Hiding The Fiddle Yard?

Vern

Trainz Maverick
Where it is located under visible track and scenery, on terrain that has been raised above the fiddle yard track level.

Normal tunnel splines won't work as there are likely to be complex junctions and multiple tracks within the fiddle yard complex. Left as is, you will just see "white" under the track and the scenery and sky above.

Working on a couple of ideas, there is a HVV Tunnel Ground which can be placed under the FY track. Normal walls can be used to curtail the sideways view. Where I'm struggling is what to use as a roof spline to blank the view above. Most ground plane splines are designed to be viewed from above with the bottom face removed, ergo see through. The best I can find so far are the WL Tunnel Roof sections. AJS tunnel/junction sections won't work as the route is being built to continental Europe loading gauge.


Can anyone suggest a more elegant solution?
 
One solution to make it easy is to have base boards some way out from the route but not attached. Build the fiddle yard on that and use portals to move from those boards to and from the route. I have five portals on my layout and they all send trains to my portal control boards for sorting and then sent back to the route via another five portals.
 
My solution Vern..

MR-East-End-Update-5.jpg



MR-East-End-Update-6.jpg



I did the top layer first at ground level, made sure every spline joint was set to the correct ground level, in my case it was zero.
Then I lowered the ground (in my case -40) and then locked and made invisible the ground layer.
You then have clear vision to make you fiddle yard in it's own layer.
It's a while since I did it and right now I am in the 4th day of Norovirus with it's associated fevers. so memory might not be accurate.

For the ceiling I used model railway ceiling panels.
 
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Ground plane assets could be made double sided or converted to using imeditor.

Or this has not too deep side sides and a bottom

<kuid:76656:60202> Concrete Slab 20mtr - spline

Or similar.

<kuid2:60238:38208:2> Dam Concrete Slab
 
In the end I changed the plan around a bit and opted for extending the fiddle yards out behind the visible layout area. Twofold reasons:

1. It avoids mucking around with false floors and ceilings.

2. It keeps the track easily accessible to place signals and any associated EIT's and to place rolling stock ready for a session. Hidden under the main part of the layout would make both of these much harder to achieve.

Probably said this before but it's an area N3v should really have addressed prior to launching TMR, instead of effectively just rebranding their existing product - not just being able to get under the terrain with the camera in Surveyor but with a view to those American style multi deck layouts.
 
Hi Vern,, have a look at the Porchester layout on the DLS if you haven't already, that uses a fiddle yard that is visible.

Paul
 
My solution for an underground (subway) section was to make a plane which could be lowered from base level, lay the track on the surface then lower the spline points appropriately.
I also made (and uploaded) a section of model railway backscene with a hole for trains to pass through disguised as a tunnel moth with textured slopes etc. - a prototype (model railway) solution.
Ray
 
Yes, Vern - DDD MR FY Screen 80x36, KUID 275817:22194. 36 metres/18 inches in 4mm scale is my standard backscene height, and 80 metres/40 inches is the depth of baseboard for which I made it. Not tested in T:ANE or 2019,

Ray
 
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