Maple Valley (Trouble Area)

[landnrailroader]

Colleagues,

After fixing a number of items in the simulation, I almost gave up. After one rebuild, which
seemed to be clean, I even had a orphan pole which was found to be in the first element
of a tile, on the grade down from Snoqualmie Tunnel. It was because of a very acute
angle crossing a (gasp) corner of a tile, but making a join in the corner. I edited the
world file, and then rebuilt again. this went clean, but of course left a gap at the
mentioned spot. No problem, it is on a .9 descending (MSTS angle) and is tangent. I
shifted things around to move the joint further into the tile and this seems to have fixed
the problem.

To get a clean rebuild, I had to disconnect all tracks across the pictured boundary
at Maple Valley (again a (gasp) corner). I may try to finish this simulation without any
more rebuilds. Orignally, there were several tracks across this boundary, which is seen
in the first image as it is, very close to prototype. To reduce the crossings, however, I
figured it best to reduce the number of pieces and move the required, i.e. the mainline
and sidings, crossings further into the corner. See the 2nd image (one marked "trouble") and hopefully this will work. The other two tracks, I may just connect with dummy
tracks because they are there, more for scenic accuracy than for real use as the track
they connect to, just goes out of the scene a short piece and ends. I think we have
some dummy track in the library, but if not, I will leave the grade in, as "abandoned"
since this junction was gone before 1980.

[Swissie]

Hi Jerry,

sorry for answering only now. I have safely returned from Canada a few days ago, and I am currently catching up with things. However I can't get through to your mail account as the server's spam filter somehow keeps rejecting my mails for some strange reason. Thus I answer here, and sent you a PM with the other couple of things...

Hm, about the problem zone in Mapple Valley: From an earlier post of yours, I seem to recall that the area involves the construction of a wye? I can only do a few wild guesses, please decide for yourself whether they are of any relevance for your problem:

I do recall (e.g. from my own DownTown Trolley) that once in a while, wyes could upset the sim - especially if one leg of the wye did indeed connect to another branch which later connected at some different place to the same mainline, thus forming a "hidden loop" over several miles long. So have a look at your track layout and check whether the wye will allow trains to run through what ultimately consists a loop when branching off from the Milw at one place and re-entering it from the NP tracks (or whatever other RR is involved in that wye) at Mapple Valley. The send/don't send in the .tdb rebuild could actually be a hint for the presence of such a hidden loop in the track layout.

Another guess is that MSTS just goes into "hick-up mode" due to the fact that the wye touches three or four tiles. As you are now using xtracks, you could try inserting a pair of "invisible switches" (an A1tPnt0dLftMnl.s and A1tPnt0dRgtMnl.s next to each other) into the legs of the wye. These switches are intended for use on long stretches of mainline without sidings, allowing you to insert nodes every couple of miles without actually building a spur or siding that does not exist in the real world. Breaking up the (short) legs of the wye into two portions with the help of those 0 degree switches could
perhaps also help to overcome your problem.

Last but not least: As you are aware of the problematic tile(s), run your route through 'the check integrity of route' function of TSutils (part of Route Riter), and see whether it reports anything suspicious in the track database for that area. Might give you a clue as to which piece of track is the actual trouble maker.

That's all I can think of right now, I'll keep you updated if something else strikes my mind. Kind regards, Lukas

[landnrailroader]

I tried all of the suggested methods by Swissie except for the zero degree switches and
finally removed the wye connections, and still had a problem. I then moved the junction
some 30 meters further away from the corner of the tile(s) and still had a problem. So
I just left out a 100m 2 track piece that crossed the tile boundary, and the rebuilt was
successful, all tiles visited. A check of the end-end integrity of the important routes on
the sim, completed up to that point, showed no breaks ( which would suggest orphan
poles etc.) except where the piece was deliberately left out.

For the moment, it is "out" and I am doing most of the industrial spurs south of Seattle
in the Orilla area. There are SCADS of them, going in ever which direction. I have not
noticed any further problem, but at one point in these spurs, one would have literally
run right on top of, and parallel to, a tile boundary, so I used simmer's license and moved
that one 60 meters south to avoid the boundary. Once everything is done, I may try a
rebuild and fix whatever shows up, or I may not, if there is no indication that one should
be done. Then I will add back in the piece at Maple Valley, and probably show the wye
leads as "abandoned".

Generally, I have more trouble with roads than anything else on these sims.

landnrailroader
(Jerry Sullivan)