Track rules and a tight radius for a tram route.

[jpetersjr]

I have a question everyone, does anyone know how to make a track rule for a tight tram style route. Such as if you want your turn to be about as tight as your streets for building a small tram route through the heart of a 30's era city.


...Cheers...


Big J

[mindenjohn]

Great Northerner has tram track in his freeware catalogue. This is complete with tight curves where required, turnouts etc. overhead electrics optional.

[GreatNortherner]

Thanks for the shout-out, mindenjohn. My tram tracks were designed for European cities and catenary height -- no idea how that relates to US construction standards.

If you have the fantastic Sacramento Northern route from G-TraX, you can find a wide variety of American trolley related items in there.

You can edit the min. radii for any track rule quite easily if your route/project has its own track rule. In the track rule .bin file, scroll about halways down in RW Tools and look for this block:

Code: Select all

         <MainLineTrackLimits>
            <iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
               <MaxSpeedTolerance d:type="sUInt32">100</MaxSpeedTolerance>
               <MinRadius d:type="sUInt32">196</MinRadius>
            </iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
         </MainLineTrackLimits>
         <YardTrackLimits>
            <iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
               <MaxSpeedTolerance d:type="sUInt32">40</MaxSpeedTolerance>
               <MinRadius d:type="sUInt32">60</MinRadius>
            </iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
         </YardTrackLimits>
         <PassengerTrackLimits>
            <iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
               <MaxSpeedTolerance d:type="sUInt32">70</MaxSpeedTolerance>
               <MinRadius d:type="sUInt32">349</MinRadius>
            </iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
         </PassengerTrackLimits>
         <FreightTrackLimits>
            <iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
               <MaxSpeedTolerance d:type="sUInt32">50</MaxSpeedTolerance>
               <MinRadius d:type="sUInt32">231</MinRadius>
            </iTrackRulesBlueprint-sCurvatureLimits>
         </FreightTrackLimits>


This represents the four track types which you can assign to the tracks in the editor. The trackrule settings MinRadius determine the smallest radius at which each of the four track types is allowed to be placed in the editor. MaxSpeedTolerance is also very interesting as it determines the length of the transition curve with easements toggled on when placing tracks (higher value = longer, more gradual transitition curve)

The example above is from one of my routes where I've used the MinRadius settings to pre-set a few common turnout radii in US RR design practices.

Cheers,
Michael

[gtrtroger]

You might do a search here in the forum for the Chicago North Shore Line route done some years ago. It was a tram route I believe.

[mindenjohn]

Michael
Thanks for posting that info on min radii, very useful learning every day.

[jpetersjr]

I do have GreatNorthernor's tram tracks, but when I try to lay them they're most definitely not going down for tight curves, the opposite, super wide, almost good for 80mph speed. To wide for what I would need.

[mindenjohn]

There are 4 radii in the right hand flyout: Mainline, Yard, Passenger, Freight. Mainline is the largest radius, Yard the tightest.

[jpetersjr]

Yes, those are still far too wide for any tram tracks.

[mindenjohn]

Michael has, above, advised how to change the radius of any track even trams can’t corner like an auto and cut the corner.

[GreatNortherner]

Yes, those are still far too wide for any tram tracks.

Hi, I've just checked the track rule which I shipped with the TramTracks package and it has the minimum radius set to 10 (ten!) meters for all four track types.

Check that you're actually using the correct track rule in your route if you want to go with the GN tram tracks (it should be called "GN TrackTrax" in the editor's trackrule pulldown menu). Alternatively, you may want to re-install the .rwp for the tracks as something (another route perhaps?) might have overwritten the original track rule.

The tracks work at very low radii:

RailWorks64_2022_06_15_22_01_01_170.jpg

Cheers,
Michael

[jpetersjr]

Will probably have to do that.

Since it's definitely not showing up as GN Tram track rule.