MSI-Chicago, Intense Model RRing

[Anonymous]

Opened at Thanksgiving, 2002, featured in the June and July 2003 Model Railroader, the 3500 square foot Great Train Story layout at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago is one of the largest in the nation and has featured a new look to its operations since the 2003 Christmas Holiday season...longer trains and more realistic motive power.

A 23 car multi-level automobile train just completed four months of non-stop running. Now a 51 car coal unit train is polishing the Atlas code 100 flex track, sharing the two freight track loops with two double stack intermodals, one manifest, an empty unit train and the "green train" honoring the memory of a local modeler. The third loop track hosts Amtrak trains, three usually but a short fourth consist may run tool.

With the longer trains, the museum's track capacity is limited by the ten signal blocks on each mainline circuit.

MSI's brand of railroading can also be called intense...severe and intense!! During the Museum's extended summer hours the trains ply ten miles per day. And that's not HO scale miles; that's real 5,280 ft. kind of miles.

Since the Burlington Northern Santa Fe is a major sponsor, BNSF Heritage II paint is the major paint scheme on the locomotives. Six axle GE and GMLG power most of the trains. The first of dozens of new locomotives were three Kato SD70MACs that by coincidence were kept together during their first months. When their mileage figures were calculated, interest in making an actual trip representative of the distance from Chicago to Seattle developed and the locomotives were then deliberately kept together and except for servicing run every day.

The Great Train Story depicts the BNSF journey between those two cities and we use the Amtrak mileage for convenience.

Currently the locos have covered over 1642 miles which puts them west of Whitefish, MT. This has happened with 188 days of running since December, 2003. If all goes well, they should "arrive" in Seattle sometime in early September with due pomp and ceremony.

David Harrison

[philnrunt]

David- I've not been able to make it up there yet, I hate to go when they have the U-505 off display, so I've been waiting for them to finish and then see both.
I do think it's so neat when you run a model RR like a real one, and I always thought it would be neat to actually wear out an engine or two and have scheduled maintenance because it's needed to keep the railroad from falling apart.
The only thing I don't understand about the MS&I RR is we've both spent 3.5 million on our respective layouts, but they got theirs to RUN!!!

[GDRMCo]

got pictures

[ndbprr]

Well I have mixed feelings about the railroad. Large -yes. lots of trains - not for the size of it. Run realistically - not really. It is just a bunch of loops. Scenery - Chicago is excellently done. The rest is average. as you walk around you say,"Oh that's the train I saw on the other side". With a little more effort they could have done some staging to vary the freights as they have about 300 square feet of mountains on the railroad. Worth seeing - yes. Anything to emulate - I don't think so unless you want to impress the how many trains can you run at one time crowd.

[Anonymous]

David;

I'm delighted to hear the railroad is beginning to come up to its potential. My wife and I routinely visit Chicago (I'm a native, have early memories of the "O" layout and my Dad knew Minton Cronkhite) and were there the first week in December the year it opened. As you might expect I was disappointed in the six-axle locomotives running long hood forward with three cars. Sounds like some knowledgeable folks are in charge. We'll be there again this December and you can bet we'll visit. Just keep an eye on the landing gear on that 727 - if anything went wrong it'd take out the Sears Tower - ; ^ ).

A personal note - your name means much to me; are you over 60 and does 1550 Ashland Avenue ring any bells? Reply offline!

[Anonymous]

ndbprr,
Why the diss?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by philnrunt

David- I've not been able to make it up there yet, I hate to go when they have the U-505 off display, so I've been waiting for them to finish and then see both.

Hello, philnrunt.
The new submarine display is slated to open Memorial Day, 2005 but if you would still like to come earlier, hint, hint! The sub lowered into the new display pit and wrapped with waterproofing is observable from a viewing deck, plus there's a fabulous display inside the museum all about the new digs. Hourly lectures and a walking tour outside are also being held.

Seeing the sub during preparations is a once-in-a-lifetime, so make that your excuse and visit MSI. Plus, you get to see the train too.

David Harrison

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by deschane

ndbprr,
Why the diss?

I don't think it was so much of a "diss"; ie, putdown. Its a kind of comment we get at MSI quite often, especially from model railroaders who have to be reminded that the goals of the museum are quite different from those of us model RRers.

For instance there is almost a complete turnover of visitors at the layout in the short span of a few hours, so that same circling freight quickly has a whole new crowd of admirers.

Yes, the layout is just three closed loops...A, B, C but remember, the layout is designed for unmanned operation. To add in all the "model railroad scenerios" like switching cars, different lineups, etc, would only be adding complexity and every operation added is just one more thing that will break down and fail at some time.....and we all know about that.

Lastly, a good 20 to 25 % of our visitors can still be overheard telling their kids, "Look...choos choos!"

David Harrison