Changing Track Gauge

[moranb]

Over the week-end I downloaded from a Spanish trainsim site the monobloque track which Mike Simpson recommended and which , with its 1668mm gauge, is much closer to the 1600mm gauge used in Ireland than the standard gauge track provided in the simulator. Using Mike's tools, I then substituted the Spanish track for that used when I laid the track (the newc-york track). It all seemed to work beautifully and I was very pleased with myself until I realized that there was something peculiar with the turnouts and crossovers. A closer examination of these showed that the change of gauge did not transfer to the turnouts although the track and ballast (but not the sleepers for some reason) did. Is there some other variable in the ...track/...xml file that needs to be amended to change the gauge of the turnouts and crossovers? Or is this not possible? Of course, I could delete and relay these, but there are literally hundreds of them and if there is an easier way to do it please let me know. (I have,of course kept a copy of the original track.bin file so that I can switch back to the newc-york track).


Click the image to zoom in


BFM

[RSAdam]

Morning.

This is because junctions are rendered by code and not lofted like the rest of the track. This is how all the blades and guard rails are added. The track gauge used for junctions is held in the Track Rule at the bottom of all the 'Default' catagories.

[moranb]

That is a fairly defintive answer. I take it that this means in practice that it is not possible to change the gauge of a route once the track has been laid. I actually tried deleting a turnout and relaying it, using the track rule provided by the Spanish author of the tracks, but it seems that the track rule set for the route at the beginning overrides any subsequent rule as the newly rendered turnout switched back to the 1448m gauge.

However, there was another problem which in any event has caused me to abandon this idea - the spacing between the double track remains as it was with the 1448 mm gauge track which is unrealistic for 1668 mm track. I do, however, like the Spanish monobloque track with its realistic ties so I will probably switch to the standard gauge version of that track.

BFM

[RSAdam]

The simple response to that is that I dont think it was ever envisaged that users would want or need to change the track gauge of a completed route. So much fundimental infrastructure placement is built off of the track gauge that it really isnt something that can be tinkered with.

[paulz6]

I like the look of that 3D concrete sleeper track. Lovely ties too.

I'm assuming that even after changing to the standard guage track, you will have to re-render the points. Is this the case?

[moranb]

I have just changed the newc-york track to the Spanish monobloque 1435 mm track and so far as I can see there is no problem with turnouts or crossovers. They render correctly. However, presumably because they are hard coded, the 3d sleepers do not render where switches are located - you get a flat effect.

Unfortunately, the ballast for the 1435 mm track is brown which does not suit my route. I believe that it is the intention of the author of the track to eventually provide a grey ballast texture for the standard gauge track. I have looked at the Xsec and GeoPcDX files and it may be possible to switch the textures but that's another evening's work.

BFM

[nikos1]

Hi there, have you tried changing the track guage in your blueprint? Im not sure if that would work or not but worth a try. Unfortunately even then you may have to reweld all your switches if you want to use the broad guage track.

[moranb]

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know if that would work, but, as I indicated, the spacing between double track when the larger gauge track is substituted for the standard gauge is too narrow so I have abandoned this idea.

BFM