Victorian (Australian) Newbie

locolachie

New member
G'day everyone,

I am a train driver, and an enthusiast. I have bought TRS 2019 and TransDem for Trainz, because I thought it would be a good way to learn tracks by building them. From my perspective I am not as interested in scenery as many people are, because when you are driving a train you are looking for signals, curve boards, mile (km) pegs, and very specific braking marks so your focus tends to be very narrow and in the forward distance. It's actually pretty funny sometimes, as I used to drive the same track my wife goes to work on, and she has seen things I have never noticed, because I am concentrating on speeds and signals and never look out the side of the train!

My impression prior to buying Trainz was that it was the simulator with the easiest route creation and most Australian content. Since then it seems Australian Trainz Division has disappeared, and though there is undoubtedly still a lot of information and content out there it is really hard to find because of the sheer volume of information! Could anyone suggest where to start with my specific interest? What I would like in terms of trackside objects is signals, gantries, curve boards, speed boards, bridges, culverts, and level crossings. That sort of stuff.

I thought I would start off by building a short route, in the Walhalla line from Erica to Walhalla. Never going to drive that one I suspect, but it is short, sweet and dramatic. I have got as far as going through the tutorials to import a map and a vector route using Open Street Map, but have got stuck trying to get DEM data from Geoscience.gov.au which seems to be the most precise available. Has anyone had any luck with this data source? Should I just use the SRTM data instead?

On the other side of all these demands, if I can answer any of your questions about my job I am more than happy to do so.

I apologise if this post is in the wrong place. It could be more relevant in the Australian Screenshots thread, but I do not want to intrude on their grief tonight.

Cheers,

Lachie
 
Lachie,

There is a lot of Victorian stuff out there and a bunch of active content creators. ATD has morphed into Austrainz, and while the website is temporarily down, there's much going on behind the scenes.

This Facebook group is fairly active and the Vic content creators are there as well https://www.facebook.com/groups/TRSDU

For trackside stuff, search the Download Station (DLS) for the following authors. There are Victorian semaphores, modern speed signs and colour light signals
- victrainz
- s301
- lesley

There is also a route called "ARTC NSW Main South - VR North-East" by grazlash on the DLS that might interest you, and will probably have scenery assets that you can use.

TrainsDEM is not my field of expertise, but there are people in the Facebook group who can help out.
 
Hi Lachie, in terms of route building, the first thing I would do with Surveyor is to learn all of the tools on a throwaway practice route well before you start Walhalla. A lovely historic place by the way, complete with vertical graves! To be honest, I thought my first published route (VR Goulburn Murray Lines) was awesome - it wasn't - but looking back now it just showed how much I didn't know at the time. Version 3 is on the DLS and is closer to my current building skills, it will merge with the ARTC route as a bonus. At the moment I am upgrading both routes, adding TRS19 features like PBR textures and TurfFX and extending them as well. My highest priority project at the moment is the Illawarra South Coast line which is being built in collaboration with another trainzer. Shoot me a PM if you need any advice. (my resume sir - https://forums.auran.com/trainz/sho...oute-Creations-Collaborations-and-Renovations :hehe:) As a former Engineman myself (at Dynon I had a driver that loved the firemans seat) I can appreciate the need to keep your eyes peeled, I too thought scenery was overrated - in trainz however, if you are publishing a route it is considered better quality if there is something to look at and screenshot, always the screenshots.
victorianrailways.net is a very useful resource and includes a downloadable grades book. Azervich is another author to search in content manager on the DLS, a builder of fine old steam and a huge variety of Victorian rolling stock. Victrainz is another resource, but is fairly quiet these days. They have a forum and host members assets for download.
cheers
Graeme
 
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Thanks for your help, Hiyo and Grazlash. I have been doing some throwaway projects to learn how to use the programs (it's a steep learning curve!) I have managed to get terrain and vectors into Trainz, and now I am discovering the limitations of DEM in steep terrain.

My next steps will be to see if I can get the ELVIS 5m data to work (if it exists for Walhalla) and failing that l might start a flatter route. The rail and tramways around Walhalla and Erica are a paradise, but actually a distraction from what I want to do.

Cheers,

Lachie
 
Lachie

If you do decide to do the Walhalla line, PM me, I can supply most of the track and trackside related items, and of course you have the entire roster of the VR 30" railways on the DLS.

That was my first attempt at a route back in pre-history (2005) with the first version of Trainz. I didn't get far and I found that I preferred making making the rolling stock. I also have some background information that may help. Hence my user name.

Peter (narrowgauge)
 
G'day Peter,

I had already found your work on the DLS, but I haven't downloaded it yet, I'm still nutting out how to make Transdem work before I get onto the running trains and importing objects game. Walk before running and all that.

As I mentioned earlier I have managed to get Erica to Walhalla into Trainz with SRTM DEM and raster maps from OSM. All good, got topography and track splines, but the Stringers Creek gorge is deep and narrow, so it gets smoothed out to be much shallower than it actually is.

Applying real heights and gradients from the VR Grades and Curves book has been surprisingly therapeutic, I spent a couple of hours gnawing away at the terrain last night, just trying to learn to apply the tools to get the track to approximately the right gradient.

Now I will probably just chuck all that out as a learning exercise, because I have downloaded ELVIS 5m data for the area, and I'm hoping I can get more accurate topography once I figure out how to get the file into Transdem.

In the meantime I have turned my thoughts to flatter terrain, looking at the area around Maffra where DEM accuracy is less important. I have also been playing with Overpass Turbo as a way to get vectors into Transdem without having to use JOSM. Results encouraging so far for me, as there seems to be plenty of information on long lost railways in OSM, so whole yards are showing up. However there are still some artefacts that might have to be edited in JOSM, but I am hoping they are small enough to be edited in Trainz.

Now I just have to remember how I got the Walhalla line imported to Trainz, because i cannot remember what I did! Wish me luck.

I will get in touch with you re: your old route and trackside objects if I ever conquer this program, but I am still on that steep learning curve and need to master the basics first.

Regards,

Lachie
 
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