Planning

1.0 Set a Goal

What do you want to do? Replicate part or all of a railroad? Simulate a particular operation? Focus on a type of activity? Something else?

2.0 Choose a Genre

This may or may not follow directly from your goal. Some possibilities are Class I freight and/or passenger, short line, narrow gauge (various track widths), transit (including commuter, light rail, subway, etc.).

3.0 Choose an Era

Possibilities: 19th Century, Steam, Steam/Diesel Transition, Diesel, High Speed, 21st Century.

4.0 Choose a Location

Country, region, urban, rural, industrial.

5.0 Real or Fiction

Possibilities: true to prototype route and operation, true location but fictional route, total fiction, everything else in between.

5.1 Discussion. Volumes could be written about this. Building something true-to-prototype has obvious historical value and modeling challenges. Building something fictional brings out the artist in the developer. It also allows one to focus on specific aspect, such as a particular industry or train operation. For most projects, this is potentially a more reasonable scope for attainment without working as a team.

6.0 Choose a Season

Consider something other than summer. This will require different foliage and ground textures.

7.Research

Some possibilities: Google Magazines, books Library Geodetic maps FCC Survey First-hand investigation

8.0 Develop a Plan

Quadrille paper How many baseboards? Orientation DEM Data

9.Consider a Team

9.1 Discussion. The more complicated or large in scope the project, the more reason to work as a team. Consider members with unique abilities and preferences such as object building, scripting, research, etc. Having members with overlapping abilities is valuable in case someone has to drop out for awhile due to illness or other circumstance.

10.0 References

VirtualRailroader.com has a collection of articles on most topics. See the Basic Trainz section and the Trainz section.