CNW Chicago Division Progress - 2025

[eric]

The fun part about a route that's not done... there's nothing holding you back from fixing big mistakes.

And this is a big one....

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The original build of Olgilvie was long before photo imagery for Terrtex. What I didn't realize is how skewed it was, but it's pretty obvious now.

Another problem... I'd built it using 5m track spacing, and the rest of the route has been migrated to 4m track spacing up until that point.

Time to bite the bullet....

( Continued from https://www.trainsim.com/forums/foru...ss-2021/page11 )

[scfe_fan]

The fun part about a route that's not done... there's nothing holding you back from fixing big mistakes.

And this is a big one....

capture_5100058.jpg

The original build of Olgilvie was long before photo imagery for Terrtex. What I didn't realize is how skewed it was, but it's pretty obvious now.

Another problem... I'd built it using 5m track spacing, and the rest of the route has been migrated to 4m track spacing up until that point.

Time to bite the bullet....

Eric if you want, you can use my shape for Union Station. Or I can help build some shapes for the Harvard


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[eric]

Here is the ending point where I'd adjusted the track spacing coming from the west... the Clinton Curve. Four tracks from both directions come together to form six on a curve.

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Those six tracks curve and then form the station throat to Olgilvie along with a huge crossover plant at Lake Street:

capture_5100061.jpg


Destroying all that work.... was a rush. It was stuff I'd done almost 15 years ago, and instead of having 16 tracks, I had to settle for 14 because that was all that fit.

But moving to the smaller spacing.... maybe?

Getting the correct north-south alignment, I set a row of correctly spaced tracks across the bottom to check....

capture_5100062.jpg

.... and all 16 tracks not only fit, but they even line up with the train shed imagery:
capture_5100063.jpg
Ladders go fairly quickly, but the crossover switches and the curves are going to have some challenges. Might take a couple weeks.

The train platforms and train shed I'd built ten years ago were modular as opposed to a single shape, so putting pieces back together should be without a lot of drama as well.

[eric]

Eric if you want, you can use my shape for Union Station. Or I can help build some shapes for the Harvard

Appreciate that.

I should also get the W file from you for the south end of Union Station, so I can get the north tracks lined up cleaner.

[scfe_fan]

Appreciate that.

I should also get the W file from you for the south end of Union Station, so I can get the north tracks lined up cleaner.

I can definitely send that over. One thing I just thought of though is that my model of Union Station has the new tunnel built over it so it wouldn't work for the older C&NW/early Metra eras


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[eric]

Putting the train shed back together took.... about 28 minutes. Would have gone faster, but I got a phone call in the middle of working on it.

You might notice I used 50m pieces of track here..... That's because the shed objects are also 50m long.

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Using TSRE's "copy pos/rot" function, I can then match these up perfectly to the 2T and 1T pieces. They're also mapped to a specific static detail level so that WFH could rebuild this on the fly if needed.

From here, it's essentially a yard ladder to connect the 16 tracks to the 6 lead tracks in the throat.

Spacing wise... this is how close the trains should be in the train shed, with barely enough room to walk between them. And... it's why I use 4m track centers (Scalerail Yard Tracks and MTracks).

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[eric]

When someone says procedural track splines are the solution, this will be my use case to prove them right or wrong....



And this part is only half-done -- the outer tracks cross from track 1 to track 6 and track 6 to track 1 within the same footprint.

After that, there's a ladder that branches out in both directions to create the station platforms.

[eric]

Ah well. The image for that last post got lost, but it's probably a good thing. Here's the almost-finished product for the throat.

capture_5100074.jpg

This is an example of having to substitute reality with what works in the sim. The real track layout was resulting in having turnouts on top of each other to form the double slips, and the TDB can't handle overlapping junctions. So....the crossover in the foreground is fictional, and a few double slips are now single slips and a few are outright diamonds.

The way the station works in reality shouldn't be impacted.... Operationally, the two lines at the left are the Kenosha Sub, the center two are the Harvard Sub, and the right two are the Geneva Sub. Within the station, the Kenosha line departures are usually the high number platforms, the Geneva line are the low platforms, and the Harvard is in the middle. That allows multiple departures at the same time.

Still more to do, but the worst seems to be done.

Lining up those six tracks with the platforms..... that's something I took into consideration when I set them. In real life, platforms 5 and 6 are the longest at 300m (or 985 ft) which is equal to 11 85 foot cars plus part of a 12th. Today, that's where the 11 car express trains that only run on the Northwest Line typically get platformed. On other tracks, they fit but can't open the doors on the car closest to the engine.

In the past, that's where the City trains operated with the UP were platformed. Those operated with 11-12 cars plus 2-3 mail and express cars during the CNW days. The longest non-City train was the 13 car Gold Coast Pacific (Trains 23 and 24), however those numbers usually include 1-3 mail and express cars.

My guess... as mail and express would have been loaded in the pocket tracks currently used for fueling, those were moved to tracks 5 and 6 closer to departure time.

capture_5100075.jpg

And yes, this has the 1980's train shed that's there today.

For backdating, I also have a shape that is a direct replacement. Maybe I'll show that in a a later screenshot.

[cfriedri]

Nice track work, Eric! Just rode the train into Ogilvie today and you've definitely got the right feel!

[eric]

Coming back together slowly but surely. Tracks on the left were set a little too far back, so I'll be re-laying those about 15-20m back, which isn't as bad to do because the diagonal spacing will remain the same. Trial and error....

The black platforms are also modular, in multiple lengths matching the tracks, lined up using the Copy Pos/Rot function in TSRE. The axis point of the track is shared with the axis point on the platform, so for these single-track platforms, the orientation of the track matters. Using the X key helps most of the time...

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The reason I show the mistakes... because we all make them.

Laying the same track over and over isn't unusual, even for those of us working on routes for 10-20 years. Don't get frustrated if you have to do the same thing as a new route builder. It's part of aiming for perfection and not just accepting the first result.

[eric]

Nice track work, Eric! Just rode the train into Ogilvie today and you've definitely got the right feel!

Thanks... the first couple iterations of the route I built while I was living in Arizona, and then I moved to Chicago for jobs that were located downtown, and got to spend a lot of time crawling around the train shed as well as riding in and out on a daily basis.

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[jbtower]

I can't believe with your full plate that you've had time to work on this. I wish I had a dollar for every trip I've taken in and out of both the old station and the new station! Your trackwork both for the CNW and the Milwaukee Road has to be a headache. Looking good Eric I look forward to the day you release the update it's going to be awesome

[eric]

Finally doing some fit-checks. The four tracks in the upper right corner are currently used for engine refueling, but 50 years ago this is where mail/express cars would be staged and a switcher or two.

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The goal was to get two 85 foot baggage cars into the smallest track, which seems to have been a success.

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Fun's over with the station tracks now.

Time to start getting the throat lead re-connected to the mains...

[eric]

One more fit check with the City of Los Angeles...

13 cars plus two engines. Better than I expected on the intercity tracks.

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Clinton Street curve.... the entire City of Los Angeles fits on it and then some....

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[CSRX]

And here I thought the Union Station in Portland, Maine was compact with tracks for passenger cars, baggage/RPO's, switcher stubs and fuel/sand tracks. Thats looking good Eric!