What is Mtracks?I originally thought of it because of my first name, but then I came to think of it as Mainline Tracks. Here's what spawned its creation.Having become increasingly frustrated with the unprototypical default turnouts, I decided to take matters into my own hands. The problem with the Kuju turnouts, is that they have a continuous curve through the diverging leg of the turnout. This results in a very jerky ride when going through a crossover or onto a siding, because there is no straight track between the curves, a big no-no in track engineering. I also didn't like the tie layout for the kuju turnouts, as real turnouts have ties perpendicular to the straight leg of the turnout until the ties are 16 feet long or so.Most prototype turnouts curve up to the frog, and then have a straight frog, and then, in the case of a crossover, the track continues straight to the opposing frog, and then curves back into the points. Seeing no real reason why this couldn't be accomplished within MSTS limitations, I jumped head first into Gmax and the tsection.dat file, and although I'm still learning, I think I have come up with a very useful set of switches for any route.These turnouts are intended for mainline use. The current set of xtracks turnouts, which roughly correspond to No. 9 and No. 4.5 (3d and 6d modular, respectively) do a fine job for yards and industrial spurs and such. So I haven't created the mtracks turnouts in such a way that they can form yard ladders, these are intended for use out on the line: crossovers, sidings, going from single to double track mainline, branching off a mainline, etc. The complete set will include No. 15, 20, and 24 turnouts. Typical use puts these with 30, 40, and 50 mph speed limits, respectively, sometimes a little less. So far, I've completed sets of No. 15 and No. 20 turnouts, with the No. 24s to complete soon. The more I do, the faster I get!As you can see, there are no frog or guard rail assemblies, as I am brand new to 3d modeling, and I haven't even tried such fine modeling yet. The beauty of these turnouts is since they are all straight frog, only a single frog would need to be modeled for each turnout number, not needing a left and right version. Then they could be simply dropped in for a future update. I'm planning a future release with more detail as I learn more. These would be like an xtracks update, with you just replacing the shape files in the GLOBAL/SHAPES folder, without any messing around in the route editor.These turnouts are meant to be able to be dropped into an existing route with little modification. The lenghts of them are all in multiples of 5, so as to make for easy insertion. Another nice thing is that they take up far less room than the Kuju turnouts, for their sharpness:No. 15 siding: 115 meters
No. 15 crossover: 110 meters
No. 20 siding: 145 meters
No. 20 crossover: 135 meters
No. 24 siding: 170 meters
No. 24 crossover: 160 metersThe No. 24 is less sharp than the Kuju 2.5 degree turnout, which takes up 250 meters for a crossover, an extra 90 meters!The frog angles:
No. 15: 3.814 degrees
No. 20: 2.862 degrees
No. 24: 2.386 degreesBut wait, there's more!I also am planning a set of straight double and triple tracks with closer, more prototypical 14-foot track centers. These have the added bonus of having no gap in the ballast between tracks, and shortening turnout and crossover lengths by 10-20 meters. These unfortunately wouldn't be very useful to existing routes, but would be relegated to new routes, as curves would be required to be made with dynamic track.Here are some pics of what I've done so far:Going by a No. 20 crossover
Going by a No. 20 crossover
Going through a No. 15 crossover, that is a No. 15 off to the right as well
No. 15 turnout
No. 20 crossover
No. 15 crossover
No. 15 turnout
No. 15 turnout
Spiral easement curve to a 1-degree curve
What's this you say? I've been messing around with creating spiral curves. These "ease" you into the curve, and give a much smoother ride, especially at high speeds. What's shown here, the spiral starts where the double track ends on the right, and there are four pieces of increasing radius, finally connected to the main curve 400 feet later. I don't really know how practical this is, as there would be so many different pieces required. Basically a new set of spiral pieces for every different curve radius.An easy way to find out what turnouts are used on your route is to look up timetables on-line and find out the speed limits associated with a particular turnout. If you happen to be modeling a BNSF line, they have all their timetables on their website. I checked out the Marias Pass route, for example, and most of the crossovers are No. 20. Just drop em in!Right now, I awaiting a response from the master of the tsecion.dat file, so I can get some numbers allocated for these tracks. In the meantime, I could use some testers. This would involve making a backup of your current, non-default, tsecion.dat, copying a new tsection.dat file to the GLOBAL folder, and copying some new shapes into the GLOBAL/SHAPES folder. Only the number 24 to go! I was also thinking of doing a No. 32.75 turnout that I hear Amtrak uses on the NEC line. These are good up to 80 mph!Mark
Moffat Road Tabernash to Phippsburg
All track complete
Currently working on tunnels and bridges
Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
RE: Announcing Mtracks, Phil06, May-03-04, 11:41 PM, (1) RE: Announcing Mtracks, markhyams, May-04-04, 00:33 AM, (2) RE: Announcing Mtracks, jdtrainman, May-04-04, 02:06 AM, (4) RE: Announcing Mtracks, century242, May-04-04, 00:54 AM, (3) RE: Announcing Mtracks, Hawk, May-04-04, 05:31 AM, (5) RE: Announcing Mtracks, markhyams, May-04-04, 08:17 AM, (6) RE: Announcing Mtracks, OTTODAD, May-04-04, 07:47 PM, (7) RE: Announcing Mtracks, markhyams, May-05-04, 10:18 AM, (8) RE: Announcing Mtracks, OTTODAD, May-05-04, 11:07 AM, (9) RE: Announcing Mtracks, muskokaandtahoe, May-05-04, 01:14 PM, (10) RE: Announcing Mtracks, markhyams, May-05-04, 09:55 PM, (11)
Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic
Mark
