Route Proposal: Amtrak's Wolverine & Blue Water Trains + Norfolk Southern Chicago Line

So for a possible Passenger/Freight Route for Train Sim World 2 could be Amtrak's Wolverine and Blue Water trains, which both start in Chicago, and run on the same line till Battle Creek, where the Blue Water splits to Port Huron, while the Wolverine goes to the Detroit Area.

-Wolverine (3 trains each way)


-Blue Water (1 train each way)

Ideally, I think there are 2 possible areas to focus on this route

1. Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line
The 1st area the route could be set in is on the Norfolk Southern Chicago Line between Chicago and Porter, Indiana, with the ideal end point in the west being Chicago's Union Station and running as far as New Buffalo, a route length of about 62 rail miles.

Not only would this have 4 stops for the Wolverine and 2 stops for the Blue Water, but I also believe 3 other Amtrak Trains share part of this route as well, The Capitol Limited to Washington DC, the Lake Shore Limited to New York and Boston, and the Pere Marquette to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Adding the Capitol Limited would allow it to be layered into the Sand Patch Grade Timetable as well.

-Capitol Limited



-Lake Shore Limited



-Pere Marquette



The line would also host Norfolk Southern as the primary Freight Railroad on the line with a handful of yards between Chicago and Porter.


2. Amtrak's Michigan Line
The 2nd possible route is Amtrak's owned Michigan Line from Porter, Indiana, to Kalamazoo, Michigan. With the possible station stops being between New Buffalo, Michigan to Kalamazoo, Michigan. This line is Amtrak's longest own route outside of the NEC, it has also been upgraded to "Higher Speed" rail, with the max speed of trains being 110mph. However I'm not sure if this line still sees freight traffic, if not, then another part of the line could be picked.


Locomotives:

-Amtrak P42DC


-Amtrak SC44 Charger "Midwest" Scheme


-Amtrak Horizon Cars


-Amtrak Amfleet Cafe Car


-Norfolk Southern ES44's


-Norfolk Southern SD40-2 High Hoods


-Norfolk Southern Geeps (Gp38-2,GP50,GP33ECO etc)




Depending on how long till we get the route, the new Amtrak Siemens Venture Cars could also be added to the route (They just started testing these cars today)


However, I'm not really versed in the area, since I live out west, so if anyone has a better suggestion for these trains, feel free to go ahead and suggest them.

 

Thinking about this a little more, and I think the NS Chicago Line would be the best route, as this would include starting and ending services at Chicago Union Station, as well as adding in Amtaks Coach Yard in Chicago, in which we could reintroduce the Sw1000r, or add new locos like the Dash 8-32 or other switchers.

 

Great stuff! I have ridden the Amtrak/Via Rail from Chicago to Toronto years ago. The routes across Indiana into Michigan or Ohio would be fun to drive, lots of traffic, Amtrak, NS and CSX.

 

This could be a great route. I really want the Siemens Charger or Genesis P42DC in TSW2. I'd also like to suggest the NS SD70ACu, ET44AC, SD70M-2, ES40DC, and C40-9/C40-9W.

 

Great idea, love this route. Either one sounds good. I really like the ability to run NS and Amtrak on the first, and I love the high speed sections on the second. In any case, seeing the P42 come to TSW2 would be incredible.

Also, did you notice in the second picture in the Amtrak Michigan line section that the "Michigan District" sign still has the pointless arrow logo on it? It would be little details like this that would make the route exceptional.

God bless and take care.

treid09

 

I really miss American content (funny to hear that from russian, isn't it? ), your suggestion in terms of routes and rolling stock is just amazing! I hope we will see some of this in the game (especially the P42DC and SC44)

 

Yes! Great proposal!

 

I think this is a great proposal. I live near Amtrak's Michigan line to Detroit. The only problem with the lines in Michigan is that there isn't a lot of traffic outside of the Amtrak trains to Chicago and Detroit. I think the NS Chicago Line would be much better if you want the traffic volume. However it would be cool to see the line I grew up next to in a train simulator.