Tutorial: Placing SAP Catenary splines on tracks

Laying catenary splines can be somewhat difficult for the newbie in TRS19. This tutorial will teach you how to lay the catenary using my catenary content items.

Before we start here is what will be used in this tutorial that you need to install in your TRS19:

<kuid:439337:101943> SAP_Catenary_Spline_1T_V1_PBR
<kuid:439337:100160> SAP_Catenary_Spline_2T_PBR
<kuid:439337:106573> SAP_Catenary_Spline_1T_PBR
<kuid:204652:100882> FP - Track Spacing Gauge
<kuid2:439337:103196:1> TRS19 SAP Track U.S. 132LB SG, FB, TP with Spikes, Shiny

When laying the <kuid:439337:101943> SAP_Catenary_Spline_1T_V1_PBR spline ensure the white circle is more or less positioned on the track as shown in the following screenshot:



When laying the <kuid:439337:106573> SAP_Catenary_Spline_1T_PBR spline ensure the white circle is more or less positioned on the track as shown in the following screenshot:



When laying the <kuid:439337:100160> SAP_Catenary_Spline_2T_PBR spline ensure that the both tracks are within the required distance, when using the <kuid:204652:100882> FP - Track Spacing Gauge, as shown in the following screenshot:



When laying the <kuid:439337:100160> SAP_Catenary_Spline_2T_PBR spline on properly spaced double track ensure the white circle is more or less positioned on the track as shown in the following screenshot:



If you do as shown above your catenary wire will be more or less centered on my track.

Bob

New and now available for download from the DLS for TRS19:



SAP_Catenary_Height_Gauge
KUID:439337:102019
Description: This is a catenary height gauge setup as a railcar. It will couple and be driven down the track, but it is intended as a tool for setting catenary height. For use specifically with my SAP U.S. Catenary poles and wires. Based on UK_Catenary_Height_Gauge_2 by Ben Dorsey (AKA bendorsey). I have also included all my Blender 2.80 project files for this content item in a sub-folder called 'blender_files'. Before trying to access them be sure to first read the 'instructions_read_first.txt' file in that folder.

Enjoy!

Bob

Thanks for the quite tutorial and height guide for the otherwise painful process of putting up catenary. That process in general is quite painful and gets confusing at times as the wires become thicker and thicker especially around stations and terminals. The height gauge is very helpful as well for keeping the wires level on grades and at bridges.

JCitron said:

Thanks for the quite tutorial and height guide for the otherwise painful process of putting up catenary. That process in general is quite painful and gets confusing at times as the wires become thicker and thicker especially around stations and terminals. The height gauge is very helpful as well for keeping the wires level on grades and at bridges.

Click to expand...

You are more than welcome!

Bob

OMG my track gauge!!

Clicking it with the ? In surveyor will give you the meaning of all the colored bits. (Latest version of it). Those top arrows are supposed to be for catenary heights, but its meaningless in Trains.

FWIW I also have a centenary gauge. While the SAP gauge looks better for height, and certainly being able to drive it is good for checking over a route, mine is a track object and has a top whose width is for checking lateral placement on curves.

Search "FP -" on the DLS.

frogpipe said:

OMG my track gauge!!

Clicking it with the ? In surveyor will give you the meaning of all the colored bits. (Latest version of it). Those top arrows are supposed to be for catenary heights, but its meaningless in Trains.

FWIW I also have a centenary gauge. While the SAP gauge looks better for height, and certainly being able to drive it is good for checking over a route, mine is a track object and has a top whose width is for checking lateral placement on curves.

Search "FP -" on the DLS.

Click to expand...

While I tried out several existing track gauges of one type or another I found on the DLS, I liked your <kuid:204652:100882> FP - Track Spacing Gauge as it provided the correct spacing, and turned out to be very handy as it was a track side object. Thanks for that!

As for my catenary gauge, I needed one that I could tailor to the wire height I was using in all my recently released U.S. catenary items, which explains why I provided one of my own that matches exactly the correct height I use. This is a very handy tool for use with my stuff. The other existing gauges all seem to use different catenary wire heights.

Bob

Back when I mad it the only gauges I could find were "buildings" and I thought a snap on one would be way easier.

I have no idea where I found the "Army" standards I used for the shapes but its all explained and allowed me to easily place platforms check clearances etc. Glad you liked it. (That KUID is not the most recent version BTW)