How to start with route building

[landnrailroader]

When starting a route, or a new segment of a route, it may be necessary to align the new track piece to something like markers. I use GoogleEarth Pro to digitize routes. It is relatively accurate but when you decide on a set of images to use, make note of the date and always use those images anytime you need to place something like a house etc. The only problem I still have is shaping terrain around track or road. It was very accurate in MSTS/RE, probably the only really good feature in that ancient software. I am still experimenting and the problem is that no matter what I use, the width of the bottom of a cut, or top of a fill, is too wide. Single track fill top should be no more than 50 feet (15 meters), and the bottom of a cut about the same. No matter what parameters I use, it comes out nearly 70 meters, way too much. The only solution to that I have found is to use terrain adjusting a little at a time, and that is very tedious.

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

I know a lot of new route builders are using open street map as a source of truth more than markers. I use both, creating KML files with pins.

Probably one of the best improvements TSRE gave us was the ability to bring in map layers. MSRE you could make do with transfers and Lloyd Engle's SRT gave some ability to follow Google Earth imagery, but it took forever. TSRE made it faster and more accessible.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

[DuctTapeGuru]

I do appreciate all the assistance. Right now, I'm spending time learning the software. It's one of the nastiest programs I've ever tried to learn. So far, I've learned that it is mush easier to totally destroy something than to get it to work correctly.

[slipperman]

It's one of the nastiest programs I've ever tried to learn.

That is rather unkind and disrespectful to Eric and the original creator, Goku!
I've not used it 'seriously', but it seems to be easier to use than MSTS RE. I HAVE used the latter, preparing a route using DEM data and laying all the track but that's as far as I got! Not because if any problem with the RE, but with my abilities!! It's still on my hard drive and might see the light of day. eventually!!

You need a great deal of patience, and time, to create a route - it's not something which can done by 'Plug and Play' You WILL make mistakes which is why it's essential to take regular backups, to avoid losing hours of work.

Cheers,
Ged

[landnrailroader]

I am doing entire routes except for fine details & signals with TSRE and other than the issue I have with cut/fill it is a great product. However, just to get a route to the point I can upload it as "incomplete" may take 6 months or more. Although I am 87, the "boss", i.e. wife, is still in charge after 32 years, and any of you guys that think otherwise better shape up. That being the case, I can't spend as much time as I would like doing it. I have around 15 routes in various stages. For the L&N, Henderson, S&NA, and ShortLine subs. (now all CSX) I have only created the route and shaped the terrain. I still use MSTS/RGE to create the route and DEMEX to generate terrain from USGS data. I need to point out that while I digitize frrom Google Earth Pro, the elevation height values you get from that product are iffy at best. I have found that much more reasonable values come from the generated terrain, especially if 1/3 arc-sec USGS data or better was used. So I will use GE to determine the high & low points and I will put unmarked pushpins at those locations and enter the coordinates into the route marker file. Then I go into the route and check the elevation at those point and usually add 1/2 meter for tracks, nothing for roads. Generally tracks in the US will be above the terrain by as much as 2 feet so 1/2 meter (approx. 18 inches) is a good adjustment. Then I put the values in the markers and the GE pushpins.

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

Jerry I hear you about cut and fill... Given some of the success I've had around AI reading Goku's QT/C++ code and coming up with solutions for other issues, I'm going to try to come up with a denser terrain grid to try and get more definition, particularly around cut and fill. The problem i've had has been around formatting and math, something that AI seems to be able to handle very well and without any fictional bias....

(after a couple hours of trial and error, this is not going to be a simple patch & fix... Goku hard coded the 8m grid spacing in a bunch of places, and trying to discern what's an 8 byte read vs. an 8m spacing has been almost impossible to break apart...)

[landnrailroader]

Eric,

I don't think grid spacing is the issue. I don't know how it could be done, but decoding the process in MSTS/RE by reverse engineering might be a start. This is the only significant issue I have come across in TSRE and that is why I either release routes incomplete, or take them to a certain level and then set them aside until some thing comes up. Also remembering what has happened when some of our older folks pass on, I keep a list of my routes in zip files and I have shown my son-in-law how to handle an upload. At 87 who can know when my ticket to heaven shows up.

Jerry