Laying track on a shelf on a hillside

[clay001]

I've been playing around for a little while (ok, a long while) in re trying to lay track which runs effectively on a shelf along the hillside, I've tried many different combinations of calculations but on pressong 'y' re just obliterates the lovely demmed valleys (thanks Kentishman). One idea I have is the ukfs embankments (I'm ultimately going to use ukfs) at ukts to help achieve this effect, which might be long winded but ultimately worth the effort.
I'm sure I've seen it done, such as the Blanaeu branch on Bala hub, but how it's achived has me stumped (reaches for M. Vone book).
What I'm trying to achieve is the approach to Ilfracombe...

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Clay.

[dkightley]

Do you mean like on this thread?

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... a&start=15

[clay001]

Yeah, I guess a "series of scenery items" may be the answer.

[dkightley]

Here's a tip to help with the necessity to have to tweak such scenic pieces to get them to sit neatly under the track....

Run both your graphics program (eg 3DCanvas) and Route Editor at the same time. You'll be able to identify what tweaks you need to make to the shape whilst viewing the shape in RE. Modify the shape and export to MSTS.......and here's the trick:

Instead of exiting from RE and restarting to allow you to see the modified shape, in RE, go to the Camera window and put a minus sign in front of the Lat: figure (it'll be something like 53.12345) and press the Jump button. Ignore the fact the main window has gone all white, and take the minus sign out again...and press the Jump button again. Voila! You'll be back where you were...and you shape will have changed!

You can repeat this guess, change, save & double jump sequence as many times as you like without having to exit either RE or your graphics package!!

[clay001]

Thanks for that Doug, I imagine it will take some practice but I'll give it a go!

[mpeffers]

I'm not sure if that always works. Certainately if I edit and then export a scenery model to replace one I've already placed in a route while the route's still open, I end up with polys of the model stuck to the screen whenever I face the model and, even if I delete it from the route, if any model uses the same .s name I get the same problems. That's with TSM though...

[longbow]

Clay001, I imagine you are talking about the Slade valley section.

I uploaded the UKFS embankments and I also started an Ilfracombe branch route in MSTS (and now restarted in RS) so here's how I'd do it.

If you are comfortable editing the world tiles then read my ref file in the UKFS embankments pack on how to get exact alignment of these embankment sections with the track, in terms of position, direction and gradient. It's easy, involves no trial and error, and I doubt it would take you more than an hour or so to put embankments under the entire Slade Valley section.

However my embankment pieces only cover the standard UKFS curves. I used dynatrax to reproduce the sharp curves along the valley which will require custom embankment shapes to fit - these are dead easy to produce in 3D Canvas using the Piper plug-in. Otherwise I suggest using standard curves plus some short dynatrax pieces where needed to get the right alignment.

If you get stuck pm me.

[clay001]

Thanks to evry one for the info and views on how this can be achieved, even though I've been working in re for a little while now I still have much to learn (dynatrax etc). While It's true that I certainly won't be able to create a 100% accurate version of the line (or at least, could send myself mad trying to do so!), I think it's important the Slade Valley representation looks right.
I've an awful ong way to go to any where near a finished route, at the moment I'm still researching an accurate course of the line, and making little 'mock ups' of possible station layouts* and there fore getting used to ukfs. I'm itching to get started with the real thing though

Thanks again,

Clay.
* As proof of my corner cutting I'm planning a fictious heritage line version of the route, so as to enjoy lots of steam and diesel thrash either side of Mortehoe bank