Chicagoland rabbit hole

[scfe_fan]

My Metra gallery car project has spiraled into a rabbit hole of sorts, with me modeling not just the Nippon Sharyo Gallery cars, but also the Nippon Sharyo Highliner II's for the Metra Electric distric, as well as both the single level and bilevel cars Nippon Sharyo has made for the South Shore Line/NICTD. As I work through all of these projects in a rotation (to prevent burnout) I'm learning more and more about blender and may end up completely redoing certain parts of the Gallery cars prior to release. Meanwhile, here are some screenshots of recent work on the South Shore Line equipment.

Open Rails 2024-11-30 01-05-24.png Open Rails 2024-11-02 10-06-57.png Open Rails 2024-11-30 01-05-46.png

[chrydeka]

This looks awesome! Maybe some day in the future you can make the entire South Shore route with the highliners and single level Nippon Sharyo cars.

I would help out with sounds if I could, but I don't know how to make horns nor bell audios for open rails. It is something I'd like to learn though.

[scfe_fan]

This looks awesome! Maybe some day in the future you can make the entire South Shore route with the highliners and single level Nippon Sharyo cars.

I would help out with sounds if I could, but I don't know how to make horns nor bell audios for open rails. It is something I'd like to learn though.

I'm currently working on the route between Millennium Station in Chicago and Carroll Ave in Michigan City at which point I will then extend it east to South Bend Airport. I have it set in the time period of right before the "Double Track NWI" project started because I want to include the street running in Michigan City. Also the sound files aren't that hard to source as most electric EMU's sound generally similar and NICTD uses Nathan P3's which I already have in these two trains as I work on them.

[crsd40-2]

this is cool like actually. south shore gets barely any represented other then the small part that's on the monon.

[eric]

I was wondering what was going on. South Shore would be quite the addition. Feel free to recycle anything I've got that might fit.

[rfranzosa]

Great news. I'm a big fan of the South Shore. I remember decades ago when RMC had an article on modeling the ex-NYC freight motors… captivating!

Also once rode from a business trip in Kenosha to South Bend on Metra/NICTD to get to my daughter's graduation from Notre Dame 😊


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[scfe_fan]

Great news. I'm a big fan of the South Shore. I remember decades ago when RMC had an article on modeling the ex-NYC freight motors… captivating!

Also once rode from a business trip in Kenosha to South Bend on Metra/NICTD to get to my daughter's graduation from Notre Dame 😊


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Watch out Rick you're showing your age! I chose the South Shore because of my vested interest in the Chicago area and the fact that the South Shore is still known as "America's Last Interurban". As such, it has several features that you don't see very often in MSTS/Open Rails routes. Most notably street running and functioning gauntlet tracks, BOTH of which I plan on including. And the overhead wires are a separate shape created to take advantage of TSRE's autoplacement feature to allow both electrified and non electrified track to be visible. Significant progress was made tonight on ALL of my rolling stock/motive power projects when I figured out how to animate the doors in blender. I've already animated the doors for the NICTD and Metra Bilevels.

[rfranzosa]

Watch out Rick you're showing your age! I chose the South Shore because of my vested interest in the Chicago area and the fact that the South Shore is still known as "America's Last Interurban". As such, it has several features that you don't see very often in MSTS/Open Rails routes. Most notably street running and functioning gauntlet tracks, BOTH of which I plan on including. And the overhead wires are a separate shape created to take advantage of TSRE's autoplacement feature to allow both electrified and non electrified track to be visible. Significant progress was made tonight on ALL of my rolling stock/motive power projects when I figured out how to animate the doors in blender. I've already animated the doors for the NICTD and Metra Bilevels.

Sounds great!


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[Orbita]

Glad to see these interurban railroads getting some attention. Rode the CSS&SB around 13 years ago. I have fond memories riding from the Chicago science museum in a very crowded Nippon Sharyo single level. So crowded I had to ride in the vestibule temporarily. At 13 it was a thrill flying down past those busy Chicago yards with bright orange GP38-2's and seeing the old Metra Highliners.

Definitely gonna keep watching this project for sure.