Working With Track and Switches (Updated December 2008)

Welcome! Okay, youve eagerly opened the box and installed your new copy of Trainz. Youve spent some time playing with the maps that come with the game, too, and now youre itching to get started on your own masterpiece. Thats just great. Welcome to the wonderful world of Trainz route builders. A word of caution, though. Creating a Trainz map of any size takes a long timeusually measured in months or perhaps a year or more. Ive been working on my own route, Midwest Central, for two years, and as you might suspect, it has grown to some size; the mainline is 50 real miles long. But MidCen didnt start that big. It started small and grew a little at a time, and I grew along with it. In fact, I learned to use the basic tools of route building on someone elses map. What I did was to find a map I liked, and then I customized it. You might consider doing the same as a place to start. Maybe you could add a new industry track to an existing mainline, or perhaps cut a new pass through the mountains, or even create a river and add a bridge over it. Learning to use the route building tools takes time, and if you make some changes to an existing route, you can start operating on both the old and new parts right away. So, dont try to build to the world your first time out. Start with something small. If youre planning on a larger map for later, perhaps a real-life route near where you live, just build one section of it while youre learning to use the tools, and then add to it as you feel comfortable. Basic track tools

The track menu in Surveyor is where you do all your track construction. The greencircled track button at top left puts you in track building mode. The button in the middle lets you install and move trackside objects, such as signals and speed limit signs. The third of the large buttons allows you to place track marks, triggers and track direction markers. For now, lets talk about track. With the add track button selected above, were in the track maintenance mode, activating the buttons in the lower section of the menu.

The plus button is where you actually lay new track. The button below it allows you to move existing track. In the bottom section, the X button permits the deletion of existing track. Those three buttons are all you need to get started. The rest of the track menu gives you an array of additional tools to refine your track creation. Lets start with some basic track laying. The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of track you wish to lay. There are many variations, depending on your locality and your personal preferences. Just make your selection from the pull down window above, which will look a bit difference depending on the version of Trainz you have.

We lay track using Splines or stretchable track. Each section has a vertex or anchor point at each end. In the drawing below, each of the white circles is a vertex and the track stretches between them. A vertex can moved with the move tool, and each vertex can have a different height above (or below) the map surface. In the drawing below, Ive laid a new track by clicking once on the map at the left and then moving the mouse to the right, dragging the second vertex to the right with the cursor.

If we want to add more track to the existing section, we click on the plus sign and then on one end of the track, dragging the new spline in the desired direction.

As you can see, Ive added a new section of track to the end of our existing track, but as a result, the original section is now bent. Lets fix it:

To straighten an existing track, we click on the Straighten Track button in the track menu. With the button selected, we click on any track section(s) we want to straighten, such as our original track:

Working with curved track In my experience, the most difficult part of laying track in Trainz is managing curves, especially trying to join two or more curves end to end. Generally speaking, you can join a curved track to a straight track okay, but its hard to keep the curve radius accurate with multiple curved sections joined together, especially at the ends.

One good way to handle curves is to use only one section of curve in a given situation, preceded and followed by a section of straight, as shown below:

As you can see, this technique works quite nicely in many situations. But not all, as shown below:

In a case like this, you just have to do the best you can. One technique is to use the ruler tool to establish several vertex points on your curve. In the picture on the next page, I created a set of parallel tracks 600ft/185m apart. Then I used the ruler tool to measure the halfway point between them, point A, at about 300 feet. Then, measuring from the center point, I drew seven lines of about equal spacing to form a semi-circle. See below:

After that, I started on one side and laid the eight consecutive curved sections needed to connect the two tracks, making sure to have a straight track at each end.

This method is not perfect, but it works pretty well. Two important things to remember in using this technique: Try to be as accurate as you can in establishing your center point, and then measure each of the radials just as carefully. When you lay the track on the ruler, put the spline point in exactly the same place on the ruler every time. In the drawing to the left, I placed the middle of the track right on the tip of the arrow. I did it the same way for each of the spline points. The more accurate you are in placing your splines, the smoother your curve will be. For best results with the ruler, look at it from directly overhead.

If you have a curve of 90 degrees or less, you can usually get away with using the first technique, a straight at each end with a single curve between them, as youll see below:

In truth, though, theres a problem with one of the tracks above. Can you spot what it is? Think about it for a moment, and then scroll down.

The problem? Well, look at tracks C/D and E/F. On those tracks we have smooth curves. (Very sharp curves perhaps, but uniform.) On track A/B, however, we actually have an scurve. Can you see it? The track at A curves to the right, then it curves back to the left as it nears point B. That problem is caused by A and B being in the wrong spot related to each other. There are a number of ways to resolve this issue. Probably the best way is to move point A downward until the curve smooths out. Another possibility would be to move and extend point B down and left. Check the drawing below:

To the left are three tracks. The leftmost track is the original, with the s-curve. On the middle track, I dragged the lower vertex downward, giving us a smooth, easy curve. On the right hand track, I attempted to smooth the curve by moving the upper vertex point downward. I got the smooth curve, but the angle is very sharp. Of the three, the middle solution is the best, at least in this particular case.

One more point, then well move on. When you have two tracks joining at an angle, to be successful they need to be about the same distance from their crossing point. Consider the following:

In the left drawing above, we have two tracks that need to connect. Theyre at a 90degree angle, but if you look at the right drawing, youll see where I extended the tracks to where they would cross. The track A vertex is much closer to the crossing than Bs, and if you try to use our single curve technique, youll end up with the following:

In the left drawing, you see what happens if you try to join the two tracks without moving one of the spline points. In the right drawing, I moved point A downward until both point A and point B are about the same distance from the point where they would cross. Now the curve looks nice. Creating a switch Ill have much more to say about switches later, but since weve been discussing straight and curved tracks, this is a good time to talk about switches. You create a switch by putting a vertex in the middle of an existing track section, as shown below:

In the drawing, we have two parallel straight tracks. On the lower track, weve created a switch, by selecting the plus icon, then clicking on the track to create a new vertex point. After that, we drag the mouse down and right to create our short sidetrack. Notice the main line track to the left of the vertex point is now crooked. This will happen every time you insert a new track into an existing one. We fix this problem by using the track straighten tool we used earlier. One click is all it takes to get our main line track looking good again.

Curved tracks at switches One of the things most troublesome things for me in Surveyor over the years has been joining curved track to turnouts, especially when the curve is fairly sharp. For example, check out the left picture below:

The problem with the left picture is were trying to join two curves together, which, in general, we shouldnt. We fix the problem by inserting a short piece of straight track between the curved sections, as you can see on the right and below:

As you can see above, I used a very short piece of straight track. There are two keys to making this technique work: First, once you insert the new track, be sure to use the straighten tool on it! Otherwise, youll make a worse mess than you had originally. Secondly, as you adjust the track, not only keep the straight section as short as you can, but also angle it to maintain the same curve radius as the tracks on either side. The result is not entirely satisfactory, but its better than our original track with the kink in it. You cant help the straight track between the curves, but by keeping it as short as possible you will minimize its impact. Of course, an even better solution is to keep your curve broad enough that this technique is not necessary, but thats not always possible. The same solution is used in yard tracks, where we use short sections of straight track along the yard ladder:

Facing switches Now lets return to our earlier example, where we have two parallel tracks with a sidetrack branching off the lower track. Lets create a second sidetrack near the first.

If you look carefully, you can see the track between the spline points has gone crooked again, so well have to use our straighten tool again to fix it. Before we do that, lets take a closer look at the vertex below:

Up close, its easy to see the problem, and the sharp angle at which the sidetrack intersects the main line is a sure sign that track straightening is needed. Lets do that now:

See? Now weve actually fixed two problems: the crooked track to the right of the spline and the angle at which the sidetrack joins the main. This is an issue youll have to watch for every time you create a switch. Get used to the idea of using the straighten tool; youll use it a lot. :-) Youve already seen two of the tools to the left, lets introduce two more. On the extreme left we have the grab tool. It is an alternative to using the pull down menu to select an item to place on the map. Lets say you return your map after working on it the day before. Now youre ready to lay some additional track. You could use the pull down to re-select the track you want, but if you can see a section of the track you want to use, just click on it with the grab tool selected and the track will appear in the window, the same as if youd selected from the pull down. Cool. The grab tool is one of the most useful tools you have in your inventory and you will use it constantly. In fact, there are grab tools for many types of objects youll work with in Surveyor. While the pull down menu works fine, it is much slower than the grab tool.

The other tool on our menu above is Split Spine, on the right. What this does is allow you to break an existing track at a vertex point. In the drawing below, we have a track with three sections.

And now well use the split spline tool to break the track at the left-center vertex.

When your first click on the vertex, it seems as if nothing happens, but if you then drag the vertex with the move tool, the track separates cleanly. About Spline Height Earlier we said the every vertex point has height. Now lets explore that in a bit more detail. So far, when weve placed new track on the map, all the vertex points were on a flat surface and white in color. The white color means the height of the spline is determined by the ground beneath it. So, if the height of the ground changes, the track will float up and down with it. Check the drawings below:

In the top drawing, the track is laid on a flat surface. In the lower drawing, I raised the height of the left vertex and lowered it for the right, and you can see how the track bends to follow the terrain. Generally, we dont want the height of track to change. A real railroad wants its track to be perfectly flat and perfect straight whenever possible. We need a way to keep the track from moving when we make small changes in the terrain. We do that by making each vertex point fixed or locking it to a specific value. One way we can do so is to manually assign a height value to it. Vertex height values can all be

the same or different from vertex to vertex, it doesnt matter. Once assigned a fixed value, they dont change if the terrain moves By default, all new vertexs are variable, and will change height with the terrain they are laid on. But you can change that, by going to the Surveyor Options menu and clicking the check box fixed track vertex height.

Once youve made this change, all future track you lay will be fixed height. It will initially conform to whatever terrain its laid on, but once placed, each vertex point will be yellow in color and its height will not change unless you do it manually. Remember, this change only affects new track, not track already installed. Vertex tools Now lets discuss several tools from the advanced menu that let us work with vertex heights. The button on the lower left, get vertex height, lets you obtain the actual height of any vertex point on the map. When this tool is selected, clicking on any vertex will read the height of that spline and place the value in the window to the right of the button.

The apply vertex height tool lets you take a height value displayed in the window and set that value to as many spline points as you wish.

Lets see how those tools work together. There are two ways to place a value in the height window. You can use the get tool to read a value from an existing spline point, or you can actually type the value you want. The value can be entered up to three decimal places. For example, you could type a value of 344.365 in the window and then use the apply tool to set the height of several points to that same value just by clicking on them. Suppose we have a track with ten vertex points and we want to make them all the same height. If one of the points is already at the height we want, we can just get that value and then use the apply tool to assign that value to all the other points. Alternately, we could type a value in the window and use apply to assign that value to all the points. A third tool youll use often in working with vertex points is smooth spline height. Its used to smooth out the terrain to conform to your track. Heres how to use it:

In our earlier example, I demonstrated how track would move up and down with the terrain unless the vertex height was fixed. In the drawing below, Ive used the apply vertex height tool to set both vertex points to a fixed value.

Notice the spline points have turned yellow, indicating their height is now fixed. Now see what happens when we raise and lower the terrain:

We changed the terrain, but because the vertex heights are fixed, the track remains in the same place.

Now lets see how we could use the smooth spline point tool to level uneven terrain to conform to our track. The left picture below is some uneven terrain, having both hills and a valley. I built a single section of track from one side to the other, with fixed vertex points at each end. Because the track height is fixed, it does not bend to follow the terrain. Then, in the right picture, I used the smooth spline height tool. Just select the tool and click on a section of track. The terrain is raised or lowered to conform to the track. Cool.

Weve reached a good stopping point if you want to take a break. In the previous material weve discussed the most often used track tools and how to work with them. In the section that follows, well discuss track direction, a very important issue in keeping your trains running smoothly, plus placing switch levers and signals correctly.

Part Two
Track Direction You may not be aware of it, but the game documentation makes a point of laying all your track sections in a one continuous direction. If you have only manually controlled trains, track direction may not make much difference; you can drive the train wherever you wish. Track direction does become an issue, however, when you have computercontrolled (AI) trains or if you give Go to instructions to your driver. If track sections are laid in random directions, sometimes the AI gets confused, and while your train will probably make it to your destination, it may take a path you do not expect, such as through an industry instead of staying on the mainline. In the rest of this tutorial and the ones to follow, were going to make a big deal of track direction. The diagram below shows two pieces of track. To outward appearances they look identical, but one track was laid left-to-right and the other was laid right-to-left.

How can we tell which is which? The easiest way is to place a track mark or a piece of rolling stock on it. As you can see below left, the track marks point in opposite directions. On the right, the green directional arrows on the cars also point in different directions.

Now look at the multi-section track below. It may look like a complete track, but one of the sections is laid backwards.

How can you tell the difference? Again, you do it by placing track marks or rolling stock on each section.

They should all face the same way. Once youve determined you have an incorrect section, just delete that section and re-install it, being careful to lay the new track in the correct direction. Since the track direction above is left-to-right, we click the left-center vertex first when adding the replacement track. One nice thing about re-laying track: If you delete only a single section of track at a time, when you re-lay it the new track will take the same shape as the original. Check out the pictures below:

On the top left, you see the original track, with all but one section facing left-to-right. We need to remove the bad section and insert a new one facing correctly. In the top right picture, we see what happens when the offending section is deleted. It looks like the adjacent tracks have changed directions, but dont panic. When you insert the replacement section, everything will be okay. The third pic above shows the completed section. The repaired track now faces in the correct direction. Best of all, it took the original shape. :-) The key thing in re-laying track is to just do one section at a time. You can certainly lay more than one section if you wish, but youll have to reshape them the same as if you are

placing them from scratch. Working with parallel tracks If you want to use parallel tracks, its tempting to just paste in a multi-track section. The only trouble with this technique is that all the tracks face in the same direction. My personal preference is to place each track section one at a time, so I can keep control of which direction each section faces. For example, when I lay a double-track mainline, I lay one track section, say, in the eastbound direction. Then I lay another section parallel to it, but this time in the westbound direction. Now each track faces in the direction I expect the traffic to flow. See below.

Keeping the tracks parallel In using the vertex points to lay multiple sections of flexible track, Auran has also provided us with a useful tool to keep the tracks parallel with each other. My technique is to place the vertex points next to each other. Like this:

Notice that the spline circles are placed so the edges just overlap. If you use that placement for each track section you lay, youll keep your tracks the same distance apart, even on curves. Rather than overlap, you could have the circles just touch, or you could have them slightly apart. It doesnt matter. The essential thing is to do it exactly the same way every time. If you havent already discovered it, when you place two splines close to each other, you have to use the shift key when placing the second spline, or the program will try to join the splines together.

As an alternative, or if you are emulating a real railroad where your track spacing is to a particular standard, you can use pre-made track gauges from the download station. Andi06 has several in different widths, depending on your region. Look for them as a part of his junction kit. Search for "JK Way Gauge" as the title. Track direction with switches When we start talking about switches, we have to really have to pay close attention to which direction each track faces. Consider the following:

The drawing above shows a mainline track facing left-to-right. Lets say we want to add a switch in the middle of the track, at point B. Which vertex do we place first? It depends. If a new merging track is to connect point A to B, then we place the vertex at A first, then join the main track at B. That way the new A-B track faces in the same direction as the original. Like this:

If, however, the track is diverging, connecting from B to C, we place B first, then C. Doing so maintains the original left-to-right direction of the main track, shown below:

What about long industrial sidings or industry areas? Which way should the tracks face? My personal preference is to use the same track direction as the mainline the industry track connects to. In the example above, if the industry is located at C, then all the tracks in that industry area face left-to-right, the same as the main track.

See? All the track marks face in the same direction. Vertex points and switch levers The game documentation has a section on the importance of placing the switch lever correctly. This subject is so important that it bears repeating here. The switch lever must be placed in the right location or the switch may work incorrectly or not at all.

In the drawings above, its critical that the lever be no further to the right than where the switch points join--the middle of the vertex circle. Left above is the default placement of the switch lever when the program creates a new switch. The image on the right shows the placement I sometime use, to make sure Im to the left of circle-center. The pictures below show two more placements. The left image shows the lever so far from the spline center that the lever is no longer functionalhence the solid red arrow. On the right, the arrow is pretty far from circle center, but it must work okay because I saw this example in one of the released layouts in TRS2006.

Below are two other examples: On the left, placing the lever to the right of the spline center may lead to incorrect signal operation, whereas on the right the solid red indicator means the switch is not working at all.

Using signals with switches Well discuss signals in greater detail later, but one point is appropriate while were talking about vertex points. The book says that when a signal is placed near a switch, the switch lever must be placed between the signal and the vertex center. Said another way, as you approach the points of the switch the order is: signal first; then the switch lever, then the spline center. Below are five examples of signal placement near a switch. Only one is correct. Which is it?

If you said, D, you are correct. The switch lever is between the signal and vertex center.

In A, the signal is placed on the wrong side of the switch lever. In B, the signal is still on the wrong side of the switch lever. In C, the switch lever is on the wrong side of the vertex center. In E, the signal is between the lever and points and the lever itself is so far away that the switch wont even work. If youre new to Surveyor, pay close attention to the preceding section. Correct switch lever placement is crucial to proper switch operation. Correctly placing the signal on the outside of the lever is also critical, to insure proper signal operation. Editing your track may be a source of trouble As you read through the last section, you may have said to yourself, why would anyone place switch levers in the wrong place? The answer is that most people do it right. My experience, however, is if youre not careful you can accidentally move the lever without realizing it. How? By editing a track section that is connected to the switch. In preparing this tutorial, I was actually able to duplicate the problem. Consider the following drawing:

Above you see a newly created switch, with the vertex at B. Everything looks normal, and the switch lever is in an acceptable position. Now see what happens if we move the vertex at A further to the left, to position C.

The new vertex point is at C, but look whats happened to the switch lever. It has moved. By relocating the vertex from A to C, weve dragged the switch lever out of position. If we move the spline far enough, the switch wont work. Moving the A vertex is particularly hazardous if you are far enough down the track you cant see the switch itself. In moving the vertex, you may move the switch lever and not even realize it. This is the kind of subtle problem that you, as a new surveyor, have to watch for.

After writing the above section, I discovered that the moving lever anomaly only happens in certain circumstances. In the drawing below, lets say that we lay track one and track two from A to B as one continuous piece. Track three, however, is laid in two pieces, one from A to C and a second from C to B.

Now lets insert a switch in the middle of each track. In the drawing below, I used three different methods to create the sidetrack. On track one, I used the add track tool. On track two, I used the insert spline tool, followed by add track. On track three, I used the add track tool, but clicked on the existing spline at point C.

All three methods create a sidetrack, but lets see what happens when we try to lengthen the tracks to the left.

After dragging the end of all three tracks to the left, track one and two appear to behave correctly; the switch lever doesnt move. On track three, however, notice that the switch lever has moved, from C to E. So, it appears that if you create a switch at an existing vertex, like at C, when you drag the D-end of the track, the switch lever will move. But if you insert the switch in the middle of an existing section, like we did on track one and two, the lever stays in the right place. The moral to the story: If you do any track editing near switches, check to be sure you havent created an unexpected problem. The best way to check switch lever placement is to look at it from directly overhead.

Troubleshooting Track Problems Another thing that happens occasionally in editing track is that a switch lever may accidentally get deleted without you realizing it. If that happens, if there is no lever on a given switch, AI trains may not be able to see past that junction, and they will refuse to proceed until the problem is resolved or you give them a closer destination. I had one situation where an AI train was scheduled to enter the route from a portal and travel to another location. Instead, the train would emerge from the portal and then stop dead. It took me a long time to find the problem was a missing switch leverfive miles down the track, which prevented the train from seeing its destination. So, if you have a train that wont proceed past a certain point, one thing to look for is a missing switch lever somewhere down the line. Heres one way you can troubleshoot such a problem. In the drawing below, lets say theres a train at location A that refuses to travel to the station at B.

One way to find the problem is to move down the track in Surveyor, checking all the switch machines as you go. If you find the problem, as with the missing switch lever at the sidetrack, thats fine, but suppose its not a missing switch lever. How can you determine what the problem is? The technique I use is to place a series of track marks between A and B, as shown below:

With track marks placed at points 1, 2 and 3, and the loco at A, give the train an order to travel to point one. If the train starts to move, that means the AI can see point one. Stop the train and order it to go to point two instead. If the train again moves that means the track is good to point two. Stop the train a second time, and tell it to go to track mark three. If the train wont move, then the problem is between points two and three. Check the track between those two points. Using this procedure, on one occasion I actually found a problem with the track itself. At one vertex point, the tracks were not actually joined together; for some reason one track was lower than the other. From a distance it looked fine, and it wasnt until I got up close that I found the problem.

Lets say, however, that the source of the trouble is not obvious. My next step then is to place more track marks, this time increasingly close together. Sooner or later, youll find the problem spot.

Another troubleshooting example: Lets say youve narrowed it down to two track marks fairly close together. What Id do in this case is to place a temporary locomotive at the working track mark. Give it a schedule to go to the non-working track mark. Then, in Driver, start the train manually moving toward the next mark. Every so often, tell the train to continue schedule. When it finally sees the following mark, youve just passed the problem area. Stop and check it. Ive had number of situations where nothing short of tearing out a track section and replacing it will fix the problem. In that case, you narrow the problem down as close as you can, then get out the crowbar, pull up the track, and lay it again. When you do, remember to lay one section at time, so you wont have to reshape it. Finally, I sometimes have problems with AI trains not working correctly with switches. Its a weird problem, in that the switch appears to work correctly when you switch it manually. You can drive a manually-controlled train through the switch just fine, but one of the switch directions wont work for AI trains. Id say it happens about 20% of the time when Im laying new track, especially in yard or high-density track situations where you have many vertex points close together. Ive played with the problem enough now that my first solution in these cases is to delete the tracks comprising the switchi.e. the track in front of the points and the two tracks behind the pointsand relay them. Using this technique fixes the issue 90% of time. Switch Levers Your choice of switch levers is purely personal and will be determined largely by your regional preferences and the road you are emulating. Any of them will work fine, provided they are properly placed. Below are three that I like, the default lever, plus one from the USA and one from Australia. The Australian QR machine on the right is a great example of a remote control switch machine, while the medium switch stand in the center is a good USA choice for manually-controlled switches.

You can find the QR machine on the download station by looking for Tside Point Motor QR. Its <KUID:46415:28155>. To find the USA manual switch lever, search for Switchstand Medium Cylinder. Its <KUID:63290:24041>. Once youve found it, youll discover there are actually six variations. Two mediums, one left and one right, plus two tall versions and two short versions. If you need to reapply the default lever, the easiest way to get it is to look for lever in track objects. There are other switch levers available on the download station as well. Thats it for now. I hope youve found the information helpful.

This tutorial is Copyright 2008, Chuck Brite. The text and pictures presented may not be copied or posted elsewhere. You may link to this page, but posting elsewhere is prohibited.