Techniques, tips, and tricks for route builders

Purpose

This page is a repository for techniques, tips, and tricks to ease the task of building a route. Any route builder with a helpful tip (or tips) to share is encouraged to contribute to this page.

Planning a Freelanced Route

For the purpose of this section, a freelanced route is one which does not, or did not, exist, but which is being built in a manner so that one knowledgeable about railroads and the area in which the route is situated would think that the route would is a plausible representation.

A route will seem more plausible if the constituent elements are placed in he order in which it naturally would have occurred. In the case of the real world, the terrain, including landforms and waterways was present originally, so these would be created first on the route. Then early human alterations were made, for example, trails, primitive roads, and canals. Some communities were present before the railroad arrived. These communities were often located in locations with particularly favorable features, such as salt licks, or where one stream entered another, or where two streams converged. Railroad rights of way were created around the obstacles that were already present. Other communities were developed after the railroad arrived, and these communities were frequently planned around the railroad. Reproducing this scheme can make a more pleasing railroad, than trying to reverse engineer earlier features of the landscape to fit a planned right of way.

Using Helper Objects in Route Building

A helper object is a piece of trainz content, either a single object, or a spline, used as a marker when building a route. Using content which is visible only in surveyor, like some types of templates, or which will not otherwise be used on the route, such as an object from another part of the world, or a spline not planned for the route as helper objects can make it easier to see where features of the route will be.

Examples of use of helper objects include (but are not limited to);

• using an object to mark the corners, or a spline to mark the edges of a baseboard as it is added to a route under construction;
• using a spline to mark the location of a railroad, highway, or water right-of-way;
• using a spline to mark a elevation contour line on a route;
• using an object to mark the location of important objects such as tunnel portals; and
• using guide camera sphere and guide camera static to place cameras along a Route (see How to Place and Use a Camera).