Doing a model railway

jay_w_uk

In training
How do I start with a standard 'Hornby-esque' 1-board model railway? You know, oval track with a few buildings etc.

Even when I start with 00 scale the track is still tiny, even on a single board?

(No internet on my trainz pc yet so cant dowmnload the hornby route.)
 
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Choosing a 'scale' for a layout changes nothing in the sim except the measurements on the rulers. Everything else stays the same.

The standard single 'baseboard' in Trainz is 720 meters square. In 'OO' scale that works out a bit under 30 feet square, a pretty big model railway even by American standards, downright huge when compared with most British 4mm scale model railways....

I have experimented with building smaller 'model' railways by either using a backscene to block off part of the board or by raising a narrow base significantly higher than the rest of the board....

Andy ;)
 
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Go into Surveyor and create a new layout. Give it a name and choose a country.

Click on the track tab so it pops out.

Draw some lengths of track to get used to how the spline system works. Drag the end points of separate tracks and they'll join up. Repeat until you've got some kind of loop, no matter how messy. Then you can drag then spline points to change the shape if you wish.

Click on the rolling stock tab. Select a loco, put it on the track.

Move the mouse up to top left and a set of buttons will appear. Click the Quick Drive button, accept all the default options and DCC driving mode, and you should get your layout appear with you in control of your loco.

To exit back to Surveyor press the ESC key. (There are other methods.)

For buildings, back in Surveyor click the buildings tab, select a building, then click on the layout to place it. Then click the move button and you can drag it to another position.

The manual explains all this in much more detail but that's the essence of it (I hope). Keep trying, you'll get the hang of it.

John
 
Hornby

There is a Hornby type route on the DFS, that should give you a good idea how to get around board size.

Angela
 
Thanks for the replies!

I had a go last night and managed to get an oval route going - just need access to the DS and I'll be ready to get building properly!


Initial problems were with track: Can I add a spline point to a track after it's laid?
 
Thanks for the replies!

I had a go last night and managed to get an oval route going - just need access to the DS and I'll be ready to get building properly!
You can do a vast amount with just the build-in items and no need for anything additional from DLS.
Initial problems were with track: Can I add a spline point to a track after it's laid?
Sure can. There's a button to do it on the Track tab in Surveyor but it might be in the "Advanced" section (click that word to make more buttons appear).

John
 
Don't get me wrong, I'll be mastering the built in stuff first, I've just seen loads of stuff in the DS over the past month while I've been browsing and waiting for my laptop lol.

Thanks for the spline tip, it'll make things a lot easier to rectify!
 
jay_w_uk, I mentioned this to you before but there is a really good manual included with Trainz. Every question you have asked to date is clearly explained in the manual, often with examples. There is also an excellent tutorial in the manual that explains how to build an oval of track and get a power station coal loader working. This is an essential beginner's exercise. When you start with this tutorial, you can add buildings, create mountains, add more track and have a single baseboard layout up and running in no time. The tutorial only takes an hour or so, but within a couple of hours you can transform the baseboard into something terrific. Waiting for people to answer individual questions will eventually frustrate you and maybe even turn you off Trainz forever.

I noticed in another thread that you asked how to raise the level of buildings. Once again, this is covered in detail so that you can place buildings on top of, or even on the side of mountains. The manual is very thick, but it's an easy read and a fantastic reference.
 
Yep, that's excellent advice. Nobody minds helping but reading the manual will be time very well spent.

John
 
Many thanks for the help all - I finally managed to create a wee scene last night where I felt like I knew what I was doing! The only real sticking point was creating sidings and keeping the main branch into them straight.ie, created a track 45 degrees ish from mainline that kept 'bending' when I added a new siding track to it. (couldnt find sidings in the manual?)

I'm in a bit of a quandry as I can't print the manual from the pc that the game is installed on (hence the cheeky questions). Is there a version I can find on the general net to print?
 
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On the 'Track' tab in Srveyor (F4) there is a 'Straighten Track' tool (iirc second button from the right, botom row of buttons). Click that on the length of track approaching a junction to fix the kink thing...

The manuals are in the Docs folder in your TRS04 folder. I wouldn't print them unless I was using somebody else's ink LOL

Andy ;)
 
One great advantage of the electronic form of documentation is the ability to search. However, there's a knack to learning what to search for, especially with Trainz where you've got all the computer jargon to contend with, plus the different real-world railway terminology used in various countries. This glossary may help.

John
 
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