European Model Railway Club Route a WIP by Euromodeller

[lspdyiu]

Top notch work of the helixes on your route Imagineer. Love it, very outstanding.
Question for you Mr Imagineer you know the stairs in one of your screenshots you modelled that?
I look forward to seeing more of the exciting inspirational shots on your route so produce more work in the making.
Particularly; I am more thrilled to that interest of the helix structure it amplifies the hobby fun and prosperity in a route.

The cons situation to that is you can’t place signals with the track type you used for building the helix otherwise it’ll just float with no support and it ruins the realism. That’s a compromise in which I observed in one of the images.

If the track type you use for the helix structure as for default track for example just ensure that your helix structure do compatibilise on using other track types (to adapt on and match). It may also be considered vital to place signals onto some compatible track if the user chooses not to have the willingness to put it on the girder supports probably mainly for clear visibility of signal indication from the view of a cab.

OPTIONAL ALTERNATIVE:
You could reproduce this by having a wide track bed as the base with the suitable track in which the trackside object can then be placed onto it preventing it from floating.

Girders could also accomplish the placement of signals since they’re supportive enough and clear sufficient widening on any section of the helix.

Cheerios,
Ranciderwrich

[euromodeller]

Signal placement,
not a problem....



Stairs are made using my Model Trainz Fascias at different heights with a 'concrete' spline on top...




You just need a bit of imagination

I am happy to receive feedback and comments, I am also making changes each day, so what you see one day, might have changed next day.
You start with a basic interpretation and then fine-tune it, at some point I will be satisfied and release it.
I suffered a setback yesterday, I got so engrossed in modifying the hilltop town that I didn't make a save each hour, it was late night and I exited the game without saving

I lost about 3 hours work.
Never mind, my own fault, I will make a better village now

[euromodeller]

Vierbruecken is being rebuilt....

Flattened!



Roads and footpaths added..



Rebuildng the village, phase one, the Medieval Quarter



Ground level at Bahnhofstrasse



That was today's effort, saved and a CDP backup made, also installed it in TRS19 (pre SP1) and it looks fine

Time for a drop of the hard stuff and a bite to eat before bed.

Tomorrow I should be working on Phase 2, the 20th Century buildings and making some new ground textures depending on family visits, grandkids come before trainz

[euromodeller]

I have received several enquiries about the helix that I have constructed.

The main one at the club room end has these statistics...

Radius is 1.5m

Gradient is 1.04 for the outer track and 1.14 for the inner track (the smaller the radius, the steeper the gradient) it took a lot of trial and error to get this result.

There are over 270 pieces of track and each one has to be aligned

There are 88 bridge supports and each one has to be aligned

There are 24 signals

With track markers there are just under 400 pieces to make this one helix!

The other 2 are not yet fully completed but will probably match the details above.

It took a lot of experimenting with signals and track markers to get an acceptable flow of trains on the helix, but I am happy with the result now.


I will be releasing several individual helix modules for you when time allows, in standard gauge and in various narrow gauges.


This is all in TANE SP4, I will not release any of my new routes until SP4 is made into a public release.


There is no way I could have made this helix in TRS19 SP1 with it's modified UI, so unless N3V reverse the removal of the icons from the toolbar then (for practical reasons) I will be making layouts only in TANE.
There are several posts/threads about this so please feel free to provide your UI opinion in them.

[lspdyiu]

That is HECTIC!!! (literally)

Let me guess when you first initially started the trackwork of the helix module did you use Guide Curves for accuracy and alignment to decide how big the radius you plan to make the helix?

How long did that take you to make it (cumulatively)?

Are the girders you mentioned they’re trackside or scenery if speaking of accurate girders alignment?

I thought the AI’s could well handle the trip round in a helix on its way to its destination without having to put track markers to direct it.
Unless if you’re using directional track markers (yellow) that would refrain AI’s running direction from going the wrong way or reverse on the line.
Do your trains tend to end up giving up going to destination and resulting to cluttering the layout since if it can’t manage going via the helix?
In other words do AI’s act slack on purpose when it comes to navigating to places that are considerably far to travel and that it will need a tuition to tell the AI where is supposed to be headed?
But this case is dependent on how strong the video card or graphics the memory can handle. If Ram is strong enough to handle the memory then 80% chance that your trains can follow the schedule without any unexplained stalling or idling if the route contains trains at least 50 or even when emission of trains created from portals.
Trains would most likely to give up on following the schedule if the Ram isn’t high enough to maintain the memory.
Worse, it will constantly have stutter issues if the layout is badly cluttered with stopped scheduled trains.

Is the ui doing you a compromise in TRS19 when making the helix?

I look forward to using your helix modules on my mrr layout after being released to public.

Cheerios, Ranciderwrich

[euromodeller]

Yes I used a guide initially for setting the radius.
I have no idea how long it took to make in total, too many hours though !
Without the red track marks a train would wait for the train ahead to clear the helix, no matter how many signals were green in front of it but only going downhill,
I placed a red track mark every 360 degrees and it worked, trains can be almost nose to tail now!
The layout is not big enough to cause trains not to see the next trackmark, so elsewhere there is no problem.
The TRS19 problem (to me) is that the icons for the tools that I use when making a route have been removed from the top toolbar and into different menus.
see here.. https://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...&p=1786135#top

[euromodeller]

I think I should let you see the huge progress/alterations that I have made to the East End of the clubroom.
First job was to remove all internal walls to make the clubroom fully open plan....



A new termnus station was added at ground level...



A new Hauptbahnhof building (to be released 'soon') for the terminus..



A new high-level station was added...



Underneath that I made a fiddle yard, what a difficult job that was, imagineering was in fully challenged mode.



A driver cab view of the yard..



An upper and lower view



The re-located helix with a high-level loop added



Finally for today, a low level view of the helix and loop.



This part was very demanding to do, specially the low level yard with a station above, but I like a challenge
I am leaving this project now til February, when I will come back with a refreshed mind and then I will no doubt find something else challenging to make !

[zsuda]

... respect for all the stuff you made/make ... also for this magnificent layout ... and especially the tremendous helixes ... like it a lot ... beautiful pics ...
have a nice refreshing sabbatical ...
grtz
daveric

[MP242]

Another, 2nd absolute Classic Model Railroad Really enjoyed the video ride !

[lspdyiu]

TOP NOTCH WORK mr Imagineer evidently speaking of the low level staging yard. Surely that is challenging work to build. I assume that you used flooring splines to cover the “void” of the baseboard and ceiling panels to cover the underside of the layout table. And I spose digholes were used too.
Did you build the low level staging yard as a first priority then worked on another project of the layout over the top?
I utilised that sort of method of building of my very own hidden staging yard complex before advancing project work on the top as it kinda made it slightly easier with no provision of wireframes.
One question are you fond of modelling a layout control panel on your route that way you can take control of trains and switching operations instead of roaming around the room and throwing the points. Might be effective.
If you do intend to build it, the switches mounted on a layout panel shall provide a link connection with the respective junctions on the layout. This is achieved by using a Junction Controller or Junction Link. Master junction/points switch belong on a control panel so you can operate it from your hub. Slave junction points switch relate to points on the layout. They’re not to be switched. There is no specific naming convention to provide suitable names to display for the points and/or the controller so naming of those can be random despite no rule for correct naming from a script.

Hopefully the helix module shall soon be roll out to public distribution.

Regards,
Ranciderwrich

[Vern]

Bit late to the party on this one, but the layout looks superb. That helix is particularly impressive!

[Elipsofty]

Man! Why can I be this good? Looks amazing Euromodeller really love the detail in the scenery

[euromodeller]

Well February has been and gone, no progress due to Norovirus (not Coronavirus) and a wrist injury caused by too much mouse use! (CTS)
I also lost my Trainz mojo for a while, but that has returned!

I'll get some more work done here ASAP, but use of my mouse hand is retricted to a few hours a day instead of my usual 16-20

Another view of the new East End

[euromodeller]

I have good news and bad news.

First the bad news, I've removed the 2 helix in post #20.

Now for the good news......

A 4-track oval helix with contra-rotating tracks has replaced them!

1 track left rotating downwards
1 track left rotating upwards
1 track right rotating downwards
1 track right rotating upwards.

Making it oval has enabled me to lessen the gradient.
It's fully signalled and allows a lot of trains on it at the same time.

There's nothing like a good challenge to keep the Imagineer going

Pics time....

Railfan/trainspotter view..



General views..




Leg, legs, legs and more legs.!!!







More news 'soon'

[Forester1]

Wow! You are the man! Monumental effort!