I am building a layout involving different parts of chicago and i hit a snage in the planning. This layout will be mostly a modern running layout in chicago. I got a 2 1/2 ft by 29ft wall will have the ogilvie transportation center, union station, and a condenced Bnsf yard. a 1ft by 12ft wall will have the trains running behind a backdrop with a light house and water breakers in front of it. My center peninsula right now has downtown including the El loop and a train station representing a Metra ME district station( most likely Millennium Station or Van Buren Street). I even have a Walthers bascule bridge. I got an 2ft by about 18ft area that i need help figuring out. right now it has just the mainline running throught it. I was thinking of some switching but there is not much switching left in chicago. My posible ideas for switching include a brewery, grain elevator, and some warehouses. What do you think?
Well with the Chi town thought in mind Warehousing, the Brewery or even staging yard for the El trains not running sound like what one might find in that area to me anyway.
I did not think of chi town. Just looked it up on google maps and it also has an Intermodal yard. I think i have found the last peice to chicago. To bad i do not own any engines from that railroad that ownes the yard but i can manage.
Well in reference to the locos you could always decorate your own locos. I'm sure that examples are readily available. Good luck sounds like fun; and I can't wait to see pictures of your progress
I'm confused by this post, because it seems to be implying that Chi-town is some specific part of Chicago. I must be missing something. :tb-wacky: Anyway, there still is some industry in Chicago, though little of it is in the central business district you've indicated. Intermodal is a great choice and there are yards literally throughout the city and near suburbs. And I wouldn't worry about which line "owns it." You're already doing an amalgam of the town, The only Class one that doesn't have major facilities within the City and surrounding area is KCS. Combine that with Belt Railway, Indiana Harbor Belt and the transfer runs that would and do occur on all of them and you can have anything. I grew up in the Oak Park River Forest area along the C&NW west line. I regularly saw Conrail, NS, CSX, UP, SP, C&NW (duh). Then just a mile or 2 the other way was the ex-Milw. with Soo, Bandits, CP and to the south, the BN racetrack, to the west Proviso, Indiana Harbor Belt, Wisconsin Central went through town which became CN, etc etc etc. Don't let paint schemes limit you.
The funny part is I have atleast one engine from evey major railroad going into chicago except the railroad that ownes that paticular intermodel yard. I own BNSF,UP,CN,CP engines but not any NS engines. Well chi-town is listed as a neightborhood just like "The loop" where most of my center peninsula is located. When i was in chicago this summer i saw it advertised as a specific area at many places in chicago.
I'm with YoHo, I think you may have gotten confused or misled with seeing "Chi-Town" during your visit. I live along the Harvard sub of the CNW, now UP. Chi-Town is a slang term used by many Chicago and Chicago area businesses and in news and travel stories. The only Chicago neighborhood name close to that name would be Chinatown, and there is a rail yard near there. A more accurate Google would be on "Chicago Neighborhood Map". A suggestion for your open space could be a suburban Metra station to go along with one of your downtown stations. Some are only platforms, some are small buildings and you could put a few buildings around it to represent the suburb "downtown" area.
Another possibility for your open space would be the industrial park area that makes up the eastern side of Elk Grove Village. Located on the western edge of O'Hare International Airport, it contains a number of different warehouses served by rail.
Your correct about the term or name Chi-town, that is what the locals called Chicago back in the 80's when I was stationed there so that is what I still call it. As far as the open space; the Metra station I think is an excellent idea; also you could always have a nice city park there. Scenery for a layout along with being a slice of reality is kind of like building a Sim City. What do the people require that the Railroad brings to that location. Parks Rail Stations, Stores, Schools, Libraries, Industries, Police/Fire, Utility Companies. Or as you found with Google; try Google Earth and go with Prototypical and build the structures in that area. Just for a few examples.:tb-rolleyes:
And of course don't forget to elevate parts of the line in the dense neighborhoods. I spent the first 26 years of my life in the greater Chicagoland area. chi-town is slang for the entire place, not a neighborhood.
As an example, this is on the UP Geneva Sub in Oak Park Il http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/9/7/3/3973.1186977600.jpg the green line also runs on the same elevated section until the split off in the city in the Austin neighborhood.
The other idea i had was to make brookfield. its a stop on the metra line that comes out of Union station to Arora. Brookfield also has an BNSF intermodel yard. This way i could have up to 5 metra stations on the layout Plus the El stations. Based on where i think the tracks will cross to that side i might be possible to to put part of the high school/football field and the Brookfield zoo on an edge of the layout. It might be only 6 to 8 inch of both but it would add to the layout i think. So in this set up i have the Hollywood Station(brookfield), Union Station, Millennium Station or Van Buren Street(or both), and ogilvie transportation center. With the space i have for the EL, i am thinking of atleast 3 stations. So eight different stations would look cool on the layout. With not many Passenger cars on the marked that i can use, i guess i will need to start getting better at custom passenger car painting and detailing.
Sounds like an ambitious project! Since you're going modern day, you'll only need commuter cabs and coaches or Amtrak. Kato and Walthers have both produced bi-level commuter cars for Metra/RTA service in HO. If that's your scale, you might find them online, at train shows or even the LHS might have one or two laying around. If you want to stretch "modern" a bit, Walthers had a series of the CNW green and yellow commuter cabs and coaches for push-pull operations. They look great hooked up to a Proto 2000 E6! I think there are Metra locomotives (red and blue) out there as well.
It is modern day HO scale. Right now on the market there is only 1 metra engine from walthers. Kato has a engine and some passerger cars both of the end of the rta era. The kato cars are still used today but there is not much left. When i was down in chicago over the summer i took some pics of the cars. I hope to custom make some cars in the future. I only problem i see right now is that the best cars on the market for the metra cars is walthers amtrak cars. there is no undecorated cars of that type so i do not know yet how to make them into metra with out stripping the nice paint job yet.
Yes, the smooth side, narrow window bi-levels are the oldest in the fleet. They are actually carryovers from when the individual railroads ran commuter service. I don't recall any manufacturer coming out with the fluted side stainless steel versions and especially not the recent large window cars. Adding fluted sides to a smooth side would be a significant kit bash. It might be easiest like you said, repainting any of the Kato or Walthers commuter cars that you can find, new or used. Have fun!
I would think the real challenge would be the EL equipment. I remember back in the 60's my parents and I would visit my aunt in Chicago. We would ride the IC from south Chicago into the loop, then take the EL out to Lincoln Park Zoo. My aunts apartment was a couple of blocks from there.
Actually thats the easy one. Based on my trip to chicago the el equipment looks simular to the walthers subway cars. I picked up a silver set online and that will act as my el train. The paint and style is close enough to the real thing. The most dificult part of the el will be the viaduct part. I know there is a kit out there for it but it dues not look sturdy enough in my mind. I have started a while back making my own out of styreen. I will post some pics soon of the prototype pieces.
