prop_static Train Tracks leave ugly shadow..

You gotta turn their shadows off. Since they are quite strange props, not having a collision model, the game goes crazy when making shadows. Just turn them off in their properties and you have no shadow problem. Things low to the ground like those don't need shadows.

-staticproppolys for VRAD in Expert Compile. this will, however, take ages, so only do this for your final compiles.

Oh come on now it doesn't take that long at all. the only one of those three that really adds to the time is the one for alpha textures, understandably.. and that only really takes into account chainlink fences.. so really it depends on how many fences you've got.

There is also this - http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=2994 which explains how to use the extra commands and what they do. Least explaination is given to staticproppolys since it's simplest to understand - It used the exact outline of the prop instead of the collision mesh for shadows. the other two do alpha textures on models (not sure about brushes?) and the last does per-vertex lighting for props, so if they're sunk into walls slightly they will still look right.

These are the standard that valve use for -everything- since the orange box. Don't be fooled by the fact they're not really explained anywhere official or not sun as standard. They're not an added optional, they are what you should be using by default. However they do add to compile time so are only worthwhile for releases.

Is there really any point having shadows enabled on tracks? You'd have to set the lightmap scales really frickin' low to even tell if there's an inkling of a shadow on the surface.

I even write a whole post to thank you Psy ^^