This route is now progressing well with over 400 km of track laid. For those interested, I have just run a double header of Y97 and T251 and a string of Long and Short Toms including the Sturt, Morambo and Flinders cars from Peterborough to Quorn and then to Woolshed Flat in the Pichie Richie Pass. I have laid in excess of 2,000 miles of track in several routes and the Pichie Richie Pass is the most intense and difficult track laying I have ever encountered - but the result is exhilarating. We now have 11 locos - T, Y and Z class steam locos, 830 class narrow gauge diesels plus over 30 passenger and freight cars plus brakevans to populate the route.
Cheers

Very impressive!!!

Excellent work! It's great to see Quorn.

Very nice work.

Would you mind sharing with us why the Pichie Richie Pass was so difficult to lay? I have heard of, but I am not familiar with, this real world section of the permanent way.

That's Jamestown I think. The Quorn station is a fair way away from the track

Um, unfortunately. track laying in Pichie Richie is still an "is" not a "was". I am not half way yet, and I have already been on it for over a week. I usually place markers every 300-400 yards. In PR they are every 30m or so.
Problems:-
1. The gradient chart is hopelessly incorrect. I do not have a curvature chart.
2. DEM and Google Earth consistently vary in vertical height at any precise point by 10-12m or more - i.e. the road crossing at -32.46910/138.96428 has a height of 238m in Google and 229.503 in DEM and I am trying to lay track at 1 in 60 approaching it.
3. Repeated reverse curves laid with 150m radius curves on a 1 in 60 continuous grade all hugging the side of the hill. With most mainline track, if I am a few feet out at the end of a 2 mile straight - well, so what. If I am a few feet out in PR, I am either into the hill or out over the creek.

Basically I have no option than to lay a mile of track, check with Google as to where cuttings and embankments are and if I am more than a couple of feet out vertically, pull it up (and maybe more because my starting point may well be slightly out) and start again with a slightly altered gradient.

It has been an interesting ride, but the end result will be amazing. My first train into Woolshed Flat was with Y97 and T251 (iconic locos in SA) and that was a memorable experience.
Cheers

Hi All,
20 miles of track laid in about 10 days, 150m radius curves, 1 in 60 almost all the way and no Dynamic track, only fixed radius curves and fixed length straights, but we are there. I will include a couple of pics.
It has crossed my mind to ditch the other 450km of the route and just release Pichie Richie and the W classes that PRRPS uses along with the new Nm - hmmm - maybe.
Cheers

Marvelous Allan!

I really like those screen shots, nice work as always. I personally find that winding track work through hilly terrain makes for an interesting and pleasing driving experience in and out of the cab. Your terrain textures also look very tasty.

I feel your pain re: laying track in hilly DEM'd terrain but for different reasons. I found the trial and error of laying winding curves using set track a most enjoyable process, with the exception of changing the gradient. To be sure this was eased due to me having the curve and gradient diagram for my route, which I followed as if it were the word of God. The downside was that this method required massive amounts of terraforming and fine-tuning in RE to fit the terrain to the track.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I always enjoy reading what techniques other builders use to overcome their technically challenging issues as it helps broaden my (and hopefully others) options if I should ever encounter similar circumstances.

Take care.

Regards Marek.

Pretty much sums up my own efforts in laying the track from Thirroul to Waterfall in my original Northern Illawarra V1. I often found that the 'track creep' in MSTS sometimes meant that the track did not match up with the DEM - i.e. in some places there were embankments where there should have been cuttings, and vice versa - it took a lot of manual terraforming adjustment to get it looking right!!!

Regards, Brian