Coming down the grade.

John: WOW, THAT'S A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT TO SEE. A Virginia & Truckee locomotive huffing and puffing its way down a grade, way out west. What is interesting is that this model of the Virginia & Truckee is being created by a group of folks in Australia! Collin Trevena is a member of the Sydney Trainzers, which is one of the clubs people are forming all over the world to have fun as a group running Trainz. Collin wrote a description of the procedures his group uses to create model routes and emailed it to me, along with a few screen shots of the progress they�ve made so far. So without further adieu, here is Collin Trevena!


Collin Trevena.

Collin: Thank you, John. We are in the process of making a model of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad and you can say that it was quite a few miles away from us! Here are a number of the steps we use to make a model for Trainz.

Building a Real Railroad in Trainz

The first decision one must make is whether to design your own railroad or to build a prototypical route. We decided on the latter. The next decision is what era you will portray. The best advice I can give at this point is to choose one that you have some knowledge of or interest in and if you are doing a large one, passion about the subject era, as you will need this to see the project through. We chose the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, which was located in the United States. As a time period, we chose the early 1880s.


Getting ready for the morning run.

Some Hints On What to Do and Not to Do

The easiest starting point for a prototypical route is to use a DEM (digital elevation model). This provides a map that will have the all the mountains, hills, valleys, etc. at the correct height above sea level. When used with the HOG program, textures, roads, rivers, streams, roadbed and borders will be shown on the map. Compared to creating the map from scratch this, approach is enormously quicker. [See Bill Slack�s article �Converting DEM Files to Trainz Maps� here. Ed.] This is not say that there are not pitfalls to using DEMs. To give an example, the map for the Virginia & Truckee is a modern map of the area and normally this would not be a problem. By choosing to build a mining railroad, the landscape had changed quite a lot since the 1880s and valleys had become hills of tailings, while mountains had become modern open cut mines.


At the freight depot.

Creating a Team

It is an extremely good idea to form a team of other Trainzers who have an interest in your project. This way you can divide up the work and motivate each other. The team can be anywhere from 2 to 20 depending on the size of the project and the amount of time you wish to spend on it. It does not matter if the team includes novices, as it is a great way to learn, and those with experience can teach. A good starting point for forming a team is to find the creators of any content already created for that railroad on the Trainz Download Station (DLS). If there is no content, then start a thread on the forums and see if anyone is in the process or planning to build content. If you draw a blank then don�t be afraid to ask for help.


Virginia City freight depot.

Researching the Project

A certain amount of research should be undertaken. How much will depend on the level of reality you wish to attain. Even if you are designing your own railroad it may be useful to research a real railroad to see how operations are handled and which industries rely on which suppliers, etc.

Here are a few tips that may help. If you are modeling a current railroad, then get in touch with them and ask for material. Search the web for groups of railfans (they will usually be only too willing to help with photographs and information). Use libraries for maps, etc.


Passenger pickup at Virginia City.

Getting Started

When working with a DEM, there are a few rules you must follow to avoid disaster.

1. Lay roads and roadbed
2. Texture rivers and streams before doing any thing else