Using AI as a layout planning tool

[potatan]

I'm constantly revising my plan in a more complex direction; the latest design update includes a big hill over the tracks with a quarry into the face of it. Very much still at the planning stage while I resolve a couple of track issues, but I was idly wondering what size tunnel entrance I'd need to put into the hill. So I thought I'd ask the AI tool we use at work - makes a change from getting it to write my code for me, I mean "getting it to help write my code" of course.

So this was the query, and the response. Surprisingly, it took a lot longer to answer this than for some of my more technical queries; I guess as it's created by programmers it might be more used to programmer-style queries. I've found that it helps to frame questions very precisely.

Of course, I could have asked you lot and got a dozen different responses, but as an academic exercise I found this quite interesting - espcially as it then offered me a printable template, as well as further refined versions with brickwork, textures and cut-lines.


Question
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I need to make an arched tunnel entrance into a hillside for a 1:148 model railway layout (N Gauge). The tunnel will have two tracks going into it, a 2nd radius line and a 3rd radius line side by side. What dimensions do I need to make the tunnel, both horizontally and vertically, to allow two trains to run through it simultaneously?


Copilot said:
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"To build a double-track arched tunnel entrance for your 1:148 N Gauge layout accommodating both 2nd and 3rd radius tracks side by side, here are the recommended dimensions based on manufacturer specs and modeller experience:

Horizontal Clearance (Width)
Minimum internal width: ~65–70 mm
This allows for two tracks spaced appropriately for N gauge (standard track centres are ~25 mm apart).
Metcalfe’s PN142 double tunnel entrance is designed for this and has an external width of ~83 mm.

Vertical Clearance (Height)
Minimum internal height: ~32–34 mm from rail top
This accommodates most rolling stock, including taller items like the Tomix track cleaner.
Peco’s NB-31 tunnel portal has an internal height of 41 mm, which is generous for N gauge.

Recommended Dimensions for Your Tunnel Entrance
Dimension Suggested Size
Internal Width 70 mm
Internal Height 34 mm
External Width ~85 mm
External Height ~50–55 mm
These dimensions will comfortably fit two trains running side by side on 2nd and 3rd radius curves, with enough clearance for scenery and rolling stock.

Would you like a printable template or a 3D model reference for the tunnel entrance?"

[potatan]

... I'll probably just buy the Metcalfe PN142 if I'm honest

[centenary]

I went through at least 50 planning iterations in AnyRail before deciding a final layout plan. Once it was down, I made a further 3 track additions!

[potatan]

at least 50

is that all?

I've finally given in to the 50-track piece limit and paid for a licence; I appreciate a decent bit of software. Trouble is it's too late to redo the track as it's now glued down with a power bus and accessory bus connected with 12 DCC points wired in. So I'm busying myself with scenery and hills. The building selection in AnyRail is a bit limited though, I imagined I'd be able to plonk any of the more commonly offered building kits onto the layout but it appears to only have about 3 tin sheds and a German school to choose from.

Ah well, I'll content myself with plonking trees all over the place

[aleopardstail]

I'm finding natural stupidity beats artificial intelligence any day

unplug the swine, that will show them

[Bigmet]

I'm finding natural stupidity beats artificial intelligence any day

Just wait for the emergence of artificial stupidity...

[Phred]

Bigmet wrote:
Just wait for the emergence of artificial stupidity...

It may already be here. I have a relative (by marriage) who is so monumentally stupid that I'm convinced he must be putting it on.

It works in his favour, of course. He never has to do anything he doesn't want to, because everyone knows he will muck it up. He once proudly told me that the dole office said he was unemployable. Any question he doesn't like will be answered by such a flood of irrelevant gobbledygook that the most determined questioner will retire in confusion.

I could go on but I risk being unkind.

[Bigmet]

That was pretty sympathetic is my feeling. My younger brother would nowadays have been classified SEND due to Infantile autism, and is spectacularly impractical at physical tasks, but could and did find employment in the most mind-numbingly boring clerical tasks; always provided he was in sympathetic company, as he is an amiable fellow. The risk taken by the NHS - unwittingly - was his manager asking him to move a loaded four drawer filing cabinet to the floor below; without supervision or training. He tried his best, but lost his grip and it went down two floors in the evacuation stairwell...

[aleopardstail]

Bigmet wrote:
Just wait for the emergence of artificial stupidity...

It may already be here. I have a relative (by marriage) who is so monumentally stupid that I'm convinced he must be putting it on.

It works in his favour, of course. He never has to do anything he doesn't want to, because everyone knows he will muck it up. He once proudly told me that the dole office said he was unemployable. Any question he doesn't like will be answered by such a flood of irrelevant gobbledygook that the most determined questioner will retire in confusion.

I could go on but I risk being unkind.

sounds perfect for a career in management in the public sector

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
sounds perfect for a career in management in the public sector

Well that's depressingly true.