Making Model Railroadz

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Just out of curiosity...

Is it possible to create half a dighole to where they only cover up one half of a square? I'm sure this would make it easier on everyone trying to get those irregular shapes in a layout.
 
I would suggest making a complete dighole, then a simple textured plane to cover part of it. I know of no way to create a part dighole - if I did, I would certainly have tried to do so! I tried my suggestion some time ago by making a triangular plane to create an angled MR baseboard edge. It was fairly successful, the only problem being matching the texture to that of the adjacent ground. In fact, as well as one such plane I made a series of three and five, each one offset by the equivalent of half a square - hope that makes sense.

Making the plane - easy. Matching the textures - be prepared to spend time although it's easier if you use a ground texture you have created and experiment with it.

Ray
 
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Unfortunately i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz to me it spoils the whole concept of a railway simulator.
For the benefit of those of us who particularly like Phil's routes but would rather have them as a conventional simulator could somebody explain simply how I replace the brick walls and ceilings with a sky and how I remove the walkways. I have no experience of route making so the explanation does need to be simple.

Thanks

Ken
 
Hi Ken --

Which routes in particular? The ones where I used dig holes or the ones where I used terra-forming to lower the floor?

Phil
 
Hi Ken --

Which routes in particular? The ones where I used dig holes or the ones where I used terra-forming to lower the floor?

Phil

Hi Phil
I really can't answer that question, but removing the walls and ceiling and showing a sky would be a start.

Ken
 
Hi Ken --

If you can use Manage Content and Surveyor it’s not all that difficult.

If the layout uses dig holes:
Use Manage Content to identify the dig hole used in the layout.
Download “297 marker Tower”.
In Surveyor:
Delete the floor spline (it will run longways and there may be more than one spline).
Delete the invisible track spine to which the baseboard legs are attached.
Use the Replace tool to replace the dig hole with the marker Tower.
Save.​
In Manage Content delete the marker Tower.
In Surveyor use the Delete Missing Content tool. Save.
You have now removed the floor.​

If the layout uses terra-forming to lower the floor:
The fascias are splines. Delete.
Use the terra-forming tool to lift the floor height back to zero height.​

The walls are splines. Delete.

None of my layouts use a ceiling. It’s a dark sky. In the environmental settings use the sky of your choice.

That’s the easy part.

The hard part is terra-forming and texturing what was the floor. You might have found the two versions of Yuan Gulch on the Download Station? One is a model layout the other is a route. In the latter I replaced the floor with a lake. That’s the easiest option, but it still needed quite a bit of terra-forming and texturing to give the desired effects.
_____

As for:

" ... i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz ... "

Well, it gives me (us) a lot more creative freedom. Which for me makes it more fun. And I also discovered looking back at my previous routes that, all along, I'd been making model railroads but I'd actually been disguising them as real routes. So the decision and the transition to model layouts was easy.

Phil
 
" ... i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz ... "

It provides a welcome relief from painting endless hills and placing scenery out to 4 or 5km either side of a 50 mile prototype route! However there are still challenges to overcome, particularly with regard to the size of buildings or even items such as tunnel portals which are somewhat larger than you would normally tuck in a model environment, particularly on the corner of the board.

One compromise, which I used on my recent "Water Of Coate" route, is to build the trackplan as per the model/miniature railway but instead of dropping baseboard edges create a 1km scenic background (with or without backdrops) around the layout area. This retains the fun of operating your favourite model railway but in a more natural environment.

I'm currently refurbishing one of my older prototype routes for TANE but once that's done can't wait to get back into doing something model based.
 
Hi Ken --

If you can use Manage Content and Surveyor it’s not all that difficult.

If the layout uses dig holes:
Use Manage Content to identify the dig hole used in the layout.
Download “297 marker Tower”.
In Surveyor:
Delete the floor spline (it will run longways and there may be more than one spline).
Delete the invisible track spine to which the baseboard legs are attached.
Use the Replace tool to replace the dig hole with the marker Tower.
Save.​
In Manage Content delete the marker Tower.
In Surveyor use the Delete Missing Content tool. Save.
You have now removed the floor.​

If the layout uses terra-forming to lower the floor:
The fascias are splines. Delete.
Use the terra-forming tool to lift the floor height back to zero height.​

The walls are splines. Delete.

None of my layouts use a ceiling. It’s a dark sky. In the environmental settings use the sky of your choice.

That’s the easy part.

The hard part is terra-forming and texturing what was the floor. You might have found the two versions of Yuan Gulch on the Download Station? One is a model layout the other is a route. In the latter I replaced the floor with a lake. That’s the easiest option, but it still needed quite a bit of terra-forming and texturing to give the desired effects.
_____

As for:

" ... i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz ... "

Well, it gives me (us) a lot more creative freedom. Which for me makes it more fun. And I also discovered looking back at my previous routes that, all along, I'd been making model railroads but I'd actually been disguising them as real routes. So the decision and the transition to model layouts was easy.

Phil

Thanks Phil just what I needed.

To both Phil and Vern i didnot intend the phrase

" ... i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz ... "

to be provacotive it was an unfortunate turn of phrase. It is obvious that for those people that enjoy model trains it allows for a slighly different degree of creativity, but for those people that do not like model railways they will probably not use them in their original state. It is a pity that the splines and other items that make them models railways can not, where possible, be added on a separate route layer so it can easily be used as a small layout instead by simply hidding that/those layers.

Ken
 
" ... i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz ... "

Ken

I will just stick my oar in and add a couple of comments.

As a modeller for most of my adult life, Trainz gives me a way of extending that interest into my later life, now that I live in a small bungalow and have arthritis in my fingers.

As regards layers I always put the room into a separate layer so that it can be hidden if necessary and also be edited more easily. I also put the digholes into another separate layer. I don't understans why some people (not you) are so frightened of them; they are a very useful tool for me.
 
To both Phil and Vern i didnot intend the phrase
" ... i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz ... "
to be provacotive it was an unfortunate turn of phrase.

Not in the slightest, Ken :) I have been and probably will be primarily a proto route builder, but as age starts taking its toll on the eyesight and fingers it is good to be able to focus on a smaller project. And in some ways there is a touch of re-inventing the wheel (or emperor's new clothes) as it has always been possible to build model style layouts in Trainz anyway. All N3V really did was collate a number of routes suitable for the genre and bundle them into a re-marketed version of TANE. There was no substantive or custom alteration to the code to better handle the requirements of building a route in a model environment. TMR could actually be used to build a proto route if so desired!

On my Water of Coate route which is essentially an upscaled miniature railway, I was able to get six (or was it seven) trains continually lapping for nearly two hours, giving the AI signaller something to do. Ideal for pulling up a virtual deckchair and watching the trains go by or jumping between the various consists. That kind of intensive operation would be much harder to put together on a prototype route based on a busy location.
 
Ken --

I think it might be me who should apologise. I actually didn't think you were being provocative and I think my response might have been a bit too abrasive.

As others have pointed out, the other important feature of model Trainz is that a layout can be completed in less than a normal person's lifetime. Once I get the inspiration and the motivation to start I can compete one of those layouts very quickly. Usually within a week or two; certainly in less than three weeks. The only problem is that I'm usually very reluctant to start - 'cause I know that once I do it becomes an obsession and other parts of my life suffer as a consequence.

If you are interested I posted some screen shotz of my latest layout as it progressed from a sketch to the finished article. Post # 2593 onward, here:

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?109038-Model-Railroadz/page173

Most importantly, I do these little layouts because they are FUN. Fun to think about, fun to create, fun to solve all the two and three dimensional problems, fun to see the finished product eventually take shape, and fun to operate.

Phil
 
Phil
I can well imagine that those people who enjoy model railways using Trainz to recreate model railways from old plans etc is incredible fun, I don't doubt this for one minute but I always download your routes and sessions and start by trying them out but give up as the simulator aspect of Trainz is lost, you cannot imagine that you are the driver of the loco or at least I can't.
However now that you have shown me how to convert them to conventional simulator use I will have as much fun converting them so thank you.

Ken
 
HI! can some of the route MRR builders tell me how to deal in TANE with shadows in a MRR. I mean i have experience buiding MRR routes on previous versions of trainz but now with the shadows (wich is a great advance) not shure what can be the best practice...make a ceiling or not, four wall or only one, and so on...thnaks!
 
Hi Hagapito --

Never, ever use a ceiling. It will always get in the way when you zoom out, either when making changes in Surveyor or when driving in Driver. The alternative I now use is a dark coloured sky, "pommie-sky7".

The wall splines I've used don't cast a shadow, "HUGE wall brick, spline".

Most of the backdrops I've used do cast shadows. As do the fascias I've uploaded to the Download Station.
 
Here is an interesting concept for an advanced model railway:

https://banburyconnections.weebly.com/

I happened to spot the layout described in the Jan '18 issue of UK Railway Modeller which led to the above site. What a fantastic enterprise. The only issue being I can't see anywhere on the site detailed track plans of the individual sections just the schematic which shows how the network is joined together. Building this in TMR/TANE could be a nice challenge...
 
Unfortunately i do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz to me it spoils the whole concept of a railway simulator.
For the benefit of those of us who particularly like Phil's routes but would rather have them as a conventional simulator could somebody explain simply how I replace the brick walls and ceilings with a sky and how I remove the walkways. I have no experience of route making so the explanation does need to be simple.

Thanks

Ken
(And yes I do know I'm answering a post from 2017)

Simple really. I had to give up railway modelling due to illness and discovering Trainz helped to lift me out of a state of depression and allowed to me to continue with the hobby I love. Making representations of real world railways is fun and I like it, but there's something different about building a layout in a room and being constrained by the width and length of a baseboard that takes me back to building layouts when I was much younger. I used to see layout plans in 'Plan of the Month' in Railway Modeller magazine and wish I could build it, - well now I can with the advantage of there being no paint or glue to spill and no having to clean up the mess afterwards.
 
I'm pleased to see that this thread has been resurrected, and my reasons for enjoying simulating model railway layouts are very similar - advancing age (in my case), the desire to get something completed, and above all my self-imposed restrictions, making sure that everything about the layout would be possible with a "real" layout - without having to make baseboards and messing around with glue, plaster etc. Sometimes one just has to give way, however - although I have made non-working level crossings, for example (as occupation crossings) there was not one which would suit my latest MR, so for the time being I've had to accept one with lifting bariers.

Ray
 
Well it is another 18 months later, and now I am now resurrecting the thread, but I too wanted to address the "Unfortunately I do not understand why so many people want to create model railways in Trainz" Question. Especially as a returning user after many years in the wilderness..

When Trainz was first conceived it was intended as a "Model Railway simulator" but was also used to create routes as the users enjoyer the freedom of no room constraints.
With the introduction of, and the resultant popularity of Microsoft Train Simulator, Auran switch focus and "many would say lost the plot" in an attempt to Challenge Microsoft as a "Train Simulator".
Microsoft Train Simulator is long since dead, Trainz survived because Auran was purchased by N3V Games and has since focused on its core strength, the incredibly versatile Route Builder.
The resurgence of Trainz roots, as opposed to routes, came with the recognition of the fact that is was used for model railroad simulation and the subsequent release of TMR2017.
Trains is the Oldest and Most established Train (Real or Model) simulator and is even used as a tool for testing concepts and operations when designing track plans intended real world Model Layouts.

To some it will always be a planning tool, for others it will always be a Model Railway simulator, and for most of the current generation it will always be a Train Simulator, but the reality is that when you give a versatile tool to creative people you can throw you original expectations out of the window and just enjoy the ride.

Cheers
Chris
 
I agree with you completely, but to your original point about being a Model Train Simulator, it has come to light in the newer versions that they need to do some updating regarding tunnels (real or model) and digholes in general, especially as regards trying to drop a floor for a model railroad. The older model routes are starting to look a bit wild, showing off the digholes for their floors in the newest versions.
 
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