Railworks America

So I redeisgned what I used to refer to as a cattle grid, before realising that the line in question is not likely to have these.

Instead it has a small culvert with sleepers and support rails underneath them. The only problem is that they are located almost immediately after a level crossing. With TS's prehistoric in game grid, there is no room to manipulate the terrain neatly to depict a gap several feet in height like shown in the attached image.



I have also attached what I am faced with in the actual game.



I have thought of creating road lofts with embankments, which might work. But then I might create other issues that I haven't even identified yet. I may not. But I am just wondering some here. Has anyone had a similar problem like this, and found a solution to it?

What I am thinking of is creating an object which hides the terrain (like with Scaleroad) and enables the culvert to be shown in it's full glory. But I have no idea how to do this in the style that Marc has. It's still a mystery to me.

Thanks for reading.

Edited to add more info.

Won't this work? Not quite sure what I am looking at in the real world picture. See settings on terrain change. Have to change the tracks to no ballast.

In looking at your first picture are you sure that the culverts are for livestock control and not drainage? It seems that the livestock would use the roadway to go around them. I hope that they Stop,Look, and Listen.

I didn't mean to confuse anyone. I have merged two separate images for reference purposes.

One was taken directly from a dirt road.



@Railwanderer

I have no idea exactly what they are used for. It made sense to me that they were to control wildlife. But I could be incorrect. You may be right.

But my main intention is to represent the culverts as they are. I have thought of creating dirt road lofts that have embankments, so that I can have the terrain go below the crossings and depict them more accurately.

@Buzz456

That's the core issue. I can't lower the terrain around the crossings due to the terrain squares being way too large. I know what you mean, and I've used this tool before. The track loft in the second image has no ballast immediately to the left of the crossing for about 1.4 metres. It's very subtle.

2:46PM AEST: Rather than double post, I thought I'd add this to the existing post. What I have done is add a shoulder portion to the road lofts. It is about 50/50 with alleged realism. Doesn't look that hot, but does sort of give a less unrealistic feel in places. As though it's an actual dirt road. This is dependent on the angle of the road, and the sun.

I have not tried with different times of day yet. I imagine it won't be that impressive. But without knowing the secret trick that Marc (Hack) uses with Scaleroad, it is about all I can come up with for the time being. It is slightly less bland than my default road lofts which have semi-transparent edges.

Have a look if you're daring enough.