Mountain Rail

There is nothing I enjoy more in SC4, than to build rail lines though mountainous and hilly terrain.

This tutorial shows how I made a new rail line for a tile that would eventually become a logging town.
The terrain is rolling, but not impossible… it will probably take a couple of bridges and viaducts to eventually curve back down and around to where the town is going to be.
The most important thing when laying rail is that it needs to be flat… bumpy rail lines don’t work! The best way to achieve this is to lay singe rail tiles (or road) to enusre a smooth rail bed.
The embankment can then be cut though with more road tiles where a bridge can be built later.
Sometimes the terrain will be too steep for rail tiles, so switch to road tiles.
Those retaining wall tiles can be demolished later, and a bridge built, but laying them across first, ensures that the bank on the other side of the bridge is exactly the right height.
Whoa! Let’s flatten that out a bit first shall we?
This is where I want to bring the grade down the hill to the flat area for the town… laying just a regular track gives me an idea where I need it to go.
But, it needs to be smoothed out, so I use the soften tool, and then for fine detailing the mayor valley/mountain tool set on the smallest size. A slope mod can also help with this.
Put in the bridges and viaducts – see the how to make a land bridge tutorial for this.
…and there it is completed right back to the neighbour connection where it enters the tile.
The future site of a log town.
I guess a log town will some trees to log… eh.