my interesting custom portal

J

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
I fabricated this monstrosity with dig holes and various spline content as slabs, platforms and walls. There is no ready-made tunnel/portal content for a two-track system on a standard-gauge American road. My flat tunnel ceiling is tall enough to clear tri-level autoracks and double-stack well cars by at least a foot. The track goes from curve to straight right at the mouth of this particular tunnel. Whether track curvature is permitted to abruptly change on actual American roads right at the tunnel entrance, I'm not certain, but on turns, there is at least two feet of clearance between overhanging trains and the tunnel walls. I'm not certain what the American loading gauge calls for regarding tunnel overhead clearance or side wall clearances. This portal was built oversize to completely conceal any dighole space. The polygonal nature of Trainz graphics precludes neat rounded structures in many cases.

rbmdeg.jpg
 
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JonMyrlennBailey said:
I fabricated this monstrosity with dig holes and various spline content as slabs, platforms and walls.
Click to expand...
So what is the advantage of all this "monstrosity" of jumbled up pieces (as you call it) ... over that of simply sliding a Portal, or iPortal, inside the mouth a regular old tunnel spline, inside a factory door, or inside a simple building, or in a stand of clustered dense trees ... hiding the Portal or iPortal from sight ?

Some tunnels, such as Sandpatch, are just a little higher than the 22 ft height clearance, and side clearance is extremely tight, and they have many manway notch cubby holes for an escapement should a man get caught inside the tunnel when a train is moving through, and they even had to crown mine notches all the way through the tunnel bore to accommodate double stack railcars top corners

I find that a single 1x1 dighole center on a 10m grid, can handle 2 tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YN7AAibHeY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtrRgU4MiM
 
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At 04 times I placed a portal track inside of a tunnel and got it working within reason. I though I was the first and only one doing that. But today, my throne has crumpled.. Oh well!:confused:
 
It doesn't seem to resemble anything ever prototypically constructed on this Earth, with an oversize square tunnel, and a million ton, 10 ft thick slab of massive concrete, hundreds of feet long
 
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cascaderailroad said:
It doesn't seem to resemble anything ever prototypically constructed on this Earth, with an oversize square tunnel, and a million ton, 10 ft thick slab of massive concrete, hundreds of feet long
Click to expand...

I wanted the dig holes completely concealed with no light leakage at any camera angle. The thick spline content seals any possible light leakage. I laid my track, added my grade, locked the track spline points into height position, smoothed the spline under the track to create an embankment first then constructed the tunnel and then the mountain over it. The position of the dig holes happened to be wherever the track was laid.

That big square structure could house the huge ventilation fans on some American tunnels. If I were to use a thin roof top spline, then the edges of the dig hole would protrude through and be visible.

The thick concrete slab is one of the few flat splines that is not invisible (transparent) looking up from the underside. I even used concrete platform spline to make a floor in my tunnel so light (blue sky) would not leak from the bottom.

A thick cluster of trees to attempt to hide dig holes does not look neat and still allows light to leak through at certain viewing angles.


When constructing a physical scale model layout, it's totally different. You are not trying to use polygonal objects to form round structures. My physical tunnels would be prototypical as possible and even have interior walls and arched vaulted ceilings that were correct because they would be visible on a monitor when the small camera inside my scale-model loco cab drove through. Many physical model layouts omit interior tunnel walls through hollow model mountains and just have portals.
 
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I think you are really over doing things ... It looks like your putting WAAYY Too Much Thought into this light leakage compulsion, and are placing WAAYY too many assets, into designing a better "Mouse Hole" for a virtual video game cartoon train to drive through ... Nobody is going to grade you on your perfection techniques, and say: "WoW that is so fabulous" ! "Why didn't I think of that" ?

I have laid hundreds of regular old tunnels, with no light leakage at all, and they are perfectly graded, with pitch black stone tunnel walls.

MP Tunneltrack Dark track
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_044-1.jpg[/IMG

Tunnel 3_1 voie
[IMG]http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/PRR8.jpg[/IMG

Lots of trees at Spruce Creek interlocking
[IMG]http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_009-1.jpg[/IMG

Using 1x1 dighole
[IMG]http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_034-2.jpg[/IMG

Tunnel 3_1 voie
[IMG]http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_003-24.jpg[/IMG

[IMG]http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_004-20.jpg[/IMG

LampPost Linda at the Tunnelhill east end Portage bore
[IMG]http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_010-5.jpg[/IMG

Mahanoy Tunnel fanbuilding
[IMG]http://images.auran.com/auran.com/trainz/downloads/buildingsstructures/kuid_324760_28035.jpg[/IMG
 
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These are dig holes -- no detail scenery added yet -- the row of bricks across the top[ blocks all light leakage . haven't found anything curved yet to fit the entrance




 
cascaderailroad said:
I think you are really over doing things ... It looks like your putting WAAYY Too Much Thought into this light leakage compulsion, and are placing WAAYY too many assets, into designing a better "Mouse Hole" for a virtual video game cartoon train to drive through ... Nobody is going to grade you on your perfection techniques, and say: "WoW that is so fabulous" ! "Why didn't I think of that" ?

I have laid hundreds of regular old tunnels, with no light leakage at all, and they are perfectly graded, with pitch black stone tunnel walls.

MP Tunneltrack Dark track
Screen_044-1.jpg


Tunnel 3_1 voie
PRR8.jpg


Lots of trees at Spruce Creek interlocking
Screen_009-1.jpg


Using 1x1 dighole
Screen_034-2.jpg


Tunnel 3_1 voie
Screen_003-24.jpg


Screen_004-20.jpg


LampPost Linda at the Tunnelhill east end Portage bore
Screen_010-5.jpg


Mahanoy Tunnel fanbuilding
kuid_324760_28035.jpg
Click to expand...

Cascade, I have not been able to locate the tunnel and tunnel portals as you have shown above: any KUIDs and resources for this content?
That's why I built the tunnel as I did from bits and pieces. I was never able to locate tunnel content to support an American two-track standard-gauge layout
and loading gauge for modern American tall rolling stock. You seem much more resourceful at locating content than I am.

I am working in TS12, by the way. The only American standard-gauge tunnel material I know of in TS12 is for a one-track system. Maybe the content you use is from another edition of Trainz.
 
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Since this is a fictional route, I wouldn't have used the thick concrete slab and would have used something like a YARN highway bridge, or maybe one of the AASHTO bridges from gfisher. A highway next to the hill, with the railroad line going under the bridge and into the tunnels would look better and less clumsy.
 
JCitron said:
Since this is a fictional route, I wouldn't have used the thick concrete slab and would have used something like a YARN highway bridge, or maybe one of the AASHTO bridges from gfisher. A highway next to the hill, with the railroad line going under the bridge and into the tunnels would look better and less clumsy.
Click to expand...
Yes, John, this is a fictitious MODEL Trainz layout of mine. The trains do actually go under or over a bridge then into a tunnel with the less-than-graceful portals.

Here is a short video clip of what I've built in action:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbOkLSHU6Y&feature=youtu.be

[/URL]

If I could even find the tunnel content Cascade was talking about above, I would gladly revise my tunnel to look more prototypical.
 
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