Metra's Electric District is the 5th busiest commuter rail line in Chicago, and the only one of which is electrified. It runs for 31 miles from Millenium Station in Chicago to University Park in the suburbs, and has a total of 49 stations, most of which are of wooden construction. The Route In TSW, the route would ideally be the entirety of the Metra Electric District. This includes the full 31 mile mainline from Millenium Station to University Park, the 5 mile branch to Blue Island, and the other 4 mile branch to South Chicago (93rd Street). Metra's operations on this line include all-stops, express, and semi-fast trains, plus NICTD's South Shore Line and Canadian National's freight trains. Southbound (away from Chicago) Northbound (towards Chicago) The Illinois Central completed its mainline from Chicago to New Orleans by the 1870s, and had developed a large commuter network. When Central Station was completed in 1893, the IC's former main station, Randolph Street, became the hub for the commuter lines. By the end of the First World War, there were over 300 steam departures daily from Randolph Street. In 1919, the first of many improvements was made when all but one of the at-grade crossings on the main line were eliminated. In 1926, the line was electrified at 1.5kV DC, and new electric multiple units were ordered. In 1971, a replacement set of bilevel Highliner cars were ordered from the St. Louis Car Company, which served until 2016. In 1967, the Chicago RTD began funding the commuter service, and electrification was extended a short distance south to where the line ends today at University Park. The line was purchased in its entirety by the newly-formed Metra in 1986. Starting from 2005, Nippon Sharyo began delivery of the Highliner II, which were also purchased by the South Shore Line. The route is mostly 4 tracks, with 2 for commuter service and the other 2 being for Canadian National freight trains and Amtrak's City of New Orleans, Illini, and Saluki trains to Union Station. In some places, there can be as many as 6-8 tracks, however. The South Chicago branch is 2 tracks all the way, while the Blue Island branch and the main line from Richton Park to University Park are both just 1 track. Freight travels mostly to and from the large yard at Homewood, although I believe there are some local industries along the line. Services The route sees commuter service from both Metra and the South Shore Line, and Amtrak service from Union Station to Homewood. From Millennium Station, Metra has 80 weekday departures and South Shore has 20. Of these 30 go to South Chicago, 21 go to Blue Island, and 29 go all the way to University Park. South Shore trains use Metra Electric tracks as far as 111th Street/Pullman, then branch off and proceed another 70 or so miles out to South Shore, Indiana. There are 84 inbound trains daily to Millennium Station as well, with the breakdown of services being roughly similar. 30 trains come from South Chicago, 21 come from Blue Island, and 33 originate at University Park. Canadian National also operates a large number of freight trains south from Homewood to other major hubs such as Memphis. They also run a number of local freights to service industries at various points along the line. While not really in the scope of the route, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Indiana Harbor Belt all operate yards close to the main line, and interchange moves would be somewhat common. Amtrak runs to Union Station via the St. Charles Air Line, and as such would not really fit on the route. As it is, there are only 2 rounds trips daily - the City of New Orleans and the Illini and Saluki, which are different names given to the northbound and southbound runs. Important Locations Millenium Station South Chicago/93rd Street Blue Island Homewood Markham Yard (Homewood) University Park Rolling Stock Metra livery NICTD/South Shore livery Nippon Sharyo Highliner II Built by Nippon Sharyo from 2005, they are now the primary EMUs on the line. Metra operates the largest fleet, but the South Shore Line has bought a few to bolster their roster. The route would ideally come with both liveries as I do not believe there are any major differences between the two. The bodyshell is based on that of the Nippon Sharyo gallery car. In real life, the South Shore do operate a second type of EMU, but I personally don't think it warrants the dev time because it's not a central part of the route. EMD SD70M-2 The main freight workhorse of the route, Canadian National rosters 190 of these. They are seen mostly on road freights, so on this route that would be between Homewood and University Park. Built for CN between 2007 and 2011, they are some of EMD's latest freight units on the market. EMD GP38-2 Everyone's favorite road switcher is back, with a vengeance. Canadian National might have purchased the Illinois Central in 1999, but a surprising amount of locomotives are still kicking around in the old IC paint to this day. This would run the local and yard switching services from Homewood. Freight Stock The freight rolling stock included in CN: Oakville Subdivision would honestly be fine, although there are two additions to the fleet I'd like to see. Firstly, a different type of hopper other than the Trinity one that's come with everything so far. Secondly, a different type of boxcar. Both of these things would go a long way towards improving the realism of the route by a large amount. Another way to do this is to repaint the boxcars into a variety of fictional leaser liveries with different colors, just to get that traditional mixed train look. One other thing I would like to see are the double stack container cars from Heavy Haul. Final Thoughts While at a first glance the Metra Electric District doesn't seem like it has a ton of replayability, I think the variety of services and branching nature of the route makes it an ideal candidate for TSW. Additional functionality could be brought to the route by using substitution from the Oakville Subdivision on the GP38-2 services to provide a more modern look for the route with the CN/IC liveries side by side. The route also brings some possible DLC opportunities, such as the P42 or the Siemens Charger that Amtrak now uses on their Midwest trains, and additional CN locomotives. As always, feel free to leave feedback below.
A fairly basic list of changes to the cab car to turn it into a Highliner is as follows: - New bogies - Removal of the low level doors, replaced by high level doors w/ low level trapdoor - Addition of a gyralight - Removal of the front ladder - Moving the ditchlights up - New couplers - Pantograph mount on roof - New underframe - Movement of the logo plate to the other end of the car - New cab - New interior Plus many more that I can't think of now. It's not quite as easy as slap a pantograph on it and call it a day, although it makes for a pretty good base. I don't think the South Shore Line should be included beyond the stops they make on the mainline as there are no good stopping points between South Bend and where it meets with the Metra line. Plus, it's not really the point of the route - having the NICTD Highliner would just be to add some AI variety and bolster the amount of traffic the route gets.
Yes this sounds like a dream come true. DTG already has most of the stock and licensing needed to make the route (CN OAKVILLE Subdivision dlc can serve for CN logo license and liveries), the CN locos are already there, DTG could tune up the gallery car from PC to meet the Highliner ll's specs, and since they already have the Amtrak license, I don't think that would be much of a problem. The only problem would be to see how DTG could fit in the metra logo without a license
I would hope that DTG would be able to get Metra licensing this time around, because if they didn't there would almost certainly be an endless stream of posts about how "DTG is so lazy they couldn't even be bothered to put logos on the trains!1!!1!11" or similar. Because TSW is a different game, Metra might be more open to a licensing deal of some kind.
I think this would be a great proposal, but DTG doens't have Metra licensing... which leads me to a different idea. They DO have CN licensing. This DOES include licenses for railroads CN has bought out, like the B&LE... ...so... could an IC Electric route in the 1970's work? Rolling stock could be the original highliners and a GP38. DLC could be a GP11 and the older, 1920's style suburban/interurban cars that were still active then. Same benefits of this proposal, length is still realistic for DTG, there's both freight and passenger, there's some branches and a very busy timetable.
Or maybe a third party can step in and make an unbranded version, like they did for TS20’s Racetrack route
To be honest, I have no clue how CN's licensing works. The B&LE for TS1 got taken down because the CN license apparently didn't apply to the Bessemer & Lake Erie trademarks. I would assume that Illinois Central is probably the same way. Another problem with doing a 70s route is that you have to do all new freight stock - nothing we have right now is really era appropriate. That being said, however, I would love to run down an IC era electric district
Oh, I didn't know that about the B&LE... yeah, then in that case, this probably wouldn't work either. And you're right about the freight stock... maybe instead the route could just come with, well, those 2 images, and freight could come with a DLC, kinda like the BR Heavy freight pack in the UK. But... yeah, I don't really know how licensing works either
I would love to see this route, and maybe we could see some of the eje route and locos in the route! the CN matteson loop would look very cool in the route, this could possibly be tsw's most popular route and biggest route! but here are the locomotives and rolling stock that we would need! Locomotives: SD70M-2 EMD SD70 (CN/ IC LIVERIES) EMD SD75I GE ET44AC (TIER 4 GEVO) EJE EMD SD38-2 IF POSSIBLE (C40-8) CN ROLLING STOCK: INTERMODAL TANK CAR Box Car Grain Car Centerbeam flat car lastly, AutoRack The AMTRAK P42 AND THE SOUTH SHORE/ METRA ELECTRIC COACHES SOUTH SHORE ALSO HAS A FREIGHT LINE LOCOMOTIVES: GP38-2 coil car would be needed if this was included!
I see you’ve copied this proposal and posted it elsewhere on the forum as your own proposal. Not cool.
just trying to get it out there, but sorrry for not asking. I do think that if we work together, to keep posting this route, dtg/ tsw will see it and make it!
Yeah, uh, don't do that. Please. If you want this route in TSW and want to write another proposal for some reason, don't steal the first paragraph of someone else's.
CN ET44ACs or ES44ACs and the SC44 Chargers are a must for this route. I believe CN has ordered 20 SD70ACe-T4s as well, so maybe in the future these could be added as a DLC.
