moving new route off MSTS

[landnrailroader]

I still use MSTS to create new routes and then do the terrain with DEMEX. One thing I have consistently noticed is that if you move a new route that does not yet have a track and road database, TSRE will reject it by a crash to desktop. It is not a new issue. So yesterday when I created the start for the Scioto division of N&W(NS) I moved way off from the start tile and put one road and one track piece in place and saved. I kept one copy like that, and one without on a flash drive. So the issue remains and now the route is on my main PC with two tiny databases. Austin Yoder used some strange method of digitizing and coupled with that, he only had default and perhaps X-track pieces to use, so when I copy Williamson over, I will realign the track railroad west of the tunnel at the west end of the yard. Should not be hard to do that and the error does not exceed 50 meters, so there may be an issue with the Tug Fork next to the Williamson yard. There is a long branch that starts as a lead off the turntable lead and continued for several miles into Kentucky. It is abandoned now except for a mile or two of multiple tracks in Kentucky that seem to be a storage place for empty coal cars. By overlaying topo maps though, the entire line can be roughly digitized and then adjusted on the terrain. Two other long branches still exist and serve mines that appeared to be active. All three branches are recent construction by railroad standards, late 1950s, early 1960s.

I got a question last night as to the status of the Northern Montana line of the Milwaukee Road, so I guess I better piddle some more in that direction.

Jerry Sullivan
(landnrailroader)

[landnrailroader]

I went into the N. Montana route and added some roads. Getting on in years, I'll probably issue most of my future routes to the incomplete category so any others that wish can detail them out. Then I went back into the Scioto route and finished selecting all the track & road pieces that were copied over from the Pokey2 by Kenny Eaton. And I have started to lay track on the Pond Creek Sub. which has a couple of spurs off of it. The first is the BlackBerry Branch, not quite 2 miles in length. All traces of this one are gone, so I used the overlay of topo maps to rough in the track and then studied the ground closely to fine tune that. There was one mine on the branch at mile 0.90 roughly but no trace of it was found, so I guessed at the layout and will use a old style tipple to mark the spot. Attached is an image of this location. Although the Pond Creek Sub. is gone past it's own mile 2, there is still evidence in ground marks to know better where the tracks were and the roads are visible. So rather than lay track first, then roads, I am putting in the roads first so that I can lay the track relative to the roads. So here is the area around the mine at Hardy, KY.

HARDY_COAL.jpg
In order to keep the curves as close as possible to the values in the track chart, I have used dynamic on some of the parallel tracks. A lot of it is in the Williamson yard although the available track pieces in X-tracks allowed me to eliminate a lot of the straight pieces. The grade at the mine is .845% and then after the turnout at the bottom, it increases to 1.1% but only goes another 1/4 mile or so.

Jerry Sullivn (aka landnrailroader)

[brolar]

What is DEMEX?

[landnrailroader]

John,

Demex is a program that came on the scene around 2002 and must work with MSTS. First you create the route you desire, i.e. you generate the quad-tree for terrain and distant mountains, and then you go to the USGS site and download whatever DEMs (digital elevation modules) you need. In the long ago, I used 1/3 arc-sec. DEMs but lately none of these will work with DEMEX, even if they are massaged first with Virtual Terrain Builder, so I now have to use 1 arc-sec modules, not as good a resolution as I would like, but it is what it is. TSRE will generate & shape terrain but it uses .hgt files which are not as good, even as 1 arc-sec. files from the USGS.

Eric or someone else will probably pitch in some more on this issue.

Jerry (landrailroader)

[landnrailroader]

And then there is dynamic track. I would rather not use it but to have accurate track, especially multiple parallel tracks, there is little choice. It has it's own oddities, but I found one today which I will relate. I had already laid one of 2 dynamic pieces to parallel a 6 degree curve (M-tracks) because I wanted to keep the wider spacing of MSTS pieces on this coal branch. When I laid another one, I got a blue pole at both ends and no yellow line. Tried several times, so I decided I would jot down the values and delete the piece, then create another, identical one. I did so, and this second piece fitted in perfectly -- go figure?

Jerry (landnrailroader)

[landnrailroader]

By the way John, that odd picture of me is my docent uniform when I worked a couple of weeks on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic in 2020,21,22,& 23. Most fun I ever had but the boss insisted we do something else this year, so we did a 5 day national park tour including Yellowstone. Nice, but the docent gig was more fun for me, not so for the boss and we have to keep the boss happy.

Jerry (landnrailroader)