Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now

As of this afternoon, the Elkhorn Extension and all of it's nefarious branches, some built as early as 1920, others as late as 1979 was completed, and attention turned to completing the minor track details south of Sandy Ridge. The first item was to complete Bear Wallow Hollow's extensive (and HEAVILY GRADED) access branch, which was possible following last weeks addition of 24 more tiles to the route.Attached is the view that a surveyor would have today, if this branch had not been pulled up around 1950 or so, and with State Route 63 following the left side of the hollow in its climb over Sandy Ridge. SR-63 is the main road between Elkhorn City and St.Paul, maybe the only road.The switchbacks on this branch have 5% grades, and there are very abrupt changes in gradient thanks to the lack of verticle curves in MSTS. For example from one 10m piece to another, the change is .3, whereas on the mainline I held it to .05.J. H. Sullivan

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http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3deaa090265f1490.jpg

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Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now---------- [View All], landnrailroader, 06:51 PM, Dec-01-02, (0) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, Coonskin, Dec-01-02, 11:09 PM, (1) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, yellowdog, Dec-02-02, 12:23 PM, (2) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, landnrailroader, Dec-02-02, 01:28 PM, (4) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, Coonskin, Dec-02-02, 04:03 PM, (5) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, landnrailroader, Dec-02-02, 04:40 PM, (6) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, dmikulec, Dec-02-02, 05:01 PM, (7) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, 3footer, Dec-02-02, 05:04 PM, (8) RE: Elkhorn Extension finished, with branches now------, MRRextreme, Dec-02-02, 12:29 PM, (3)

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I'm gonna' love your KP Sub. Plain and simple. I'll go so far as to say that it just MAY supplant your BR Sub as my mostest favorite coal route.Did you use stock default track sections for those curves, or is that dynamic track? If stock, I assume you've used the 10d end point curves... or the yard curves?Got some hollers similiar to that on the KC&G's Ozark Sub I wouldn't mind exploiting... but thus far I've limited myself to the 10d endpoints for my tightest radii.Take your time on the route Jerry, enjoy the trip as well, and share when you're good and ready to share.Andre Ming

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"I'm gonna' love your KP Sub. Plain and simple"Yep- -all sorts of little nooks and crannies to explore! I think Haysi needs a B unit. . .

Clayton

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I used both the 10D end point curves, and dynamic track on the Bear Wallow branch. Where the gradient was going to be constant over a reasonable distance, I used dynamic (because the part count on the tile was getting up there), otherwise where there were going to be short quick gradient changes, I used the 10D.As on the BR sub., I have not used X-tracks, preferring to stay with what is "in the box".J. H. Sullivan

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Understand on the XTracks.I debated on whether or not to go with XTracks on the KC&G Ozark Sub, but opted not to for now. Mainly, I still have a "fear of the water" as well as wanting the Ozark Sub to be able to be shared with any interested should I ever decide to tackle the daunting task of making it available to the masses.I've noticed an serendipitous upside to using 10d's for speed restrictive curves: They are not a "perfect" arc, but instead have a miniscule tangent section therein. (More infinite KUJU wisdom.) Thus, running around a long curve built with them and using Headout to look over the train trailing behind, you see an ever-so-slight side-to-side lateral movement of the individual locos/cars following along behind. Looks very much like the way prototype cars "hunt" and shuffle as they bend around curves. All that's needed is for me to figure out a mechanism for my computer chair so it can sway from side to side like when riding in an engine!Andre

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Moving chair huh!!Well a year or two back, I saw such a thing for use with one of the Combat Sims, FS-2 I think it was. In essence it was a computer chair mounted on a very large woofer, with a huge amplifier. The price tag was around $3K as I recall.J. H. Sullivan

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There's a company that's going to be marketing a USB desktop control stand for MSTS. If I recall correctly they plan to produce such a chair as well. Can't remember the company's name, found them by accident while following one of the links on the trainsim.com homepage.So ... if you really want one ... Dave Mikulec
Ohio Southeastern System
a freelanced route through the New River Gorge
(laying track)

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>I've noticed an serendipitous upside to using 10d's for
>speed restrictive curves: They are not a "perfect" arc, but
>instead have a miniscule tangent section therein. (More
>infinite KUJU wisdom.) I suspect that this tangent is a result of setting the turnout geometry so that a normal, straight siding has an integral tangent length when the main has same (ie, you don't have some wierd 3.02???m gap in the siding if the main had a nice 30m length). This would be affected by the turnout radius and degree, and then divided by two (there is a 1.51m tangent at the points, and the other 1.51m is on the end of the end point as mentioned). This also explains why the left end and right end aren't interchangeable, the tangent bit would end up in the wrong place. Why not put all 3.02??m at the point and so only need a single, interchangable end piece? Don't know, but I can see a couple of effects which might be more serious than they seem with casual review.FWIW, the end point curves are roughly 164m radius. Why 164? If the desire is to have integral curve angles (10 deg) for simplicity of matching up tracks, and the separation between track centers is pretty well fixed, then the radius is what's left and so it gets the odd, computed value... and that cascades down to the tangent bits. Anyone doubting the advantage of integral angle curves should try to mix and match the standard points with the 3 deg points in Xtracks (which are really 3.14 deg). Of course, the 3,6 deg points have other value.Anyhoo, nice to see a railroad pounding up the mountainside, I bet you're wishing there was one finer division in the terrain mesh to help out with grading on neighboring, differing altitude tracks.

3footer

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Excellent looking as always.

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