Keeping new track pieces out of database

[landnrailroader]

Friends,

I have a up to date copy of a route I am working on, safely backed up on a DVD so now I want to add another
60 miles of track to this route (Great Falls, MT to Agawam, MT).

I read where you can put an entry into the startup file of TSRE that will keep new track pieces from making a
database entry until one hits the "Z" key. Okay, what is the entry to make?

I have found that new track pieces will not lock into place on a previous piece unless that piece is in the
database. Is there a way around that, because I would like to lay a few hundred meters, like around a curve
and then adjust the entrance & exit to that curve to fit makers.

Lastly, [cntrl]Q turns off or on the entry process, and I find that "z" either turns on the yellow database line
or turns it off? How can you know if the parameter is set to enter the database, or not?

As information, I gave up trying to get MSTS to work on my upgraded machine and plan further new routes
or modifications to be done in TSRE.

J. H. Sullivan

[landnrailroader]

Oops

Okay, here is an error. I intended to delete a turnout at this location and move it further east to where you can see a turnout. Evidently I failed to do something. So my questioon is: Is there a way to correct this situation - bear in mind that this is my first change and
addition to an existing (just backed up on DVD) route so it is not a fatal error, but I would suspect that some have done this after doing a days worth of edits and it would be nice if someone has learned a fix, OR not.

Jerry Sullivan

[rdayt]

What you can do is attach a piece of track to the diverging route then use the Hacks function, bottom of the left info panel, to remove that piece and the one it's attached to.

Randy

[landnrailroader]

Okay, Randy, that seemed to work although I remembered to turn off the database entry (yellow line) on pieces outside of what I wanted to hack. But after I hacked it, which removed the main issues, this one remained. There is a red numbered item still in the middle of the area (switch points) which resists all efforts to remove. I have the startup set to load all world files and I have found many places where the nodes are connected to nothing, but these are all in the part of the route copied from Michael Stefan's High Line and so selecting the offending piece, usually a short piece between switches & hitting "Z" so far has fixed those. If I can't get rid of this switch point location, I will reload the route from backup and start over, now that I have gained a little (dangerous) experience.

Jerry

[rdayt]

Is there anything under Tools/Errors and Messages?

[eric]

I've used Track viewer to find the hidden pieces that throw random poles. More than one was hidden under terrain, which can make it difficult to snap track to for deleting. Be careful turning off the terrain and moving track pieces with the mouse, as you can easily lose pieces several tiles way and several hundred meters above or below the working altitude....

[landnrailroader]

Randy,

Nothing about anything other than the unconnected nodes, which I find are easily fixed. This was the location of the tunout when I bring the fresh copy out of backup. Then with the database line visible, I delete the turnout prior to replacing it about 150 meters to the left. But when I do, the red number which was there when I copied the route over, remains. Well if I don't find out how to fix it in the next few days, I will be away from my PC for 12 days, "working" as a docent on the Cumbres & Toltect Scenic - being 84, it may be my last gig for that. My goal in all this is to divorce from MSTS/RE since I only have a working copy on an antique XP machine.

Then I wondered. If I am going to move this turnout, which will involve replacing some track shapes or rearranging them, is it better to delete the turnout along with it's database entry, or is it bettern to turn off the database entry and just move the turnout. For whatever reason my CD reader takes about 1/2 hour to read this route (900Mbt) in from the backup DVD. There are a lot in the tips & tricks but I didn't see anything about this, except that a out of synch situation is BAD.

Jerry

[rdayt]

I have never moved a piece of track. I have adjusted the placement but only if the yellow tdb line is off.
I always just delete it and place new. That way I know the old tdb entry is gone.
Does the red number pole affect OpenRails?

Randy

[landnrailroader]

I don't know about any OR effect yet. I only have laid up to this point. The turnout here will be a 10d150r diverging bias because
the straight route, which is still present, is a BNSF branch. This roughly 60 miles from Great Falls to Agawam is peculiar in that
in 1937, the Milwaukee Road gave up some track and got joint ownership of a parallel GN route and vice versa so that the branch
by the time the Milwaukee left the area in 1980 was about 50/50 used by both roads.

Deleting and then replacing new sounds like a more fool proof way to me.

Jerry

[rdayt]

All you need is a path. Might be good to see if OR will run it before you get too far.

Randy

[eric]

Moving track is fairly safe. I've adjusted hundreds of miles of track by moving or resnapping to a correct alignment.

Safest way is to delete the track vector with the Hacks menu, and then add back to the tdb one piece at a time to rebuild the vector.

Moving track still in the tdb can be done, but you'll have to double-Z the track to remove and reset the tdb data. You'll also lose the ability to snap to an adjacent track piece.

Orphan red and blue poles shouldn't be a problem at runtime. It's just a bother to those of us with track OCD...

[landnrailroader]

I discovered the problem that was causing the orphan red pole. (Idiot #?) There is a line in the settings.txt file that says WriteTdb = true. I thought that was what prevented a write to tdb until I pressed the "Z" key. Well it does, but it also prevents deleting the database entry if you just select and delete the track piece, so I set that back to true, from false. I also noticed that entries in my .mkr file that were done by converting .kml entries from Google Earth show up fine, but ones I key in, and use to mark locations of bridges etc. do not, so I wonder if there is a specific way to format a .mkr entry besides what works in MSTS/RE. Originally I had digitized and laid 90% of the track on this route with RE, just this added 60 miles or so is being done on TSRE and the route will be released as ORTS only, even if it can run on MSTS. Somewhere I saw a .mkr to .kml conversion program. I found it but it is pretty old, so my next question then, is if you need to create a path which involves new material done with TSRE, how do you do it. I can move the route to my XP machine and use MSTS/AE to create it, but I should think you can with TSRE, yet the only instructions about activities I have found indicate that you cannot?

Jerry

[landnrailroader]

Being a visual person, I printed out the instructions for the track viewer in ORTS and have looked at what I have done so far. I could see where there were some broken paths that were caused simply because I overlooked some piece of track done by Michael Stefan, so when I looked at the errors etc. found by TSRE & jumped to each, the fix was easy - select & hit "Z". Now I will have to learn more about the new & edit path functions in track viewer, but it is first time to pack my bags. Leaving here at 0615 Thursday morning on a SWA flight to Nashville, thence another SWA flight to Austin, TX & continuing to Albuquerque. Then rental car (very costly these days) to Chama, NM which being a narrow gauge lad that is Paradise on Earth, but the wife describes it as nearer the other place?. Be there 10 days and will have my #3 great-grandson out on July 5. I have requested a docent run that day but if I don't get it, I'll ride as a paying passenger so as to properly inoculate the lad with the railfan bug, which as we know is fatal in that it stays with you for good. As the late David Morgan put it in the Oct.69 issue of TRAINS-- "The narrow gauge gets in the blood and will not out". He is right, so I'll be back on here around July 12.

J. H. Sullivan, P.E.
retired from CSX & SR
docent; C&TS RR

[eric]

Hope you have a good trip to Chama. Post pictures when you get back.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

[landnrailroader]

Last year

I'll post some pictures. As a docent, though, I know where the good shots are and point them out to those passengers who are
visiting my "office car" at the time, i.e. the open air gondola. I don't take a camera with me though I take some with my iphone.
These two were taken on my last trip, last fall, which was the next to last day the train operated. In the view of the high desert, there were some Pronghorn out there that I could see with the naked eye, but not in the picture. Off in the distance is Los Mogotes, a dormant volcano that is a prominent landmark as you leave Antonito headed west, as we are here. The folks in the other are 4 of the 5 or 6 onboard crew. Three of them are good friends. On the right is "Chase" the brakeman, and on the left is "Lucas" the conductor. The lady on the left is "Kim" who managed the commissary car last year but may now be a "firegirl" as she took the necessary training last year. Two of the engines are now oil fired and a young lady could do that but if it is a coal fired one, I "wonder". Right now there is a Red Flag and fire warning out in the area which saw a lot of snow duriing the winiter, but no rain for the last 3 or 4 weeks.

A couple hours later we came to a sudden stop after I had yelled that we were "Going" into emergency, hang on. Lukas was surprised and wanted to know how I knew. Well as a retired railroader (Southeren & CSX) I heard the triple valve react on the commissary car, just ahead of the gondola. It was a tree on the track, right on a turnout. 30 minutes work by Chase & Lucas with an axe took care of that. beginning last year the on board crew started wearing the uniform you see in the image. The docent also has a uniform of sorts. We require blue jeans, blue shirt (long or short sleeve, but I use a long sleeve to avoid sunburn), campaign style hat and an official apron with the "Friends" emblem and our official name plate. If I go as a paying passenger, I don't wear anything that would identify me as a off duty docent.

J. H. Sullivan