Alaska Railroad

[billmoyer]

I have seen older versions of this topic, but nothing recently.
Is there a version of the Alaska Railroad available, or being built?
Thanks!!!

Bill

[eric]

There isn't one I know of that's available.

FSSArno had been working on it several years back, and had just resumed again last year but he passed away and his family can't find any trace of it on his computer.

[landnrailroader]

It is not on my list of routes to do but I can still generate DEMEX terrain on my XP machine and I would be willing to digitize the route and create the terrrain with
markers so anyone else could work on it. If there is enough interest, I am willing, and when done I would upload it as "unfinished". To do it accurately though we need to get the track charts for it and I don't have any contacts on that line, but if anyone does, track charts are usually furnished to track supervisors or roadmasters, whatever they call the track folks.

J. H. Sullivan (aka landnrailroader)

[landnrailroader]

Just a quick look shows that fairly recent track charts are available on CD for around $18 from Ebay & other sources. Shipping was free so I just ordered one for a little over $20 with sales tax. (which FL now requires on Inet purchases) It is a 2010 version. For $1 less you can get a 1977 version. Both are .pdf files of each page.

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

I'm pondering the idea after my Sunset/ Gila Sub is put back together. If for no other reason, because Arno never finished his version.

If I do it, I'll first try HGT files with Google Earth imagery. The mountains will need both....

My concern about markers is the distortion from the msts world projection is going to be pretty severe at that latitude.

[landnrailroader]

Yes, the distortion will be an issue. Also the height range exceeds the limits of MSTS so it would have be done in at least two sections given that the south end is near sea level and I don't know what the maximum height is, but terrain far exceeds 10,000 feet
J. H. Sullivan

[ebnertra000]

The distortion shoiuld be a solvable problem, at least in TSRE. There's a way to move the origin of the projection so that the projection skew is minimized or eliminated. I tried it and it makes Japan into a feasible place to make routes

[eric]

Now you've got me intrigued to see if the height limitations for ORTS are more forgiving.

Arno's plan was Seward to Anchorage, which shouldn't see as much of an elevation change as both are at sea level. But Anchorage to Fairbanks will have Mt McKinley/Denali and that is definitely outside the MSTS limits.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

[PerryPlatypus]

The south end of the Alaska Railroad (everything from Anchorage south) has been on my short list of (payware) route ideas for years. I managed to pick up a track chart for a few bucks at a local model train swap meet a year or so back. If I can ever find a source for decent public domain aerial imagery for Alaska (like the NAIP imagery we have for the continental United States) then it will jump toward the top of my list, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen any time soon.

The rugged terrain in many areas would look pretty sad with only the low-res HGT DEMs - especially the Place River Canyon in the south and Healy River Canyon up north. Has anyone verified if Demex can be used to generate terrain on a route that was started from scratch with TSRE - let alone one with TSRE distortion-correction applied? The beta version of Demex has the ability to handle map distortion correction as well - but setting it up that way in TSRE would be better to maintain functionality of the aerial image Overlays tool.

The high point of the ARR tracks is actually less than 3,000 feet above sea level at Broad Pass, it's just the surrounding terrain that dramatically exceeds that elevation. Not sure there is anything over 10k within a few miles of the tracks / on normal terrain tiles. No issue with any of that in ORTS as far as I know. Mt Shasta is over 14,000 feet, while Dunsmuir is just over 2,000.

[landnrailroader]

seward_01.jpg I decided to go ahead and create the Seward to Anchorage portion which is about 120 miles but will also include the 12 mile branch to Whittier. At first I had some issues as I set up the route in MSTS and planned to work on it, in TSRE but I resolved that this morning. TSRE apparently does not like a MSTS created route until you add a little track which makes it create a world file and a track database. There is probably some distortion & variances between the digitized world and the real world, but I have not seen any more variation betweeen the digitized route and the generated scenery than I have seen in many good routes. The plan is to piddle along until the track is in place and major roads. Then I'll put in the unfinished area of the library so someone else can fluff it out. One thing to remember is that the glaciers are more or less white the year round, so I expect some terrain painting will be necessary. This is the passenger track out of Seward looking more or less south.

Jerry Sullivan

[landnrailroader]

So far track is laid to mile 13 which is just past the first summit on the line, "DIVIDE" which tops at 696 feet, mostly a 2% grade up from Seward. While I have not seen significant distortion, I was unable to process the 1/3 arc-sec terrain files - kept getting a error on saving the file as a geotiff, so I had to resort to 1 arc/sec. In several areas so far, you can see a obvious embankment where track or roads is, or will be, so the digitizing is close. What I have seen is significant variation between what the track chart says a curve should be and what it takes to carefully fit the curve pieces to the digitized marker. For example two curves said to be 10 degree, lay out as almost 12 degree. Also the charts will show back to back reverse curves when we know that is not correct either and the length of curves on the track chart also includes generous spirals in/out of the curve.

J. H.Sullivan, P.E. (retired)
docent, C&TSRR (retired)

[joe_star]

There isn't one I know of that's available.

FSSArno had been working on it several years back, and had just resumed again last year but he passed away and his family can't find any trace of it on his computer.

I am saddened to hear of his passing.

Hoping this hobby gave him some joy in his final years.

[landnrailroader]

I hope it did too. At 84, I'm probably on the downhill slide, just don't know it yet. Spent about 30 minutes outside this morning picking up debris from the nasty lady that passed 100 miles west northwest of us yesterday and then the heat got too much. Nothing major, a lot of pine cones from the neighbor's trees and a few branches from a water oak in our back yard. I'll go back out when it is cooler this afternoon. In the meantime, I'm closing in on mile 16 north from Seward, AK. Soon I'll come to a area alongsiide a lake that essentially has no tangent track according to the track chart but the Alaska RR includes the spirals in their curve graphics so in TSRE there turns out to be some short tangents between the curves. The aerials are very poor in spots, just can barely see the track.

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

After Arno's stroke several years back, interacting with folks on trainSim was one of the few things he was still able to do, and was still active until a few months before he passed away.

So yes, this site and the hobby served a purpose for him...

Jerry, thanks for kicking this off. Many years back, there was talk of a community route project. I wonder if this might be the basis for one.

[CSXT Q-317]

I would love to see the Alaska railroad done. Glad to see someone has kicked it off with terrain. I think it was last year on Facebook train simulations had created a poll gauging interest in future routes. Alaska RR if I recall correctly was in the poll. I put my .2 cents in for Alaska and Sandpatch personally. However, it is really great to see the Alaska RR getting some attention. I think the operations up there are interesting.