Modeling your local area


If I was to model my area I'd be doing the CP run from just North of Woodstock ON down through Ingersoll ON on to eventually Tillsonburg ON.

A few features I'd have---

1) Valley--Thames R. between Woodstock through to Ingersoll with VERY winding streambed.

2) Quarries from Beachville to Ingersoll--I'd be seriously looking at Lance Mindheim's Monon route with the quarry face on the fascia

3) lots of GP7's and 9u's

4) yards that show up a lot of history--on the ground. Woodstock's yard seems to just have the turntable area just barely poking out of a few corners--

5) Ingersoll--with the CN and CP paralleling each other with a bridge for county rd 9/2 crossing over the Thames R as well as level crossing both

----and so on and so forth---
 
rock4329 said:
To the two Chicago guys who are trying to figure out what 1% of Chicago to model:

This is EASY, Model the IHB main line! Why?? IHB crosses just about every other railroad in Chicago, and just about every other railroad uses IHB's track to some extent. That is the option I'm going to use when I start a layout. That way, you're not too limited which railroads you can run. Only problem is which era do you want to model??? I'm going to model mid 70's to early 80's.

Another option for good Chicago modelling would be to model BRC's line and yard. Everyone uses that, too.
Click to expand...

there is a small line based on Cermak in the city. They use an old, tagged up switch motor that's parked in a vacant lot, with a trailer for an office. i think they get their cars off the BNSF. The tracks run right next to Cermak in the sidewalk. Compact, with lots of curves. Think it even crosses a lift bridge. And the tracks run through the middle of a couple intersections, down some narrow alleys and side streets, and eventually up to Lumber street, even running next to the Marina. Most of this track is apparently abandoned, but it doesn't take much imagination to picture what it was like once. just my two cents! Google Satellite has a great aerial view of it. Can't figure out how to get the link to work, but if your curious, just look around where Cermak and Canaport meet, think it's Cermak and S Morgan. If i ever end up modeling something around here, that would probably be my inspiration
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rock, well I'm not really trying to figure out how to model Chicago, I let that ship sail long ago but your suggestion of the IHB or the Belt still would require a massive amount of real estate to do. The Belt yard is a good four mile long. Actually the IHB has ripped up some it's track very close to me and now uses the Belt right of way. You are absolutely right though about being to run a great variety of different roads on it. By the way, check out the Belt Lines web site. Lots of great photos and information.
 
the town im in only has about 1000 people. i do believe that is including the peoples pets to. it would only take a quarter of my layout to do the hole town. not to mention we only have a csx mainline that pretty much splits the buisness from housing and there is a small spure for a tanker fill that gets used about once a month so I just used small parts of the town and areas all around ky to model my railroad I even have buildings in ohio in mine So just do what appeals to you if you like mountains add them this is your dream. I personally get bored seeing other peoples towns so my layout is my dream place to live and i build it one scene at a time.
 
Trouble said:
there is a small line based on Cermak in the city. They use an old, tagged up switch motor that's parked in a vacant lot, with a trailer for an office. i think they get their cars off the BNSF.
Click to expand...

Is that the Central Illinois (CIRY)? I've seen an old tagged switcher picking up cars in the morning from BNSF Ashland Ave yard.

RE: modeling the BRC's Clearing Yard. I'd love to do it but I'd need a building the size of Dallas Stadium to house the thing. ;)
 
Hey guys, When I mentioned IHB or BRC, I wasn't meaning to model it track for track, or mile for mile. Do a layout loosely BASED on it. Put in a couple of major spots, like Dolton Jct., or Blue Island Crossing. And if you do BRC's Clearing Yard, do a smaller (much) representation of it. I do know you could never do the ENTIRE railroad, just a portion. My plan for my N scale layout will be based on IHB between Dolton and Blue Island Jct. I have to come out with a good track plan that will be a feesable representation of it. Not going for EXACT.
 
rock4329 said:
Hey guys, When I mentioned IHB or BRC, I wasn't meaning to model it track for track, or mile for mile. Do a layout loosely BASED on it. Put in a couple of major spots, like Dolton Jct., or Blue Island Crossing. And if you do BRC's Clearing Yard, do a smaller (much) representation of it. I do know you could never do the ENTIRE railroad, just a portion. My plan for my N scale layout will be based on IHB between Dolton and Blue Island Jct. I have to come out with a good track plan that will be a feesable representation of it. Not going for EXACT.
Click to expand...

I don't think anybody seriously thought you meant to model the BRC exactly. That's why there's a wink at the end of my post...
 
Ya know, now that I think of it, another good line to model in Chicago would be the ex-Milw trackage in near downtown on the north side. Wasn't that called Goose Island, or something on that order?? It too went down streets and tight alleys.
 
rock4329 said:
Ya know, now that I think of it, another good line to model in Chicago would be the ex-Milw trackage in near downtown on the north side. Wasn't that called Goose Island, or something on that order?? It too went down streets and tight alleys.
Click to expand...


YEah, goose island line i think. they still operate north of goose island i think, came across some photos of them crossing some strange swing bridge to work i think Finkl Steel. Think someone did a photographic tour of the former trackage, showing what's left. if i find it i'll post a link, it was really cool


Beachbum said:
Is that the Central Illinois (CIRY)? I've seen an old tagged switcher picking up cars in the morning from BNSF Ashland Ave yard.

RE: modeling the BRC's Clearing Yard. I'd love to do it but I'd need a building the size of Dallas Stadium to house the thing. ;)
Click to expand...


might be. it parks right off the street. sometimes you will see a boxcar or whatever in there with it. almost surreal to see an old switcher just sitting like an abandoned car behind the fence. i was going to do a sorta freelanced combination of a couple short lines around the city before i saw that florida based East Rail article in model railroader, and realised i liked palm trees and brightly painted buildings over weedy empty lots and dreary alleys
 
Yeah, Rock I know you didn't mean the whole railroad, but I'ld love to see your track plan. Trying to capture the flavor of the area would be hard in a workable space.

A guy here did what I think was in the Goose Island area in N scale. I saw it at shows twice. It was only about a foot wide but in two long (8ft?) sections. He ran the street with the trackage down the center. Since the street is one of the odd diagonals overlaying Chicago's streets square grid, all these big building were at strange angles to the edge of the layout. It was very cool. I believe it made the cover of Moder Railroader back in the 80's.
 
We often try to model huge areas, compressing so much into a too-small space. I chose (although actual construction has yet to start) to model a very small area. It will be a quarry and the short, narrow-gauge line that moves the rock to a processing plant. I'm setting it in the Texas Hill Country, some 75 miles from where I live.

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15511

I like the scenery in my area, but needed the limestone (the commodity my fictional company mines and sells), which is not immediately around here. If you model your area, you always have the advantage of looking at the scenery as you drive to & from work. Your research is much more difficult if you live in Illinois, and you model, say, a South African railway.
 
JazzDad said:
Your research is much more difficult if you live in Illinois, and you model, say, a South African railway.
Click to expand...

True, but with Google Earth, Google maps, Bing, etc, and birdseye and street views things are getting easier.

Ironic. Years ago I asked a BN guy if there was any way to get some track charts directly from the railroad. He said no, that releasing any charts, etc would be a security breach. Now I can zoom down into a yard and see how much rust is on the top of a boxcar with my PC.
 
Beachbum said:
Years ago I asked a BN guy if there was any way to get some track charts directly from the railroad. He said no, that releasing any charts, etc would be a security breach. Now I can zoom down into a yard and see how much rust is on the top of a boxcar with my PC.
Click to expand...

I'm a local area modeler, and the UP couldn't have made getting an extremely useful track chart much easier - they posted it on a Life Safety Diagram near a yard entrance.
 
You should be seeing a lot more signs like that. The FRA is requiring that yards that handle more than a certain limit of hazardous materials (I think it's something like 10,000 tons a year) will have to post first responder schematics at all yard entrances. In theory, they aren't "maps", so that makes Homeland Security happy. They really should be a big help when you're getting a lot of agencies responding to a major incident. It sure would have been nice to have a schematic of the Roseville Yard in 1973, when about 200 cars filled with artillery shells and other ordinance exploded for four days. We got called over for mutual aid and, as a railfan, I probably knew more about the yard layout than the incident commander. We had everything from 50 caliber rounds to 155 mm artillery shells flying over our heads the whole time. It's a miracle that no one was killed, although the town of Antelope, hard by the yard, was leveled.
 
I grew up just a few miles west of the bn/up joint like in Colorado Springs. now living in Durango and working as a trainmen on the DASNGRR the places I live are pretty spectacular to model.
 
The county where I live is pretty diverse. Sprawling suburbia, brand new town centers and shopping malls, huge international airport (Dulles), Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, corporate offices for lots of Fortune 500 corporations (mostly defense contractors), picturesque historic small towns, rolling farmland, wooded wilderness, wineries, horse farms, Mount Weather (an underground government installation built into a mountain), and the Appalachian Trail running along a mountain ridge bordering the county on one side, and the Potomac River bordering the county on another side. Theres even a ferry that transports about 20 vehicles at a time across the river to Maryland.

But, there are no rails anywhere in the county.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top