I am wondering if the track in Trainz needs more ballast around the track, or should the ballast that is "built in" with the track suffice? I have always added more ballast (matching the track ballast) whenever I build a route. But now I'm wondering if that is really necessary. What say the rest of you?
To Use Ballast or not to use
- Thread starter davesnow
- Start date
Where I use ballasted track I never bother adding extra, the ballast that is built-in I find to be sufficient. But I suspect it is all a matter of personal taste.
The only thing I have done is create a Clutter Effect Layer with a random scattering of ballast stones to place over the ground textures alongside the track. Especially in yards where I often do not use ballasted track or lower the track so that the built-in ballast is not visible as shown in the screenshot below.
Because it is an effect layer its density can be increased or reduced as needed.
The only thing I have done is create a Clutter Effect Layer with a random scattering of ballast stones to place over the ground textures alongside the track. Especially in yards where I often do not use ballasted track or lower the track so that the built-in ballast is not visible as shown in the screenshot below.
Because it is an effect layer its density can be increased or reduced as needed.
I spread extra ballast on my commuter routes to make them similar to the rail lines where I live. These lines are ballasted very heavily, and the ROW is very clean looking. The freight operator, on the other hand, doesn't do much in the way of maintenance and has let things become rundown. There are lines here that have 5-foot grass and the track hasn't seen ballast in decades. To represent the different types of track quality, I have modified various track assets to suit. I have sandy dirt roadbed and the track is really rusty that I use for sidings and badly maintained branches. I have rusty coal ballast track for coal mines and those areas around power plants where the coal was spilled.
I wish we had was the ability to transition better between the rusty mess of sidings and pristine mainlines.
I wish we had was the ability to transition better between the rusty mess of sidings and pristine mainlines.
I put 'something' along the right-of-way, and especially between parallel tracks, but I don't use the exact match ballast texture (except sometimes in yards) because to my eye that looks a bit much. The trick is to find something that blends the 3d-modelled track ballast into the surrounding greenery.....
I think one of the problems with route building is trying not to make your route look to 'clean' nature has a lot of rough edges. In the UK within a couple of years of a track being laid nature has started to close in so my approach has been to lay ballasted track followed by a wide band of a rough grass texture. I follow this with a slightly broken band of ballast to compliment the track followed by a sparce scattering of a second stonier ballast. The effect is a mixed ballast track but with green showing though here and there and by the time cable troughs and track furniture has been added and the fields and hedge rows included it stats to create those rough edges. If anyone knows of a spline with litter, empty bottles and cans, or one with the rubbish the track maintenance crews leave behind I'm sure it could be improved further. Peter
the 'straight' edge of most track ballast drives me insane, I work mostly with narrow gauge and so far no one has produced a NG track that comes even close to the irregularity and make do factor that many NG lines displayed . I know repetition is an issue with any spline, but so many NG lines used rough hewn timber that barely resembled a conventional tie . one old track if found had a semi opague edge which was great for blending in, but it was old and the track itself looks 2d and lacking in depth compared to most newer track.
I suppose the limitation of a 3d asset that is repeated will always result in a look that is repetitive .I tried burying track with no ballast into a track fill and that was fairly successful but i also found that trainz didn't preserve the integrity of the track, I continually had to go back and re-adjust splines that had been completed because it had shifted, I relaid fills half a dozen times in some3 places even though the spline points were set and presumably would not move after saving, must be similar to the floating tunnel portals that constantly decide to move themselves randomly ...... built in bugs.
Without meaning to sound critical of our great layout creators (and they are all great!) it is too easy to become fixated with minor details, such as the track bed looking "too straight" or "too clean", or the rails "not dirty enough", etc. In the real world there would be an infinite range of possibilities just for the track alone, forgetting about everything else in a scene, while in the virtual world we don't have infinite storage space and processing power (at least not yet!). That is one argument against those conspiracy theorists who claim that the "real world" is just a computer simulation - aka "The 13th Floor" and "Vanilla Sky" movies.
Add to this, as dangavel points out above, Trainz assets, particularly splines, are limited to repeating elements of set lengths and "compromise, compromise" is the reality of route building. The "art" of route creation is in how we disguise those compromises.
My thoughts.
Add to this, as dangavel points out above, Trainz assets, particularly splines, are limited to repeating elements of set lengths and "compromise, compromise" is the reality of route building. The "art" of route creation is in how we disguise those compromises.
My thoughts.
lovetrainzloathen3v
New member
From a purely prototypical point of view, in the UK. Spreading ballast all around the track bed is incorrect.
Mike.
Mike.
This is Boston South Station lead tracks.
https://goo.gl/maps/JXccJ7PGoCa9KoCs5
Melrose/Ceder Park
https://goo.gl/maps/Zybyoq8zYToZDg4y8
Note the ballast around everything.
To contrast the well maintained mainlines, here's the Peabody branch. Note that there's little or no ballast with rusty rails and old ties.
https://goo.gl/maps/8FB2zbsUvp8NsjQT7
https://goo.gl/maps/JXccJ7PGoCa9KoCs5
Melrose/Ceder Park
https://goo.gl/maps/Zybyoq8zYToZDg4y8
Note the ballast around everything.
To contrast the well maintained mainlines, here's the Peabody branch. Note that there's little or no ballast with rusty rails and old ties.
https://goo.gl/maps/8FB2zbsUvp8NsjQT7
They tend to like ballast in my area
Google Maps
Google Maps
It is not pretty in Melton Mowbray either. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...&ll=52.76102106046727,-0.887449408883183&z=20
schweitzerdude
Member
One of the things I like to do is watch youtube videos taken from the cab of locomotives in various countries. Search on "cab ride". What you can see is some places (Germany, Switzerland) are very tidy with ballast and seem to have barriers to keep the ballast in place. Also, in forested regions in North America with heavy snowfall, animals such moose, deer, elk, walk the tracks in winter because the trains push the snow off the track so it's easier for them. If you walk the tracks, you will likely see an endless supply of bleached animal bones on top of the ballast.