Second Life Railroad/SLRR standards
Description
Second Life Railroad uses a standardized railway track for vehicles to run on. On this Page you find the standard measurements and information associated with the railway track.
In the future a description of an open source switch point will also be made available here.
Open Access
There are now several standard gage railroads in SL, some on private land, some on Linden land. Some SL residents have expressed an interest in operating trains on these railroads, much as anyone can operate a car on the roads in SL. Should this be allowed, standardization of the guidance, control and track will help residents develop suitable vehicles.
Guidance
The existing system involves a non-phantom center rail, called Guide or RAIL. I have been told that trains initially running on these tracks use this rail as a physical steering mechanism, presumably a vehicle linear motor pushes the vehicle and collision with the rail steers it.
Other vehicals use a sensor and traget system to steer, collision is unnecessary.
Control
If multiple user trains are allowed on a track traffic control will be necessary. Something like the block section control system should work, using llSay on a negative channel, phantom alpha detectors on the track, and signals for realism.
A larger problems is what to do about traffic in the opposite direction. Block Section control could work with a passing siding for each section. Which leads to...
Another problem - switches. If the center guide rail is retained, then it could me turned and moved to divert a train. If a flat or phantom guide rail is used, names can be switched to change which rail is active.
Gage
Not super important, as it is for appearance only, but it would be good to have a standard that builders can use.
Railbed
Theres is presently:
- Flat - cheap for prims, does not look so good, good for sliding on.
- 3-D phantom - costs more prims, looks good, good for sliding on.
- 3-D non-phantom - costs more prims, looks good, not so good for sliding on?
Standards
Railway Track basics
- information will follow shortly
Also See
- Second_Life_Railroad (main page)