This proposal kind of goes with the "Hotspot Route" proposal I made several months back, however instead of routes branching out for 20-30 miles (because in hindsight that was too short) they branch out for 80-90 miles. The windy city of Chicago has been commonly referred to by many as the rail capital of the world, being served by countless different roads for both freight and passenger business. This was especially apparent in the 1950s. During this period there were not one, not two, but three major railroad stations, Dearborn Station, La Salle Street Station, and Union Station, all mere blocks away from each other. With class 1 railroad mainlines branching out in all directions. The Santa Fe, The New York Central, The Pennsy, The Grand Trunk Western, The Union Pacific, The Burlington Route, The Nickel Plate, The Milwaukee Road, and many other major railroads had major hubs in the big city. A route like this would be perfect for train simulator as it would give players the opportunity to drive on nearly every railroad in America. Some people might be thinking about how locomotives and rolling stock could be implemented, and while yes that may be difficult you must remember that many locomotives from these railroads have been already released with other routes, they can just be repackaged into this one, with some generic, unmarked rolling stock to go as part of the route. Once that is done, a whole slew of new locomotives can come with the route as well. Just think of all the possibilities! How about you guys? Is this something you'd like to see? Is my idea too ambitious?
Chicago has a lot of railroads running through the city. I'd like this, though. I think the route needs F- or E-Units or Alco PAs for passenger and/or services, GP7/9s, SD7/9s, Alcos, or Fairbanks-Morse diesels for freight, and maybe an EMD, FM, Baldwin, or Alco switcher. I think the route should be limited to one or maybe two railroads.
I would love to see this! The only issue is that DTG probably would make each line really short and not include nearly enough rolling stock.
Ok, I know it's been a while since I posted this thread, but I was thinking about this route idea again, and I wanted to elaborate on it a bit further, particularly on some ideas for the specific lines that would be featured in the route. The CB&Q line from Union Station to Aurora would be a good starting point, since it would provide the player a similar experience to the currently existing, modern version of the route, but with some added flair coming from the vintage equipment, and facilities. Another line that would make for some fun/interesting commuter runs would be the Rock Island Line from La Salle Street Station to Joliet. This line would be about the same distance as the CB&Q line to Aurora. La Salle Street Station was also a major departure point for the New York Central. My idea for this line would be to include the line from La Salle to the nearby Hammond, Indiana. This would provide players the opportunity to run on part of the famous Water Level Route. This line would run closely with the Rock Island for a time, and even parallels the NYC's main rival, The Pennsy, from Englewood junction, all the way to Hammond which could provide for some great scenario opportunities. Speaking of the Pennsy, the line running from Union Station to Englewood would also be good to include, as a means of connecting up all the different lines to each other, since the majority of them passed through the famous Alton Junction. Another passenger line to include could be the Chicago & Northwestern's line from Madison Street Station to St. Charles. This line would provide players to operate on part of the C&NW's famous Twin Cities 400 passenger train, while also operating some of the railroad's early bi-level, push-pull commuter trains that would be later known as "scoots". Finally, there are two more lines that I would include, and both of them originate from the now repurposed Dearborn Station. The fist would be the Grand Trunk Western's route that leads south to Griffith Indiana, the GTW ran a number of high speed commuter trains throughout its system and this line would be no different. The second of these lines would be the Santa Fe, which ran from Dearborn to Joliet, though if I'm not mistaken, the Santa Fe simply shared trackage rights with the Rock Island all the way to Joliet after leaving Dearborn. As stated in my original post, locomotives and rolling stock could probably just be retextures of pre-existing locomotives. I feel like proposing unique locomotives for each railroad would be far too ambitious. Aside from that, though what do you guys think? Still to ambitious? Does it have too much? Not enough? Let me know! I know I didn't include much in terms of freight lines so if you guys can come up with any, feel free to leave them down below!
Interesting route idea Buynot, would you do the transition time period between steam and diesel? also what locomotives would you include? As it looks like there was a lot of railroad companies in one place
Yes, that was my idea, to have it set during the transition era. For diesel power I feel that some EMD F7's and GP9's would suffice, maybe some ALCO FA units too and a GE-44 tonner for switching, since they already exist in the game and would only require some reskins into the liveries of the featured railroads. Steam would be a bit tougher to do, since each railroad had unique designs for all their locomotives. For the NYC and the Pennsy, I know that the guys at Digital Railroading (particularly DSGDDR) have been releasing steam locomotives for both of those railroads (the PRR E6 and NYC J3A in particular). Perhaps something can be worked out with them to get the locomotives into the game officially? In addition the PRR K4 already exists as DLC so that could probably be packaged with the route. I know that both the GTW and C&NW used USRA designs for some of their 4-6-2's, so that could be another locomotive that gets added, and even though they never used them, a Rock Island livery could be added as well. Both the ATSF and CB&Q used 4-6-4's for commuter/passenger runs, so perhaps a "generic" 4-6-4 could be added and then reskinned into the proper liveries, kind of like the USRA loco's mentioned above. I know a lot of the locomotives I proposed are jut re-skins or re-packaged locomotives, but I'm trying to keep the idea as realistic as possible. I know that having unique locomotives for each different featured railroad would be far too much work and take far too long to make.
Hotspot? HOTSPOT? My friend, this would be such a busy route, one wouldn't know WHAT to do with it! I jest. If there was a physical line to go and buy this kinda route, I'd be one of the first ones in it.
Ooh. OOH. I just had a thought. If a proper American condition Flying Scotsman gets made along with proper consist, one could make a scenario or two of it's tenure in Chicago, notably it being staged at Dearborn terminal. Ooh. I see a Santa Fe Hi-Level. Oh I forgot how striking that LNER Apple Green is when lit up.
Mmmmm. As stated in that previous post, that LNER Apple Green's mighty striking, and in the best way.
