A question about track laying and elevation.

[Brickrail782]

I'm looking to get into route building sometime soon, and I have a question on an issue of mine. I have a set of track charts that I wish to follow, but I'm debating on whether to A, lay the main track first, ignoring the grade information, and then going back and adding the proper elevations, or B, lay the track according to the charts as I go. Option A would get me farther along on the route, but would ultimately require me to spend a lot of time going back and manually adjusting the track slope (which makes TS pretty upset in most cases). Option B meanwhile would significantly reduce the need to use the manual elevation points, but would result in slower forward progress.

More experienced route builders, what do you do?

[GreatNortherner]

I'd definitely go with option B. I don't even think option A would save you that much time, probably quite the opposite as it's near impossible to adjust the track gradient to exact percentages using the elevation gizmos. Plus of course you have to do it at every track node, and that's not counting the time lost, hair pulled, and PCs thrown out of the window when (not if!) things go wrong and a wrong click after forgettonig to split track beforehand destroys all your elevation markers for miles up and down the track.

Working to defined gradients is not even all that complicated once you get into the flow. The biggets challenge is to not lose track of what gradient is needed if you return to previously laid track and when you're working in more complex layouts such as yards or stations that are on a gradient (or even have changing gradients).

My advice would be:

Stick to the gradients from the track chart as much as possible. You can even input multiple-digit gradient data (such as 0.56%) into the gradient box in the editor. The mouse-over readout after laying track will cut and round it to one digit after the decimal, but as far as I know it will use the complete number as entered for the internal calculations.

If there's a change in gradient coming up as I progress along the track chart, I tend to place all tracks up to that point, including sidings and yard tracks, then enter the new gradient and keep going. Your preference might vary though as to whether to work on all tracks in an area simultaneously, or first complete the mainline and then return to add yards and sidings.

One complication occurs when there's a larger gradient change in the middle of a set of switches (yard ladder, crossovers, etc.) You can't (or at any rate, shouldn't) use the gradient smooth tool on switches, so the best option in this case is in my opinion to move the point where the gradient changes away from its real world location, to where there are no more switches.

Hope this all makes sense.

Cheers,
Michael

[Brickrail782]

Thanks for the response. I'll give that a shot!