Route to coal mine

[valenti_scott]

Hello-
I'm working on a route to the coal mine, and I'm wondering what ya'll think is the best route. I see two choices. I've already built a route to the iron mine, so I could go from the iron mine, but there are a lot of steep slopes near the iron mine.

The other possibility is to start at the freight depot and go southwest to the mountains to the east of the oil field, and then follow the grade of the mountains with a climb of 3%, heading for the coal mine. Or maybe 3% isn't enough of a grade.

I've been keeping my grades at 3% or below, to make is easy to use a Eureka.
-Scott

[Rudolf Jan]

What I did is from the smelter go to the river and then follow the river till the mine. There you can create a winding path up. It is mostly 3% or lowwer.

[valenti_scott]

Ah, yes, I didn't notice the valley going all the way from the smelter to the coal mine on the east side of the map. Thanks.

I tried going from the freight depot to the coal mine using the route I mentioned in the OP (southwest from FD, then follow the contours of the mountains east to the CM), but with a 3% grade, I couldn't get over those really tall mountains in the central-south portion of the map.

I was thinking, one way to go from the CM to the FD would be to start at the CM.

At any rate, I'll probably try the route you suggest.

[Comrade_Bob]

There is a partially graded route from the river up to the coal mine. With mine, I ended up mostly 3-4%. Some short sections of 4+ as well.

[valenti_scott]

I think you could also build a shortcut to the ironworks, west of the CM, over the mountains?

[Major Malfunction]

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

I think you could also build a shortcut to the ironworks, west of the CM, over the mountains?

You can if you start by the refinery and do an "S" style route up and over the top directly across from the coal mine. With that route you can get a more direct route to ironworks. The Class 70 can handle a 5% grade with a ten car train to the mine.

[valenti_scott]

Ah, ok, thanks.

[Murray99]

If you follow the river, 2% grade is steep enough.

[valenti_scott]

I'm working on a line now, from the CM to the smelter. I followed the cliffs and hills to the east of the CM with groundworks at a constant 3% downward grade.

Then I switched to a wooden bridge and turned toward the north, and then made it a steel bridge, still 3%. As the bridge got lower in elevation, I switched back to a wooden one and then groundworks.

I'm essentially at ground level now, about 20% of the way to the smelter. Thanks everyone for the hints and tips!
-Scott

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2764603810

[Major Malfunction]

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

I'm working on a line now, from the CM to the smelter. I followed the cliffs and hills to the east of the CM with groundworks at a constant 3% downward grade.

Then I switched to a wooden bridge and turned toward the north, and then made it a steel bridge, still 3%. As the bridge got lower in elevation, I switched back to a wooden one and then groundworks.

I'm essentially at ground level now, about 20% of the way to the smelter. Thanks everyone for the hints and tips!
-Scott

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2764603810

No problem!

[valenti_scott]

Yeah, thanks again. I finally finished this route last night. It was kind of tricky near the sawmill, because there is quite an elevation drop between the river and the sawmill.

[ostlandr]

That's quite the understatement!

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

Yeah, thanks again. I finally finished this route last night. It was kind of tricky near the sawmill, because there is quite an elevation drop between the river and the sawmill.

[valenti_scott]

Ha, yeah. I ended up making a half-spiral kind of curve, down at 3%, with wooden and steel bridges.

[valenti_scott]

I hate to resurrect this older thread, but I wanted to share that I did a game restart with the idea of making my routes follow the contour of the land more, and refrain from building long bridges, but rather just use groundworks, and not too high groundworks. Also, I would keep all grades at 3-1/2 or less.

I built routes from the freight depot to the logging camp and sawmill without too much fuss. To get from the freight depot to the logging camp, I looped around the rough terrain and came down into the logging camp from the north.

My route from the sawmill to the smelter follows the left-side of the valley which leads to the smelter. I was able to avoid the building of bridges, except for one spot fairly close to the smelter where I have a wooden bridge which is not too long.

Then I build a line from the smelter to the iron mine, again following the contours of the hills and mountains. Only a few short wooden bridges were needed.

Then came the route to the coal mine. I started at the coal mine, and snaked down through the hills southeast of the CM, at a 3-1/2 grade. The route is very circuituous, but eventually got down to the valley floor. I needed a steel trestle bridge near the waterfall, but it wasn't very long.

As I got closer to the smelter, I was excited to find that I could connect to the line going from the smelter to the iron mine, about 1/5th of the way from the smelter to the iron mine. I was able to avoid building that long, sloping spiral-shaped bridge near the smelter, which I did in my previous build.

[dark_one1337]

so do ye got a Map?
because I'm in my 5th version ,first with new splines,
and I can nea connect down to the smelter or up the mines.
I'm litteraly stuck with the smelter because ye can nea build helixes like before.
I found a prefab route from the smelter up to the bank from the waterfall, but it's fookin
steep >4% even the iron mine I got is only 4 at max
allthough I don nea build on the prefab all the way.
and the down slope from the small sawmill valley is too long and ain nea looking
good like I build it.
My smallest turn allthough is only 45m radius.

[snowyowl000]

Originally posted by dark_one1337:

so do ye got a Map?
because I'm in my 5th version ,first with new splines,
and I can nea connect down to the smelter or up the mines.
I'm litteraly stuck with the smelter because ye can nea build helixes like before.
I found a prefab route from the smelter up to the bank from the waterfall, but it's fookin
steep >4% even the iron mine I got is only 4 at max
allthough I don nea build on the prefab all the way.
and the down slope from the small sawmill valley is too long and ain nea looking
good like I build it.
My smallest turn allthough is only 45m radius.

My current new splines map has two routes to the iron mine, max 2.5%, and a route from the mines plateau (top of the waterfall) to the smelter at 2.5%. If you wish, I can try to post this on minizwerg.

I haven't done the coal mine yet, but I'll be following klown's route, which maxes out at 2%.