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"Some Engineering Data & a request"

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landnrailroader (11 posts)
Aug-22-01, 09:53 AM (EST) "Some Engineering Data & a request" Probably the most valuable course I took in Engineering School (Vanderbilt, 1956-60) was elementary surveying. One of the items learned therein (and I kept the textbook) was how to handle the degree of curvature. As a general rule, if you divide 5729.7 by the number of degrees, it will yield the radius in feet. Convert that to meters (feet / 3.28) and you will have the desired radius value for MSTS.However, that may not always work, and in any case, we need a method to exactly locate certain points on our routes.I just downloaded the marker utility (37mbt) which I hope will provide this data, however, I would like to challenge those of you who are smarter than I to come up with a simple way to put temporary markers (survey flags if you will) in the terrain file so that critical points can be located. Start, middle, and end of curves for example. It appears that MSTS allows the use of decimal lat./long. coordinates & elevation.www.topozone.com allows you to examine any topographical map in their system, and by selecting the appropriate button at the bottom of the screen, you may read out in UTM, D-M-S, or decimal degrees. Although you must manually transfer this to a list, it is relatively simple to do. Likewise, www.microsoft.terraserver.com will provide good satellite images, as well as the same topo maps with the convenience of being able to print them out. Now that we have a convenient way to produce correctly sculpted terrain,
I believe we could simplify the process if we could put markers in a file at selected lat/long/altitude and then use these to place the track pieces.Since I am not familiar with the structure of MSTS files, I issue this as a challenge to those of you who can do it. At the same time, I thank all of you, who have "done it" for producing the neat utilities that are there now.J. H. Sullivan, P.E. (retired, & proud to have been a CSX railroader these past 20.5 years) Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Some Engineering Data & a reque... DKlemm Aug-22-01 1 RE: Some Engineering Data & a reque... davidbeach Aug-22-01 2 RE: Some Engineering Data & a reque... Jitny Aug-23-01 3 RE: Some Engineering Data & a reque... Jitny Aug-23-01 4 RE: Some Engineering Data & a reque... wewain Aug-23-01 5

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DKlemm (288 posts)
Aug-22-01, 10:01 AM (EST) 1. "RE: Some Engineering Data & a request" Not sure if this is what your asking for but you can put markers in RGE by creating a .mkr file in unicode.David Klemm
Illinois Central
14 miles done, 46 to go!
Dunkin to Clinton IL
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davidbeach (62 posts)
Aug-22-01, 11:58 PM (EST) 2. "RE: Some Engineering Data & a request" Mr. Sullivan,The full formula for the radius of a curve expressed in degrees is 50/sin(1/2 theta) - radius in feet. To include the metric conversion, use 15.2393/sin(1/2 theta) - radius in meters. Of course this will result in the use of dyanmic track for the curves, and the angle of the curve is entered in radians. I am working off of profiles where each curve is defined by two angles, the first being the curviture and the second being the encompased angle. Throw grade changes into the middle of a curve and it really chews things up.David Beach (P.E. - Electrical) Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Jitny (30 posts)
Aug-23-01, 00:25 AM (EST) 3. "RE: Some Engineering Data & a request" Hey allI seen somewhere the formula for changing degrees to decimal, but, I have lost it. Can someone remind me as it was simple and I should have grasped it, but, no.....Regards
Bob
Mobile AL Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Jitny (30 posts)
Aug-23-01, 00:30 AM (EST) 4. "RE: Some Engineering Data & a request" LAST EDITED ON Aug-23-01 AT 00:31 AM (EST)HiThe Convert program will put RR markers and road markers on your route. Getting the track laid where the markers are is a challenge to me. I really need to study this dynamic track laying so I can make a little progress around Mobile County and the Port of Mobile...
Regards
Bob
Mobile AL Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
wewain (68 posts)
Aug-23-01, 01:48 AM (EST) 5. "RE: Some Engineering Data & a request" See Response #3 at the following thread, for my experiences with using the camera to align straight
track sections and dynamic track sections with the markers:
http://www.train-sim.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=8&forum=DCForumID6&archive=I've read, in other threads, that angle values for dynamic track sections are entered in radians.
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