Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway

[GLRX12]

Looking great! will be nice to see downtown Chicago in Railworks, and take the North Shore from Milwaukee

[nsl714]

Let's go for a ride down 5th St, starting at the Harrison Shops.



Down the hill...



And up again.



It has been said that his hill was the bane of the North Shore's existance. Motormen usually had to charge the hill to get over it.



Finally the car jogs to 6th St for the last mile to downtown.

[nsl714]

A Milwaukee Limited begins its trek down 5th St after stopping at Harrison St.



I think I have the formula for the street running segment figured out. 1 block down...20 to go.

Zach

[CSX2057]

Very Nice!!

[nsl714]

If anyone hasn't noticed yet, I uploaded a beta version of the route as it sat on the 20th of May to the file library here. Please feel free to download and have a go, even though it is a bit incomplete.

http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/d ... collection

It was also pointed out that I forgot a very important credit in the readme. Timothy Gutowski is the gentleman who has done the scenery around Lake Bluff, IL. Tim!

Zach

[nsl714]

The North Shore is currently off with Tim having scenery added, so I haven't touched it in a while. Though it is still progressing.

Here's something I worked on for a few hours last night, and I may try to complete on my own over time. It won't be anything huge by means, the original fit on a 3'x6' piece of plywood! This route has it's roots in a Model Railroader project railroad that ran from November 1988 to March 1989, the O'Dell County Traction Company. I got said issues in a box of old Model Railroaders when I was 6 or 7, and I've loved the plan ever since. It's a simple double reverse loop plan with room for expansion, featuring both freight and passenger operations. Here's what I've got so far.





(There's a sister electric railroad that the builder of the model version of O'Dell county also built. I have the track plan for that as well, and may continue on with that in the future. But first this little 3'x6')

[nsl714]

I got an .rwp from Tim tonight. Scenery is going up here and there. This is Knollwood, IL.

[NickelPlate765]

Woooow! I love that..


NKP765

[nsl714]

A Chicago-Bound Local crosses the EJ&E at Rondout.



Further East at the CNS&M end of the interchange with the EJ&E.



Pausing at Knollwood.



The farm country of Northern Illinois.



Turning toward Chicago at South Upton Tower.

[nsl714]

With the release of Train Simulator 2014 today, I had no idea what to expect with respect to this route. Would it work? Or would it crash and burn? It loaded with no issue. The one feature of TS2014 that intrigued me the most was Google Maps integration. After "blindly" laying track and roads with markers that I placed before I started, this I feel is going to ease the job of placing rail and road. Especially in dense urban locations like, say, Chicago. I did a quick flyover of the route with the Google Maps overlay, and happily, (ok, ecstatically) saw that for the most part, the railroad is where it should be. (For those wondering how I can accurately lay a railroad that has been absent for 50 years, it's actually pretty evident on the satellite where it was. Having studied the line for many years was no obstacle to this.)

As an example, here are the Skokie Shops of the CTA. First without the map:


And with the map laid over:


Let the building continue!

Zach

[NickelPlate765]

Sweeeeeet!!

NKP765

[thecanadianrail]

You can get a better quality Google earth image by messing around with the settings, I have mine set with satellite , the highest resolution, 5x5....something like that, it gets a lot clearer than what you currently see.

[nsl714]

Noted thecanadianrail. Makes things MUCH clearer.

I don't have much to say other than I am about 1/3 through a major rework of track. The advent of the google feature and discovery of an offical track chart of the entire railroad has enabled me to accurately lay track on alignment and gradient. So far the track has been relaid from Howard St in Chicago to North Chicago Junction, (about 26 miles). The other 70 miles will be done in short order as time permits. Also look out in the near future for some appropriate structures, I have acquired plans for a few stations and the distinctive catenary towers along the route.

And a few photos for effect..





(Note: the gradient changes will be smoothed out eventually.)

Zach

[NickelPlate765]

Look awesome! I knew you has work hard with route other time... ;)

NKP765

[nsl714]

Something new appears.



I recently acquired a large amount of plans and diagrams for North Shore-specific structures. I decided to start with something simple, a tower. Watch this space...

Zach