Subway Construction Set

2.     Basic Construction Pointers

First, a few pointers which should help you in designing your subway. Design your route on paper first. Since your subway will be created almost entirely out of splines, connecting them in the proper order and orientation is critical. Where possible, start from one end of a line, and work to the other.

Stations are constructed out of several different pieces. First is an "invisible" station item, found in the "Scenery" tab. All such items are named "Subway * Station *" (where the asterisk may contain another name). Then add the appropriate "Start" and "End" pieces for the type of station you're building (named "Subway * Platform *", also found in the "Scenery" tab). Connect the Station and Platform Start and End with whatever Subway no 3rd rail track you'd like, and the Station and Platform pieces will automatically use that track as well. 3rd rails are already placed in the correct locations. Now you need to build the rest of your platform. In the "Scenery" tab, under the "Spline" section, you'll find several "Subway * Platform *" sections. Click on the invisible station to add a platform section to it. Then click on the end of the invisible station to add a spline between it and either the Start or End piece. Where available, different platform sections may be joined together to create different platform options, however this only applies to the 2 track station at the moment. In Phase I of the SCS, there is only one type of tunnel which actually has initiators and terminators (named Subway Tunnel). Because of that, at this time, it’s the only tunnel which can be used to make your subway emerge from the ground, or enter back in. During design, all pieces were originally made this way, but it presented serious shortcoming, especially when attempting to connect single tracks. Removing the initiators and terminators enabled single track connections to any of the tunnel pieces, except for “Subway Tunnel” (they’ll connect to it, but it’ll make a hole in the ground where they do, no matter how far below ground the connection is). When placing track, take note of where the 3rd rail is located. 3rd rail track can be laid with the rail in either orientation, based on where the start and end of the spline are. This is extremely handy for locating switches, platforms, etc. on above-ground lines. There is also matching track with no 3rd rail, which can be used for crossovers and switches. Generally, the 3rd rails should be placed to be furthest from any passenger platform where possible.