Incline Plane (/ Cable Railway)

[AP]

It occurred to me today, that Simutrans is missing a key element which was a feature in many early railways, arising from the fact that steam trains do not like climbing steep hills.

Cable-worked railway inclines were extensively used on early railways and in particular on industrial routes in hilly/mountainous terrain (where ore mines, quarries, are likely to be). They were also used to lower freight to seaports where these were in steep coves or valleys (e.g. in Cornwall). In most cases they operated until the line closed, although passenger inclines were often by-passed when budgets later allowed.

Simutrans trains dislike gradients just as much. I know I dislike having to lay railways that run downhill for 5 consecutive tiles (knowing how slow the return journey will be). So it occurred to me there might be a role for this kind of feature in the game. Whether as a pre-built unit (where you place the start and finish point and it draws the straight line between) or something more custom.

Some images to whet your apetite:




On the Cromford and High Peak railway (UK) they even used to pull engines up the incline:

[TPIBAW]

There is a cablecar addon at http://archive.forum.simutrans.com/topic/02010.0/index.html.

[AP]

Interesting, but that's just for people by the looks of it. More often than not the stuff I want to move up/down hills is either bulk goods or a mix of stuff. Is it possible to code a wagon to carry anything?

[sojo]

AP have you ever tried to paint something for Simutrans?

[AP]

I haven't, but I assume it's not that hard - from the images I saw at the old forum it's a 3d model plus textures I think.

What I imagine to be rather more challenging - and have absolutely no knowledge of - is the behind-the-scenes coding to make it from a set of images into a working vehicle.

[The Hood]

I haven't, but I assume it's not that hard - from the images I saw at the old forum it's a 3d model plus textures I think.

What I imagine to be rather more challenging - and have absolutely no knowledge of - is the behind-the-scenes coding to make it from a set of images into a working vehicle.

The coding is very easy (well, maybe not very easy if you are unfamiliar with code at all, but it is fairly straightforward, especially if you use an existing dat file as a template!).  When I draw stuff 90% of the time at least is on graphics rather than the dat file.  If can do 3d modelling, you can easily make a working simutrans vehicle / house / whatever - if you want to give it a try I can help you if you need?