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"To our newly appointed Locating Engineer: The railway syndicate has secured right-of-way rights across formidable mountain topography. But steel wheels upon steel rails cannot climb mountains like pack mulesโevery percentage point of gradient robs motive power, while reckless cuts and viaducts will bleed our treasury dry before the first train rolls."
Your commission is to survey the optimal alignment, balance excavation earthworks against locomotive tractive limits, and locate the economic ruling grade that guarantees twenty years of profitable commerce. Study your topography, draft your curves with care, and deliver a route worthy of the line.
Click on the terrain map to place track nodes. Drag existing nodes to adjust alignment. Drag handles to curve the track. Press Delete or Backspace to remove selected nodes.
Open the profile panel below to inspect terrain elevation vs track height. Drag nodes vertically to adjust cuts and fills. Keep gradients below 4% for heavy freight operations.
Use the View Mode dropdown to inspect Curvature (radius bottlenecks) and Grade (steepest slopes). Keep curvature smooth to prevent severe locomotive friction.
Balance construction capital expenditure (CapEx) against operational tractive efficiency. Deep cuts and viaducts cost money; gentle grades boost 20-year net revenue.
Survey an alignment connecting the Lithgow coalfields across the Great Dividing Range to Newnes Junction. Balance steep escarpment cuts against traction limits on ruling grades.
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Master the civil engineering interface, curve spline geometry, elevation grading, and ruling grade physics.
The steepest grade on your entire route is the Ruling Grade. It limits train length for all traffic across the line:
2-8-0 Consolidation: Standard mainline workhorse. Excellent tractive effort up to 2.5% grades at moderate speed.
Geared Shay: Flexible-truck mountain climber. Conquers steep grades up to 4.5% and tight curves at slow speeds.
Select an official historic route or load community engineering challenges.
Lithgow to Newnes Junction across the sandstone cliffs of Clarence. Drop 550ft down the escarpment on historical 1:42 (2.38%) grades.
Authoritative ground calibration test course. Stepped horizontal sections at precisely 1.0%, 2.0%, 3.0%, and 4.0% grades to verify profile drafting and locomotive adhesion.
Swiss Alpine approach through the granite Schรถllenen Gorge from Gรถschenen North Portal (1,106m) up to Andermatt (1,440m).
John F. Stevens' historic crossing of the Continental Divide in Montana. Ascend Bear Creek from Fielding Siding (1,420m) up to Marias Pass summit (1,590m) on a 1.8% grade.
The iconic Himalayan narrow gauge. Climb through mountain tea gardens from Sonada Loop (1,971m) up to Ghum Summit (2,258m / 7,407ft) on extreme 1:20 grades.
Upload a .json Scenario Package, .asc ASCII Grid, or Heightmap Image.
Get reference scenario package or ASCII grid.
Dial up real satellite terrain worldwide and design your own terminals and financial rules.
Dial up real satellite terrain worldwide, configure terminals, departure angles, locomotive rosters & CapEx.
Import custom ASCII Grid (.asc), Scenario Package (.json), or Heightmap (.png/.jpg).
Generate fractal mountain terrain using domain-warped fBm and hydraulic erosion from a random or specific PRNG seed.
0ยฐ = North, 90ยฐ = East, 180ยฐ = South, 270ยฐ = West.
Fixed legal, surveying, and land acquisition costs added to project CapEx.
Warning threshold and maximum recommended capital expenditure.