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"Experiences after changing/moving mainline turnouts"

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GaryG (27 posts)
Nov-14-01, 04:16 AM (EST) "Experiences after changing/moving mainline turnouts" HiI've been doing a lot of changing of the Marias Pass route at
the western end. So far Whitefish to Conkelley has close to
prototype grades with scenery adjusted to meet the new rail
locations.I've also adjusted most of the bad grades between Conkelley
and Java West.Whitefish to Columbia Falls was mainly by lowering rail, as
much as forty feet or so! From Columbia Falls to Conkelley,
it worked out quite well by raising most of the track from
the Columbia falls overpass East of the yard to the East end
of the Conkelley Yard. This also meant lifting the Mill at
Conkelley somewhat as well.It was a big job, coupled with many Activity Editor "learning"
experiences and many crashes, usually requiring a reload of the
Marias Pass World. I finally realized that only one directory
and ten files needed restoring when the track database got
corrupted. If you're interested, it's the tiles dir and the
ten files that start with "Marias".My two most important suggestions...When making major scenery adjustments with the 'y' key, after
doing two sections or so of track, save, exit the editor and
start the editor again. Since I started doing it this way, the
corrupted track databases pretty well stopped. I saw this info
in another message, thanks to whoever wrote that one.After making major changes, make sure you run a train through the
areas you've modified. I had a problem a mile or so East of
the Whitefish Yard (near the farm) where adjusted ground levels
caused a rift and opened up the pits of hell. All looked ok in
the editor but the real world had a huge towering spike that was
visible from a mile away. Eventually, with the Editor, I did see
a crack that was only visible from some directions. I guess the
Sim's rendering engine saw this a very tall spike of land.Another thing I did was to get rid of some of the sharp yard
turnouts that cause locos and many cars to bind and make it very
difficult to switch. I replaced four and because the new ones
weren't as sharp, I had to locate them in a different place.
All was fine UNTIL I tried activities that had paths defined
that had path points at the old switch locations - every one
had a broken path!What to do - reload or try to fix. Well, it's now fixed with
the new switch locations and no broken paths!What a hassle to fix it though! I had to find the tile location
and x/y offset for each of the original locations as well as for
the new locations. For the new locations, a piece of cake, the
switch properties showed them. For the old locations it was a
case of making a good guess based on where I thought the old
turnout was, adding an object at that location then using its
properties to get numbers that should be close. I then searched
through the paths to find the path point closest to the guessed
numbers. These number were replaced with the new location's
numbers. Once I confirmed that this did indeed fix the broken
path for this path, I then had to find all the paths with the
same numbers and edit them.At least, I now know why the new Marias Pass route can't use
the old activities - they moved switches (to fix the breaking
couplers).Is it worth the work? Yes, I think so. Switching activities are
now possible to complete without having to fight your train
through the original turnouts, quite often having to use sand
and full throttle to pull one or two cars through! There is still
a bit of binding but it's not a battle now.Is it worth the work? Yes, I think so. I can now run trains from
Whitefish almost to Java West in either direction without having
the train stall on a grade that was four or five times steeper
that what actually exists on the real route.One day, I might attempt to try figuring out how to integrate
my changes into a stock route so others can use the changes I've
accomplished. For now, "It's all mine" (visualize a horror movie
where the bad guy leers and says that) GaryG
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Experiences after changing/movi... TrainFreak Nov-14-01 1 RE: Experiences after changing/movi... rgarber Nov-14-01 2 RE: Experiences after changing/movi... GaryG Nov-14-01 3

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TrainFreak (95 posts)
Nov-14-01, 11:15 AM (EST) 1. "RE: Experiences after changing/moving mainline turnouts" One thing that might be possible - notice which files in the USA2 folder have their dates changed and then zip up those..
Might be a big .zip-file still of course... Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
rgarber (494 posts)
Nov-14-01, 12:39 PM (EST) 2. "RE: Experiences after changing/moving mainline turnouts" Gary, wouldn't have been easier to just fix those broken paths through the activity editor?Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
GaryG (27 posts)
Nov-14-01, 01:05 PM (EST) 3. "RE: Experiences after changing/moving mainline turnouts" LAST EDITED ON Nov-14-01 AT 01:07 PM (EST)Hi Rich GraberOh, if only I could have. I could rubber band either side of the
old point but there was no dot at the old location to drag; don't
think I didn't try many things before I devised the method I did
use.I guess I could have deleted and redefined the path as another
method (but this WAS probably more of a challenge).GaryG Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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