Track Conditions for Narrow Gauge Railroads

jordon412

33 Year Old Railfan
Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should set the track conditions for a narrow gauge railroad I'm building? I'm making a route based on a fictional 30 inch narrow gauge coal-hauling railroad in the hot deserts of Arizona back in the days if the Wild West. It runs from a connection with a 36 inch narrow gauge railroad in the town of Apache Junction, Arizona to a coal mine of the nearby Superstition Mountains. I'd like to make the track conditions to where it looks like it was built quickly, so the track is not the most stable track built, causing the trains to slightly move from side to side as it travels down the tracks, like it's 'waddling' down the tracks. I've seen this on several videos on YouTube of trains on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad traveling thru the flatter area outside of Durango, Colorado and would like to recreate it on my route. Does anyone have any suggestions on the track conditions I should use?

If you're wondering what inspired me with the location of the route, here's the inspiration. However, I replaced the gold mine with a coal mine. However, I must warn you: If you go searching for it, you may not return, forever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Dutchman's_Gold_Mine
 
I would set the condition to be in the poor to fair condition.

This track-condition tag, is set either by editing each track segment, or by hard-coding the setting in the config.txt file, which is actually easier if you're going to run a lot of track. I did this for some of the LRW track that I set to very poor condition so that the freight cars bob, bounce, and roll along the tracks. Combine that with rusty rails and grass growing between the rails and ties, and it's a pretty cool.

The settings represent a percentage of track quality. The higher the number the better the track condition with 100% being perfect.

Here's the track condition of my really, really, bad siding track, which is 1%.

track-condition "0.01"

I have other track set at 5%, or 0.05.

The track-condition tag goes outside of the mesh-table. I put mine at the top below the trainz-build of the track I cloned.
 
It will depend on the locomotives, geared locomotives were designed for rugged tracks. If you do a rod type steamers, gentler turns & gradient. If you choose to do gas mechanical/hydraulic, it would be merely in the middle condition.
 
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