Replacing Rail Textures and Making Switch Points Movable.

[PeterB]

This relates primarily to the default Innsbruck to St. Anton route (Europe 2).

The rail in this route has unrealistic looking thick rail. I would like to replace that thick rail with more realistic narrower rail. How?

The switch points in this route do not appear to be movable (particularly when running activities and when changing tracks). The switch points remain in the default position regardless of which track the train goes to.

How to make the switch points movable?

[oper190]

Suggest you try these replacement tracks, they look awesome compared to the old ones and use the existing aclean track textures. https://www.trainsim.com/forums/file...leid?fid=88570.

Also might want to update your Global TSection file - search Tsection in the Library, latest is version 60 but several older ones still available

[PeterB]

Thank you very much for your helpful reply!

Yes. The rails look much better now and more realistic.

That still leaves the issue of how to get the switch points to move when trains change tracks.

?

[eric]

The replacement tracks are animated, but the route itself might be missing a required element in the World file for the animation to be triggered correctly.

This was very common in the 2001 era of routes.

[PeterB]

Thanks.

So what should be done to enable switch point movement, and how?

[eric]

You have to decompress the world files, and look to see if they have a JNodePosN for every turnout.

It's not a simple undertaking for anyone who hasn't had to dive in and do World file editing before. But it's also a good way to start learning how to do that.

I don't recall if TSRE automatically fixes missing J nodes or not. It does delete duplicate J nodes when they are found.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

[slipperman]

Hi Peter,
If you have Route_Riter, there's a function to correct stuck (ie non-animating) points. It makes appropriate modifications to the World files, but whether it will solve your problem, I can't say. If you wish to continue, I recommend that you copy the route's entire World folder to somewhere safe, just in case ....!

In R_R, select and confirm a route, click 'MSTS Files Utilities'. At the bottom of the 4th column of buttons is 'Correct Stuck Points'. Press this and wait for R_R to complete the task.

Please note, I have tested this using Route_Riter v7.6.26 on the Innsbruck - St. Anton (Europe 2) route with the default tracks - points blades are animated when using MSTS and Open Rails 1.5.1 (Stable).

R_R v7.8.xx appears to offer the same option but I've not tested it.

Cheers,
Ged

EDIT : Checking the TSRE manuals from Neil and Goku, I can find no mention of it being able to fix this problem - I wonder, depending on how widespread the problem is, if such a function would be worth adding?

[eric]

I completely forgot about the "stuck points" function in R_R but also haven't used the tool in ages.

The dupe check for JNodes was added in version 8 after finding several cases of multiple values per turnout in routes I'd edited with TSRE 7.x. It already creates one when adding a turnout, so putting in a check for a missing one should be easy.

How widespread? It was wide enough in the early days for Mike to add it to Route Riter.... Chances are it's like the Ebola virus -- always hiding and waiting to resurface somewhere.

[slipperman]

Hi Eric,
If the function could be added to TSRE, it would save members the hassle of trying to get Route_Riter to work!

Thanks

Cheers,
Ged

[PeterB]

Thank you gentlemen for your responses.

I thought I would try the easier solution first to fix non-moving switch points by using Route Riter. But it turned out not to be so easy after all!

I had version 7.5.60 of Route Riter installed, but it's button labelled Correct Stuck Points was greyed out, meaning that function was not available. So I uninstalled this version of Route Riter.

Downloaded and installed version 7.8.3 of Route Riter, but when running this version, I got error message that file points.txt was missing. I couldn't find this missing file, so I uninstalled this version of Route Riter also.

Downloaded and installed version 7.6.26 of Route Riter, but when running this version, I got numerous error messages. I think the problem was I didn't install the location of AceIt! properly. So uninstalled and then re-installed Route Riter version 7.6.26, and this time made sure AceIt! was installed properly where it was supposed to be.

In the end Route Riter version 7.6.26 did have the button Correct Stuck Points enabled, and I ran this function on the Europe 2 route which had quite a few stuck points and which where successfully corrected! Ran a test train along part of the route to verify the switch points were moved where required, and the points were indeed moved!

Success in the end!

I'll look at manual editing of world files with stuck points also later on when I have more spare time. Currently running test trains and renumbering locomotives.

[slipperman]

Hi Peter,
Glad to be of help

Cheers,
Ged

[PeterB]

Thanks Ged.

Just noticed another issue appearing while running test trains along the route NEC V4 after using Route Riter to correct some "stuck points" for this route.

Some switch points along adjacent/parallel track are now aligned so that trains switch from the initial or main track into the adjacent or siding track without setting the switch to change track to begin with!?

While running a test train, I discovered several switch points were aligned to change track when they should have been aligned to the initial or main track by default. There were no other (AI) trains involved for the test runs.

Unless overridden as part of an activity, all (adjacent) switch points by default are or should be aligned to the main track I understand. So why are some switch points now aligned as though to enable trains to change track when there is no need to!?

Not the best screenshot, but I think you get the idea. The switch points should be aligned to the main (straight ahead) instead of what is seen here (aligned to change track).

switch_points.png

[eric]

Most switches have a variant that sets the diverging path by default, so this could be intentional or by error.

[niknak]

Hi Ged and others,

I have Route Riter 7.6.26 but when I click the 'stuck points' button I get a popup saying 'no stuck points found' although a quick check of the route confirms they definitely are. This is using the default unaltered Innsbruck-St Anton route with original track.
When opening Route Riter I always get a pop up telling me I don't have Java installed on my pc ( but I do ) and that the program won't work - but it appears to work and always has.

So I'm puzzled.

[PeterB]

Some suggested procedures that might resolve Route Riter not apparently working.

Uninstall Route Riter using a dedicated uninstaller program such as Revo Uninstaller, or IObit Uninstaller. This will ensure that ALL files associated with Route Riter are totally removed. Otherwise any residual file(s) left over after normal uninstallation procedure may cause (partial) incompatibility with a new installation of Route Riter which in turn may cause issues when running Route Riter.

I have Java runtime 6.0.37 x86 (32 bit) installed as the prerequisite for using Route Riter. If you have another (older) version of Java runtime installed then you may wish to uninstall your current version of Java runtime (again using dedicated uninstaller program preferably) and then install 32 bit version of Java runtime 6.0.37 like I have.

Then (re) install Route Riter version 7.6.26 and be very careful about where you install AceIt! and TGATool and install as instructed by Route Riter.

Then in Route Riter set the path to MSTS directory that contains train.exe file. In my case it is E:\MSTS\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator.

Then be sure to run Route Riter as an Administrator (presuming you are using later Windows version?).

That should be it.