Underground Rail Help Needed (W/Image)

[totalnoob 7]

Attached is an image depicting what I'm trying to do. At the bottom center are tracks I'd like to sink into a cut. I'd do a basic 15m hole digger but there is a road on the next tile over. From there, I'd like it to enter a tunnel. Are there any pieces that can be suggested (I've seen tunnel portals into mountainsides somewhere on here but I can't find it now. Would that work?). 

I'm familiar with the underground rail pieces that come with NAM, but other than the grass ped mall piece, I haven't been able to find anyway to send it under blank terrain other than "inducing" a tunnel, but this only works for straight sections. Any way to do a curve? Also, anyway to have underground rail so that you can zone the tiles above. I've heard of the rail to subway transitions, but I believe they block freight, no? 

Finally, I need another portal for when it emerges out of the hill.

If I have to settle for the existing underground rail NAM pieces, then so be it, but I figured I'd ask the pros first.

[rsc204 21,804]

The problem you will face here is that URail is a puzzle based network. What this means is that you can't just create a new tunnel portal and have it actually work. It would require code inside the NAM to make it functional. One way around this is using a rail-subway converter, then you can use any tunnel prop you can find. But subways in-game do not carry freight, so your freight rail would need to find an alternate route. Of course all this relies on your being able to TE the converter lot if you wanted to make one, although I'm sure a few exist.

Otherwise using a proper URail tunnel and the puzzle pieces is the way to go. As soon as this setup reaches development, with a few adjustments to your layout, URail would work fine. I'd do the following:

Blue Circle - Extend the road past the point where the URail enters the developed part, because SAM is not supported for URail pieces. You might want to be creative to solve the other two SAM crossings too.

Orange Arrow - Move all the development over by one more tile (including the rightmost street), at least until the rail comes above ground. Then you could use a series of URail under PedMall pieces. If they had housing on either side, it would look like a back-alley or walkway, you could even stick a URail station in somewhere.

Here I have done much the same thing, using Urail/Pedmalls through a neighbourhood. The circles represent underground stations.

I think URail is one of the most under-used networks in the NAM, making the tunnel portal you describe is on my todo list, it will be fully functioning too. I've some other plans too for URail/Sunken rail transitions and adding a few pieces that would make it more flexible in such situations. It may be a while though, my todo list is ever expanding.

[totalnoob 7]

Thanks for the quick reply! If you take another look, the rail actually would be going under a current ped mall network so that part is solved (except for a small portion towards the top, but that just takes swapping the placement of the ped mall and the placement of the zoned tiles). I was just hoping there was a way to have the tunnel portal built into the mountainside by the station and that there was a way to zone on top of the URail. Also, there's no piece to have the rail sunk into a cut? I swear I'd seen one on here somewhere.

The other idea I'm toying with is obliterating the top right developed corner and running the track as elevated rail, but I don't like the slope that the el rail to ground rail transition uses so I'd have to leave enough space for a gradual slope down.

[rsc204 21,804]

There's no way to zone under URail, in the same way you can't zone under any other transport network. Subways are unique in this respect.

Indeed there may exist such pieces for making a tunnel into the cutting, but it won't be a URail piece. As I explained, that's not possible to do without updating the NAM code to recognise the piece and make it work. Therefore any such solutions would have to be modded as Rail to Subway lots. I don't know of such a ready to download item that you could use that was not also ramp-based. I'm assuming you want something like the GLR tunnel to the bottom left of my second screenshot?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

My nickel's worth. 

Underground freight or heavy rail doesn't make much sense except to central city stations and such.  The air supply and removal of pollutants makes this a serious problem.  Only electric rail makes any sense underground for any distance, and that is called subway in this program.  Freight should not be allowed on light rail tracks because the roadbed it not engineered for it. 

I think the OP needs to take a more practical view of what he is trying to do.

[totalnoob 7]

If you'd look at the image I attached, you'd see the relatively short distance I'm looking to accomplish this with, and you'd see it does lead into a central station. In Baltimore, there is a long freight tunnel right under downtown, so there is precedent in the real world. Also, in New York, the Empire Connection (the line along the Hudson River from Spuyten Duyvil to Penn Station) is electrified only for the portion immediately entering Penn Station. The rest of the line, including much of the tunnel portion, is done as a diesel operation, so again, precedent. The line is primarily for passenger rail services, but I don't want to block freight access since the line is the main access to the port. Nowhere did I say I was trying to run freight down a light rail line, so I'm not sure why you'd bring that up.

rsc204: Yes, that tunnel entrance you have is similar to what I'm interested in for the mountainside, but the one from the cut would enter into a tunnel under the street tile (Imagine a 15m hole digger tile with a bridge passing over. That bridge is the tunnel portal). 

[rsc204 21,804]

To my knowledge such things don't exist. Such models are notoriously technical to pull off with good results. Not to mention making it actually show automata is close to impossible. Only one modder I know of ever pulled of such a feat, NOB, but that's a sunken GLR network. I'd none the less like to attempt better integration for URail for the sort of situations you have shown here. But that may be some time off, in the meantime you may have to make some compromises.

One other thought I had, why not run the URail a couple tiles over where the red street is (Right), but replace the street with a road. The URail can travel under the road, and you can use curves to line up with the bottom rail connection. It would solve the problem with no development above the URail pieces.

I'm sure we could find a model that could be used for the mountainside, but as I mentioned the only way it will work is as a Rail to Subway lot. The same with the other end where you want the cut. To make URail working models requires code that can only be updated in the NAM. However, if you find some models and want me to look at making them work as RailtoSub tunnels in the meantime, I'd be happy to help you out.