Embankments and ramps
The ramp distributes heights along a chain of track, the embankment builds the sub-structure underneath it. Heights first, then the embankment: it reads the heights off the track.
Ramp
Select a connected chain of track and call up Edit ramp…. Whatever hangs off the track, catenary poles for instance, may be selected along with it.
The most important choice comes right at the top:
- Bend the track (default) keeps the plan. The track becomes longer than the plan for it, as with a real ramp.
- Keep elements flat tilts each piece of track as a whole, as in Raily 3 and 4. Its footprint becomes shorter, it cannot be canted, and on a curve it does not hold the grade. Why, see Technical limits.
The display names Track and Ground, along with the difference. On a steep helix that can easily be 20% more track.
| Field | |
|---|---|
| Start height, End height | the heights at the ends of the chain. Also available as handles in the plan |
| Transition length | the vertical easement curve at each end, so the ramp runs into flat track without a kink |
| Max grade | a warning only |
The average grade of the middle section is shown. It is higher than height divided by length, because the eased ends are flatter, and it decides what a locomotive can still pull up. Model railways tolerate 2 to 4%; at 3%, 100 mm of height needs roughly 3300 mm of track.
Flatten removes all heights and cant from the selection.
Cant
With a target speed, the track twists through the curve. Without one (0) it stays flat.
For the model or for the prototype
You enter the speed as a prototype speed. For the model, the cant that keeps a coin lying still on the coach floor usually comes out to a fraction of a degree. For the prototype works with the curve the model represents, and almost always hits the maximum cant: a matter of appearance.
Max cant and Cant ramp 1:N limit it. The cant already builds up on the straight before the curve. If the straight isn't long enough, it becomes smaller, and the display says so.
Helix instead of a ramp
Where there isn't room, the helix helps. It is not eased; for the transition into flat track, add a short ramp. If its turns should be canted, open the ramp editor on it after creating it.
Embankment
The cut & fill annotation builds the embankment: place the markers, refresh. After every change to the track, refreshing again is enough. See Getting started 5.
Where the embankment ends at the bottom is set on the annotation:
- Embankment height: the same height throughout, the underside following the gradient of the track. The right choice in terrain, where the embankment fills a dip and the rest disappears in the ground.
- Embankment down to a level with the Level height: the embankment stands on a horizontal level, such as the baseboard. Under a ramp it grows with the track, and where the track lies on the level there is none.
Heights are measured from the formation, not from the top of the rail: Raily subtracts the construction depth of the track itself. A track lying on the baseboard therefore gets no embankment, although its rails stand a few millimetres above it.
With a Depth of 0 there is no cutting, which leaves a plain embankment.
Create cut & fill in the context menu builds the same body from the selected track, without markers. It is set up the same way, in the property panel.
It's a body, not a rule
A body made this way knows nothing about the track. Move the track, and it stays where it was.