HowTo/Superelevation Trainz22

What is superelevation in Trainz 22?

The "superelevation" or the slope of rails in curves is proposed since T:ANE. This page updates the instructions for Trainz 22

To resist centrifugal force and and not to wear out prematurely the outer rail, the track must be tilted on bends.
Applying a gradient to a curved section of track is called superelevation.

Here is the example of a machine launched to 80 kph in a curve of 500 meters of beam. The slope of the track has been set to 4 °.




To implement Superelevation in Trainz 22, follow the steps below :

On the tools palette,select the highlighted icone as shown on the opposite picture (1) Clic on the track to select it (2) Clic on one of the submits of the selected track (3)

Clic on Edit Properties (1) Complete both sections (2) Determining the variable 'Superelevation Degree' is essential for applying superelevation to a curve... more details to follow in this ‘How To’... Do the same with the other submit of the track

Surperelevation : theoritical base

  Everything that follows in this section is designed to give you the theoretical basis for calculating a superelevation. In the next section, a spreadsheet will be provided to do all the calculations for you.

•   The Superelevation (SE) is the height that the outside rail takes compared with the internal rail in a curve.

        It is calculated as the diagram below shows it:

1 - Maximum value of SE is limited to 16 cm (6.3 inches) for standard gauge tracks and 10 cm (3.14 inches) for metric tracks. 2 - Superelevation Limit (or degree of slope A deg) is limited to 6.4° for standard gauges and 5.8° for metric gauges. 3 - There is no superelevation for speeds lower than 25 kmh (15.5 mph) in standard gauge and 30 kmh (18.5 mph) in metrics. 4 - On networks with gauge of 60 cm (2 ft) or less, the speed is limited to 25 kmh (15.5 mph) : there is thus no superelevation either.

•   Of the four variables above (G, V, R,g), one is unknown at start: the radius of the curve.

        The diagram below shows how to determine it :
   

•   Trainz 22 introduces an aditionnal concept for determining the superelevation of a curve: the degree of curvature.
  

Here, with a quarter-circle curve, the curve angle is 90°. The more open the curve, the greater the angle. The tighter the curve, the smaller the angle.

To apply superelevation in Trainz, we saw above that we had to calculate the 'superelevation degree'. More precisely, this means to determine the angle of the slope by degree of the concerned curvature. Example: we have a curve with a curve angle of 60° and a superelevation angle of 4°. The 'superelevation degree" will be equal to 4/60 = 0.066.