Good Afternoon Everyone, Today I'd like to share another proposal for you all that I do see pop up on here from time to time with varying degrees of detail. With US passenger content being primarily focused on the Northeast Corridor and New York's metropolitan areas, I feel like it is time for DTG to explore a region previously only represented on TSC. Aside from regions of California and the Northeast, the United States sees some of its busiest cluster of rail traffic centered around Chicago, Illinois. Rail lines in Chicago radiate out like a hub-and-spoke and are truly gateway connections to and from the north, south, east, and west. Amtrak uses it as a major hub, and allows for passengers to travel from Hudson Valley New York to Glacier National Park in Montana with a simple change of trains. The city boasts the famous Chicago "L" running through it's heart and radiatiating subway lines out through the region, long commuter trains made of glimmering silver gallery cars being pushed and pulled by EMD diesels of various models, freight trains from every Class 1 in North America (in turn being switched and forwarded by several short and regional lines), and one of the last "Interurban" electric lines in the country whisking passengers quickly and quietly to Indiana. If that seemed like a run-on sentence, it is only my attempt to briefly capture the nature of railroading in and around the "Windy City". Today, I present to you all The Metra Electric District One of the more unique rail networks in Chicago, the Metra Electric District uses bilevel EMU's on a line serving 49 stations across roughly 30 route miles and 2 branches. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, commuter railroading with EMU's is somewhat hard to come by (with some exceptions, and this wasn't always the case), making this and the adjoining South Shore Line a relative oddity in US railroading. The bilevel EMU's are based off the same gallery car design used by Metra's diesel push-pull fleet, and will be familiar to players who have invested in the Caltrain Peninsula Commuter DLC. The Route: Starting in Chicago's Millennium Station, the route runs south along the western shore of Lake Michigan, passing some of Chicago's notable parks, museums, and marinas. At 18th Street lies the northern yard for the Electric District, as well as the Chicago Bears' Soldier Field. It is also between here and 63rd Street where the line hugs Lake Michigan the closest, and where it breaks off into it's first branch line, the South Chicago Branch. Terminating at South Chicago Station, the short branch passes such landmarks as Rainbow Beach and Steelworkers Park. Of interest, the line spends a significant amount of time semi-street running, with the route running through medians of 71st Street and Exchange Avenue. Back on the mainline, the route crosses under the former Pennsylvania Railroad Fort Wayne Line (as well as the abandoned parallel former New York Central Main), which currently hosts Amtrak's Wolverine Service. Approaching 95th Street Station the line dips under a freight route, operated over by the Belt Railway of Chicago, Norfolk Southern, and Chicago Rail Link. At Kensington Station the South Shore Interurban, which has been sharing trackage with the route since Millennium Station, splits off and heads east on its journey to northern Indiana. South of Kensington the line runs underneath Union Pacific trackage, and shortly after the route's Blue Island Branch breaks off to the west towards the Calumet Park and Blue Island regions of Chicago. At the branch's terminus and namesake of Blue Island, passengers can transfer to Metra Rock Island District trains that run between Joliet and La Salle Street. Mostly single track, the Blue Island Branch runs between row after row of townhouses and residences, as well as the sprawling Exelon Solar complex. Back on the mainline the route passes the line's major service facility, Metra's KYD Shop, where maintenance and overhaul services are performed on their niche fleet of EMU's. Further south, the Little Calumet River abuts the line to the west, before flowing under a set of impressive truss bridges carrying the Electric District's tracks. A glimpse of Chicago's industrial nature can be seen on the opposite bank of the river with the factories and Con Ed facilities of Calumet. Approaching Riverdale Station, trains cross over the throat to CSX's Riverdale Yard, and further south the lead to the Indiana Harbor Belt's yard. Between the stations at Harvey and Homewood, the Electric District abuts Canadian National's massive Homewood Campus, encompassing the Markham Yard and Intermodal Facility. The surrounding area gradually becomes more suburban as the mainline reaches its southern terminus of University Park. A small layover yard is here, and CN's parallel freight tracks carry on south through Illinois. Governors State University (and golf club) and the sprawling Thorn Creek Nature Preserve are to the east of the right of way. Overall the mainline is a very straight section of railroad, but certainly provides a wealth of scenery to enjoy while keeping to a busy schedule (the Electric District boasts the highest on time arrival rating of all Metra routes). The Trains: Metra Electric currently operates a fleet of 200 Nippon Sharyo Highliner II gallery cars, initially of early '00's vintage, with an add-on order placed in 2012 (with delivery through to 2016). These cars are essentially self-propelled versions of the diesel push-pull fleet Metra uses throughout the rest of it's system. The cars operate in married pairs, typically in four-car sets. The trains operate off a 1,500 Volt DC catenary, and have a max line speed of 65MPH (although this is currently being improved to 79MPH). Signalling is through color lights and CTC. In addition to the current fleet, the original Highliner I cars were a notable mainstay of the line and did operate in mixed traffic with the second generation cars. These boxy EMU's were built initially for the Illinois Central by St. Louis Car Company, with an additional batch of 36 ordered from Bombardier in the late '70's. Despite age related unreliability beginning in the early-'00's, these trains served regularly through to retirement in 2016. Several have been saved for preservation, including a set that went to the Illinois Railway Museum. I believe these cars should be a future DLC, should the route be made, that adds a back-dated timetable to allow joint running with the Highliner II cars. A "Farewell Run" scenario would be appropriate as well. The LAMP Details: The largest hurdle that would block this route from being developed is licensing. DTG has had issues in the past getting licensing from Metra, which is apparent with the generic paint scheme of the trains used on the TSC Chicago Racetrack DLC. However, if DTG were to pursue licensing from Metra and achieve it, I feel that it would be a fantastic investment for the company. Metra's other popular diesel routes could be developed as well, and modelling of the Chicago area would prove just as fruitful as modeling the New York Penn Station area has. Having licenses and successful, popular content for Amtrak, the MTA, the MBTA, Metrolink, as well as almost all major freight railroads could be a talking point DTG could use with Metra PR. Player interest and appeal could prove another hurdle, but I could also be wrong here. I know the large majority of users on this forum are from the UK and Europe, with us "colonists" making up a minority population. Having not only a railroad locale as famous as Chicago in-game, but also one of the last remnants of Midwest interurban railroading, would be a huge novelty and fascination to American players. At the same time, to my friends across the pond and elsewhere, I feel as if they are suffering EMU burn-out. I can hear/read the comments now, "We already have too many EMU routes...", "Not another...", "We just got LIRR...", etc., all of which is absolutely true. However, I cannot stress enough that this would only be a stepping stone to unlocking access to a world of US railroading vastly different from what we've seen before. By using the Highliner EMU's you allow people to explore a new environment with familiar equipment, all while having different operating physics from the existing Caltrain equipment. I know many readers are going to suggest DTG do one of the Metra diesel routes instead, most likely the "Racetrack", however I believe this would feel too much like the Peninsula DLC with a Metra/Chicago reskin. I don't disagree with other Metra routes being made, but this one is truly unique and could offer refuge from the third-rail EMU routes of the east coast, and the diesel bilevel routes of the west coast; a compromise in many ways that should appeal to most. The other elephant in the room is traffic and service variety. Those reading will probably have noticed that although I mention adjoining and crossing freight lines several times through this write-up, I never actually mentioned freight service on the route itself. This is because the Metra Electric District is a dedicated passenger right-of-way. That said, while the route is segregated from freight trains, there is enough opportunity to use the vast collection of US freight content currently present in-game to add AI traffic and fill yards. Conclusion: I hope you all have enjoyed reading this proposal, and I apologize for going for longer than I probably should have. I am quite passionate about electric railroads in North America, and would like to see this represented better in-game than just the Northeast Corridor trains we have now. I look forward to reading all of your comments and hope this eventually (if ever) captures the attention of DTG. Thank you all! All photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. EDIT: Added cab ride video from Metra YouTube channel
slow but interesting route... I have fond memories of those few trips on South Shore Line a loooong time ago, so revisiting Chicago in this game would be awesome, definitely approved
At some point I'd like to get out and take a joyride on the South Shore. I'd especially like to see the Illinois Railway Museum and see the old interurbans actually operating. Most of the ones at the trolley museums in New England are either on display, rotting in the woods, or only used on special days because they draw so much power.
That's actually a pretty good comparison, especially with all of the other major rail thoroughfares that criss-cross the route.
Speaking as a resident, excellent write-up! And since it's a South Side train, some summertime NPC passengers can be eating Rainbow Cones on the platform.
That'd be too tempting to leave the cab for lol. The orange creamsicle and birthday cake cones look delightful!
