful when building many turnouts close to each other. Additional benefit of placing the track mark is to double check track direction.
6. This is the most pleasurable step (unless I screwed something in the points above). I use tool Add track to connect sections of the straightened track. Each time after adding track I check that radius of the straight track is zero and radius of the curver is the value given in point 2 above, plus/minus 5%. Contrary to the real railways, Trainz bends track more near the splines and makes track more rigid away from splines, so 100% accuracy is impossible. However, if I lay track correctly, visually it will be indistinguishable from real railway, or even better, since there is no earth movement or weather factor to deform the track over time.

Using this method I can implement any track layout, regardless it is parallel or aligned with the grid, including complex yards, factory sidings, track widening or narrowing for platforms or bridges, turnouts placed in curved or slanted track, etc. For yards with more than 4 tracks I use multiple of basic angle: 12.6 degree, 18.9 degree, or sometimes even 25.2 degree for 12 tracks spawning from a single track. This technique significantly reduces yard length. When building a yard with more tracks I bunch up tracks in groups of 6, 8, 12 and so on (like on real railways). I do not use templates or fixed turnouts, because in my opinion they take longer to build, impose more constraints and produce not as good results.


Basic knowledge of trigonometry comes handy and ironically it is not because of my professional work, but hobby, I had to brush up this area.

Below is link to screenshot of the route I started few days ago. You can see rulers and track marks used in the construction.
https://ibb.co/mG0m30

Hey thank you for your tutorials
Is there any way you could give us a tutorial on how to do decent wye turnouts ?
I really struggle with these lol