I took a look back at my "Best (RR) place in Chicago 1980s please? " thread and have paid attention to the responses there...
I'm still lost!
Some of the satelite maps and arial pics you can get on the net are fantastic but when I try to trace/follow the tracks I end up dizzy and mind-boggled. I've learnt a huge amount from them though.
So... The questions I've been asking about signalling a diamond have sorted out a pattern that makes some sort of sense.
I have a diamond of two distinct RR with an interchange link between them. As sketched so far RR A runs East-West and RR B crosses it South West - North East. The link is in the south,south east quadrant. This orientation is arbitrary and could be rotated to fit to where real RR might be around a fictitious location.
Traffic theory is that RR A runs heavy freight long distance, a little local freight and a few Amtraks. RR B runs mostly local freight, occasional; heavy freight detours and the tail end of a Metra shuttle service. Discussion has brought out the idea that RR B has a bridge traffic of RR C from the south west, over the link to RR A to terminate in a yard just to the east of the layout. This is probably coal traffic but there could be other options.
I have thought about an ex Rock Island route... maybe taken over by CNW... or ... ? I guess that the RI route would be the RR B to go with the Metra service???
I think that it's fair to say that I have locos for almost all the roads that would have been seen in Chicago C1985/6... and probably a few that wouldn't... That's everything from NS to Soo. (NS is pushing the envelope a bit... but so is CSX)!
It has occured to me that one way to provide a (weird) logic for all the different roads would be to theorise two different locations - one for one cluster of locos and another for a different cluster. So if someone comes up with a rough orientation that fits Chessie & Conrail and someone else comes up with BN and UP that's not a problem.
Thanks
Dave-the-Train I took a look back at my "Best (RR) place in Chicago 1980s please? " thread and have paid attention to the responses there... I'm still lost! Some of the satelite maps and arial pics you can get on the net are fantastic but when I try to trace/follow the tracks I end up dizzy and mind-boggled. I've learnt a huge amount from them though. So... The questions I've been asking about signalling a diamond have sorted out a pattern that makes some sort of sense. I have a diamond of two distinct RR with an interchange link between them. As sketched so far RR A runs East-West and RR B crosses it South West - North East. The link is in the south,south east quadrant. This orientation is arbitrary and could be rotated to fit to where real RR might be around a fictitious location. Traffic theory is that RR A runs heavy freight long distance, a little local freight and a few Amtraks. RR B runs mostly local freight, occasional; heavy freight detours and the tail end of a Metra shuttle service. Discussion has brought out the idea that RR B has a bridge traffic of RR C from the south west, over the link to RR A to terminate in a yard just to the east of the layout. This is probably coal traffic but there could be other options. I have thought about an ex Rock Island route... maybe taken over by CNW... or ... ? I guess that the RI route would be the RR B to go with the Metra service??? I think that it's fair to say that I have locos for almost all the roads that would have been seen in Chicago C1985/6... and probably a few that wouldn't... That's everything from NS to Soo. (NS is pushing the envelope a bit... but so is CSX)! It has occured to me that one way to provide a (weird) logic for all the different roads would be to theorise two different locations - one for one cluster of locos and another for a different cluster. So if someone comes up with a rough orientation that fits Chessie & Conrail and someone else comes up with BN and UP that's not a problem. Thanks
Dave,
Rich, here again. I previously responded to your earlier thread on Best RR Place in Chicago.
Satellite maps and arial pics are the best way to get your head screwed up when it comes to railroads in and around Chicago. I wish you could get your hands of Train Magazine from July, 2003. The issue is devoted to Chicago's railroad industry. In that issue, a map of particular interest to you is a 3-page centerfold titled Chicago Main Line Freight Routes, April 2003. It illustrates the entire Chicago area from State Line in Hammond Indiana in the southeast to UP Proviso Yard in the west to Rondout Tower in the Northwest. You might try to contact Kalmbach Publications to see if they can at least reproduce this map for you on a color printer and mail it to you.
Another alternative is the following web site
http://www.dhke.com/CRJ/
That web site shows diagrams at the 21 major Chicago area rail junctions.
The two junctions that most resemble your needs and wishes are Blue Island and State Line (Hammond).
It would help for you to list the roadnames that you have in your collection of engines, so we can try to match up these roadnames as much as possible with the junctions where they would most likely appear. For example, you mention an ex Rock Island route... maybe taken over by CNW. While it may have been possible to see a CNW engine on Rock Island tracks, it certainly was not typical since the two roadnames were in different parts of the Chicago area and had no interlocking facilities.
Perhaps, the closest thing to what you are trying to accomplish is the Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB), a railroad switching carrier, headquartered in Hammond Indiana with tracks connecting all 8 major railroads.
http://www.ihbrr.com/
Check out the Maps section at this web site.
The IHB trackage runs west from Hammond Indiana, through Blue Island to Chicago Ridge, then turning north through LaGrange and continuing north to Franklin Park, Illinois. Along the way, IHB interlocks or intersects with Norfolk Southern at Riverdale and again at Blue Island (and Rock Island/Metra), CSX at Blue Island, CN at Argo and Broadview, BNSF at McCook and LaGrange, UP at Proviso and CP at Franklin Park.
With significant compression, you could construct a prototype of the IHB and cover most, if not all, of your roadnames.
Rich
Alton Junction
Here is another great we site, if you are interested, showing all of the connecting railroads with the Indiana Harbor Belt:
http://www.dhke.com/ihbarchive/ihbconn.html
Hi!
I grew up in Chicago and spent a lot of my youth trackside at the C&NW racetrack on the northwest side (near California & Diversey). I also hit the Milwaukee line and saw a lot of the IC and others in the downtown area in the '50s and early '60s.
Recent excursions "back home" were pretty much unpleasant surprises. Multiple trackages have been reduced significantly, fences are everywhere, and much of the traffic (to me) is almost boring. But the kicker is that once reasonably safe areas are now almost war zones. And given that Illinois (and paricularly Chicago) seems to have forbidden law abiding citizens the right to protect themselves, my advice is to be very, very careful about where you go.
Sorry if the above seems critical, for I am just telling it like it is.
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central