Superelevation

[emdsd90mac]

Superelevation. This is a new addition to RW3 allowing us to apply a certain amount of bank to our curves, but how does it work? I have fooled around for a bit with it, but cannot get it to appear that there is any bank to a curve. Anyone figure this out yet?

[Trainguy76]

Lay your tracks with easements turned on, (make sure the track-rule supports it), and then select a portion of the track with the select tool, and turn superelevation on.

[emdsd90mac]

Awesome!! I will try this out. Thank you.

[barnez]

I'm wondering what experiences anyone else is having with super elevation -

the route I'm working on was designed from the start to be super-elevated (in anticipation of RW3) and so all mainline curves were laid with easements.

Some things I'm observing:

I copied Super eleveation (SE) from the horseshoe curve trackrule into my own. I can easily add SE in, but will still need to re-lay a fair amount of track:

SE_no.jpg

SE_yes.jpg

These two screens illustrate what is happening. SE is being added and appears correct, but where it reaches a weld point the SE has difficulty with the transition, especially in a sharper curve.

Also, on a helpful note, I found that there is no need to select the entire track length to activate SE, merely select a short portion and everything between joins will be applied as SE (hard transitions at weld points that need to be adjusted may still appear)

-barnez

EDIT: After more tinkering, I discovered that the particular curve pictured above happens to not have easements, guess I got lazy somewhere
However, I've seen the same type of thing occur to a lesser extent in areas that have easements too.

I've also found that a curve directly out of a junction that does not have a straight section of transition track cannot support SE without the jagged edge posted above occuring ... then again, I'm using ScaleRail and Hack says an update is needed to SR track to support SE, so maybe that is the issue there ...

[Trainguy76]

I don't think junctions support SE, and in the case of your two pictures, and as you found out, you need to use easements in order to have the smooth curve.

[markhyams]

I am super-excited about the super-elevation in TS2012. It is something I have been wanting since the early days of MSTS. I was reading through the post in the announcement section about the two parameters that determine how much superelevation there is:

Max-angle
Curve to angle percent: For Horseshoe Curve this value was set to 20.

The first one is easy to understand. Second one, I just don't get. Can someone explain? Is this the radius in meters to the angle in degrees ratio? In the real world, superelevation is largely determined by the speed limit of the curve, and the type of equipment used. A stretch of track that shares slow freight and faster passenger service will have a compromise superelevation, where it's not quite enough for the passengers to not experience centrifugal forces, and a bit too much for the freight so more weight is on the inside rail.

I think the FRA has US lines limited to 6 inches of superelevation, which is about 6 degrees of cant, whereas in Europe on dedicated high-speed lines, I've heard about as much as 11 inches, which is about 11 degrees. (It's funny that the inches and angle always turn out the same!)

Anyway, it'd be great to be able to set it up in TS2012 where the superelevation calculation is somehow based on the speed limits for the section of track. For example, a 2-degree curve (about 830 meter radius) will be taken at about 60-70 mph and require probably close to 6 inches of superelevation. But if that same 2-degree curve happens to be in an area with a 25 or 30mph speed limit, it will require far less superelevation. Is there a way to accomplish this?

Mark

PS. This is my first post on RW America, and I'm excited to be here! I've been a long-time MSTS user (since 2002) and am excited to finally move on from MSTS with all of the great features of TS2012.

[Toripony]

I am super interested in superelevation, however it will require some serious rework on the Alleghany sub, so for now I'm just watching what you guys find. Thanks for these posts! I agree that the elevation should relate to speed limits, not just curve degrees. My quick initial thought to your question is that one could create several track rules, each adjusted to a 10mph range (so you might have 6 or 7 track rules... or more on a high-speed line) with different settings to use in different speed zones. I'm sure there will be better ideas come forth but just to know that it's possible, I thought I would post this one.