Railworks America

How do i place Mile Markers on my route accurately?

First off, you have to know 1 MP location on your route, if it's a real world route. If it's fictional then the start can be anywhere you desire.

MP locations can be gotten from track charts or from timetables, though timetables will only give you a general sense of where they would go.

Track charts can be bought from;

https://railfandepot.com/product-catego ... ck-charts/

They are typically $10 for the .pdf digital download and the upper price range is if you prefer a printed copy.

I place my MP's in the following manner.

Determine where a first one will be placed.

Create a new scenario and name it something like 'Mileposts' at that location and place your first MP down.

Place a portal somewhere down the line, I usually go 10 to 15 miles down the line.

Click on the Scenario Tools icon and place an engine with the front coupler even with the first MP you placed. Click on the Driver icon and place one on the engine. Double click on the driver icon that is on the engine and after the dialog box is up hit the #9 key for the schematic track view and navigate to and zoom in on the portal you placed.

Click on the Set Destination icon and then click on the portal in the #9 view. The name of the portal should now be displayed in the Set Destination field.

Add 1 or 2 minutes to the Start Time so the engine doesn't take off as soon as you start the scenario.

Start the scenario and click on the engine. You'll see the portal name as your destination in the HUD along with a distance displayed down to the hundredths of a mile. For example, if it displays 14.67 miles you know that the next MP should be placed at 13.67. Start moving and when you get to 13.67 hit esc and go to the editor to place your 2nd MP. F2 to save the changes and hit run and your off to the next one at 12.67

FYI, the game doesn't like going back and forth between driving and the editor a bunch of times so you may crash with an Out Of Memory error somewhere along the way. Just restart the scenario and run up to where you placed the last MP and continue placing the MP asset..


Once you reach the portal, or I should say the MP just before the portal, which in this example would be at .67 you can delete this scenario and create a new on at this last MP location so you don't have to spend time driving up to the last MP. Place another portal 10 or 15 miles further on and repeat the process. Of course, it will no longer be the same calculation to the next MP, it may be something like 12.58 miles to the next portal, so you would now stop and place a MP whenever you get to XX.58

That's a great guide, Tomcat!

With regards to track charts, you can often also find them at various different online sources like RR historical societies or even private rail fan websites. It usually pays off to spend a while searching for these. The search term "track chart" "[name of your line]" is usually a good starting point.

If you have a track chart at hand, you can also use this as your exclusive guide for mile post placement. Usually, these track charts show the curves, too, so it's generally possible to quite accurately estimate where in relation to the start and end of curves the mile posts should be. This is especially useful on rail lines that have "long" and "short" miles -- sections of track where realignments have created intervals between mileposts that are greater or smaller than exactly one mile.

Cheers,
Michael

Thank You! My route is imaginary, and that is pretty much the way i was doing it. I was hoping there was a faster way. I'm getting older.

Has anyone just tried using the "Select" tool in the "Linear Object Tools" tab by dragging it on your tracks? It calculates distance at the bottom of your screen in the editor as you move it along your loft.

ET44C4 wrote:Has anyone just tried using the "Select" tool in the "Linear Object Tools" tab by dragging it on your tracks? It calculates distance at the bottom of your screen in the editor as you move it along your loft.

That never crossed my mind! Just tried it and I'll be a monkey's uncle, it works and it's much less hassle than what I had been doing. 11 years and I never noticed the distance displayed at the bottom while using the select tool. I completely overthought the entire process. Thanks ET44C4!

Tomcat wrote:

ET44C4 wrote:Has anyone just tried using the "Select" tool in the "Linear Object Tools" tab by dragging it on your tracks? It calculates distance at the bottom of your screen in the editor as you move it along your loft.

That never crossed my mind! Just tried it and I'll be a monkey's uncle, it works and it's much less hassle than what I had been doing. 11 years and I never noticed the distance displayed at the bottom while using the select tool. I completely overthought the entire process. Thanks ET44C4!

Yes! this is the same method I use on my route. In my case the I can see where the real-world markers are near my house so I know exactly where to start and what number it is. My only issue is the markers don't show on the hud.

In the last weeks I've extended the HiLine eastwards.
With an original trackchart from 1998 I was optimistic that would be an easy job to set height, grades and mileposts.
No ! No ! No !
Miles (in reality: 1 Mile = 1609m) differed from about 1400m to 1760m. How did I realize this ?
The position of bridges don't generally change - signals may change. They are "fixed". With that and a comparison of the position in the trackchart I realized that the positions of the mileposts must have been set very inacurately.
I've decided to set the mileposts according to the real position relatively to the bridges. While driving you don't feel the difference, while building it give the best results.

Same with the height. From some meters east of Pacific Jct. the height in the trackchart changes from 2513 ft to 1243 ft (diff: 1270ft). The worse is that at the other side the difference to the real height is not the same (diff: 1557ft). There is a drift of about 280 ft until Malta.
In the end, the best method was to follow the slopes, compare the elevation every mile with topographical maps, and adjust the length of the horizontal tracks so that the track always rises the appropriate amount above the landscape. I was fortunate that Bing maps provided good pictures of the height of the embankment on which the track runs, since the Route 2 runs parallel to the track.
Still to the gradients: The route would be described as flat. You guys in America traditionally use percent for this. This is too rough. As a track builder, you should set the trackrule to per thousand (">PerMill</GradientValue>"), then you can recognize much better if the track is falling straight or rising. Especially on a flat track, grades are much harder to set correctly. I could never imagine that myself.