Route building takes a lot of things and I suppose combines a lot of Trainzing skills into one package.
For route building, you'll need to following tools:
- Start small.
The ultimate empire will come later and even then starting small is the best thing as it gives the route builder a chance to hone skills and it's less daunting a project. This is the downfall of building prototypical routes with 150 km of track laid out on a terrain waiting for landscaping and details. It's all those miles that lay ahead that kill the project.
- Patience.
Plan on taking lots of time. Rushing through a project of this scope can ruin the final product. The product in this sense doesn't have to be anything for sale. With a rushed product, you'll never be satisfied and end up scrapping the project sooner than later.
- Plan on revising.
A route really isn't completely finished. There will always be places where you think it's the bees' knees only to laugh at your work later because you've gained skills.
- Breaks.
Take breaks before things get ruined. Take lots of breaks when frustrated. Take breaks when the brain goes to mush and read train books, watch cab-ride videos, or other train videos to get ideas (research), even step away and do something else.
- Build a backstory.
This is probably a big and very important part of building a fictional route. By creating a history of the line or lines, it helps keep things realistic and coordinated. A backstory will keep the assets to a minimum. This isn't a limiting factor, but it gives a regional feel about the route. It also helps build a picture of what where the route runs.
I have an extensive history built up for my original Trainz Route, which I may post up here again. This route was originally based on a model railroad I developed, and that also had a similar backstory to it.
- Look, observe, read.
Even for a fictional route, it's a good idea to know how things are done. Sure we can drive trains around willy-nilly, but that's not railroading. Look at maps, read articles about stuff. Maps, especially higher resolution topographic maps will have plenty of ideas for yards, station layouts, even show abandoned lines that can be brought back to life.
Using the third-party program, TransDEM, abandoned lines can be brought to life.
- Experiment.
Setup "A Test Route" as I called mine to test textures, buildings, tracks, etc. This really, really helps and keeps the time on the project more focused. This doesn't say don't change anything later since the bulk update tool (whatever it's full name is now) is really, really helpful in this regard.
- Backup, backup and backup.
Above all, backup the data. There's nothing worse than seeing all this hard work end up in the bit bucket due to either a glitch, a dumb mistake, or worse a hardware crash that ate everything.