UP West Line

[UP4021]

Welcome abord Metra-Union Pacific West line from Elburn to Chicago.
With intermediate stops in:
La Fox
Geneva
West Chicago
Winfield
Wheaton
College Ave.
Glen Ellyn
Lombard
Villa Park
Elmhurst
Berkeley
Melrose Park
Maywood
River Forest
and
Oak Park

as the announcement usually says (or at least I think it says. It's been a while since I've ridden it from the beginning in Elburn!)

The route itself is to be set sometime in the past few years, and starts just west of Elburn Co-op (a few miles west of downtown Elburn), and will end downtown Chicago at the OTC (Ogilvie Transportation Center). It will also include a small branchline to St. Charles, as well as the interchanges with the EJ&E in West Chicago, and about a mile or two down the North and Northwest lines. It will also contain all said stops, a yard in West Chicago, the Metra yards in Elburn and Oak Park, and the notable Proviso Yard. Obviously, with all this and about 50 miles of mainline track, it is a pretty huge project that I didn't believe I could finish on my own. That is why I am splitting the project with your current Screenshot of the Week host Steveo241, as he too lives in the area. He will be taking Chicago to about Melrose Park as well as the St. Charles branch, and I will take Proviso yard west to Elburn.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the first screenshot:

A westbound freight at Meredith Rd., Elburn, Il.
Here's something similar:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=181338&nseq=26

 

[SD45T-2]

Nice job, Looks good.

 

[UP5521]

wow,great job!

 

[lginc]

I'm going to be keeping a close watch on the progress of this route, I sincerely hope it comes to frutation .

Not exactly familiar with this line your doing, but I've rode the UP-Metra "Harvard line" , running from Harvard Ill to Ogilvie several times . UP anywhere around the Chicago area would be a truly Fantastic route to have:Y: .

Best of luck!

 

[UP4021]

Thanks for the replies.
It just occured to me that while I was making such a fuss of this to begin with, most of you don't understand why. So, I thought I'd give a bit of a short history lesson.

The Union Pacific West Line is what Metra (the Chicagoland commuter rail line) calls its route down the Union Pacific trackage of the Geneva Subdivision. The Sub runs from Chicago to Rochelle (which at about 70 miles is not going to happen!). Construction of the line had finished in 1855 by the Galena & Chicago Union RR, which ran fron West Chicago to Fulton, Il on the east side of the Mississippi River. Ten years later, the railroad built a bridge across the Mississippi, only to merge with the smaller Chicago & North Western Railroad. After a few more aquisitions, the C&NW had trackage from Chicago to Omaha, where it became partners with the Union Pacific. From then on (for the most part) until 1955, then again within the last few decades, the C&NW was Union Pacific's partner to Chicago on the transcontinental line. All of the transcontinental passenger trains, including Union Pacific's notible city trains would have been seen on this line, and stopped in Chicago at the old Northwestern Station. In 1984, the older station was replaced by the station/office building that has come to be known as the Ogilvie Transportation Center. In 1995, Union Pacific merged with the Chicago & North Western, taking control of all of it's rolling stock and trackage. This, however, did not mean the end to the origional transcontinental line. In fact, traffic may have increased. Today, almost anything that needs to get anywhere can be seen on the Geneva Sub. From mixed freights, to the several daily coal trains traveling east and west between Chicago and the Powder River Basin, to the even more frequent double-stack Intermodal trains between Chicago and the west coast. There is of course, plenty of Metra, who extended their line from Geneva to La Fox and Elburn in 2005 (don't quote me on that). Though this is a rough approximation, on weekends and during rush hour (passenger), there is usually either a freight of passenger train going by every 15 minutes here in Geneva.
So...NOW YOU KNOW
And, so I don't get in trouble for plagurizing...

Works Cited​

Murray, Tom. Chicago & North Western Railway. Minneapolis: Voyageur, 2008. Print.

 

[UP4021]

And as far as progress...

So, sorry there hasn't been much here. We've both been kinda busy (what with that whole life thing and all; damn thing gets in the way of everything!:hehe: ) However, some things have been done behind the scenes. I somewhat recently got Steveo241 his fair section of route, and he says that, though it may not be for a little while, progress will soon be made. Though I myself have had little time to actually work on the route, I have had time to play around with Gmax. Here's a few I've pretty well finished:

The Sears... I mean Willis Tower, and:

the Aon Center.

I've also started the rather large landmark Elburn Co-Op, a crucial point on the route (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=193063&nseq=32 and http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=245817&nseq=7), and the EJ&E tower at Turner Junction which looks like this: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=935407, and an earlier picture with the old staircase: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=98724. Also includes rolling pumpkins with j-balls for your viewing pleasure.

I am planning on texturing these using pictures, and I have been tearing my rather great hair out in chunks trying to figure out how to. If someone could point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AndrewLummis_99]

Hey want me to make the signal at the one tower picture

 

[WCL]

Wow....This looks like its going to be something pretty cool....I will for sure also keep an eye on this topic :Y:

Hope to see more pix soon.....Keep up the good work :clap:

 

[UP4021]

Hey want me to make the signal at the one tower picture

If you'd like. That would be great! Thanks!

 

[WCL]

Hey want me to make the signal at the one tower picture

Dude....You say you will be making lots of stuff, so far you said you had the ELS SD9's u were going to do, and then you said the ELS GP38 400 you were going to do, and the 2 SD40-2's, then you said you had some WC units you said you were going to do like the 3026, then you said you had some SOO GP30's you wanted to do.....I mean...Come on....Do one at a time and get at least ONE thing you said u were going to do DONE FIRST!!!!! :hehe:

 

[AndrewLummis_99]

alrighty dude send the the stuff over and i can do it

 

[WCL]

alrighty dude send the the stuff over and i can do it

Na dude...Dont worry about it....Your words are bigger than your actions anyways.....If you did that stuff...It will prolly take a year to have you complete it....Or even just a year to complete just one of them things you said you were going to do.......:hehe:

 

[UP4021]

Alright you kids, calm down.:hehe:

Now Andrew, what "stuff" are you referring to? If you'd like to contribute in some way, I definitely won't try to stop you. However, I would first like to know what that "stuff" is, because as far as I know, you never asked for "stuff" in the plural, but rather that you'd make the signal. But, in the mean time, I think that you should finish some of the projects that you have already started first, and you can come back. Progress on this won't exactly be quick, and the opportunity will remain open for you in the future. I seem to recall that you were working on C&NW and Metra F7 reskins. Were those ever finished? I was quite looking forward to those.

 

[sniper297]

You left out Bellwood, IL and Kedzie Avenue. :wave:

http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/maps_schedules/metra_system_map/up-w/station.html

Good source for old pictures;

http://www.cnwhs.org/

I grew up near 40th Street yard on the Galena division, when I was a kid (1950s) there were commuter stops every half mile east of the DesPlaines River. Last time I rode the line was five years ago, only stop left in the city was Kedzie. Even as late as the '70s Western Avenue Interlocking averaged one movement every 90 seconds during the day.

 

[UP4021]

AAHHHH! I kinda knew that I was missing something! Although they almost never stop in Kedzie anymore. Thanks for the info.

 

[UP4021]

Even as late as the '70s Western Avenue Interlocking averaged one movement every 90 seconds during the day.

Jeez! That beats one every 15 min! Although I do live like 40 miles west. And one time, I was walking my dog and noticed 4 trains in 20 min.

 

[Steveo241]

UP North/Northwest Lines split from the West Line just past the Milwaukee Line Bridge.

 

[UP4021]

Lookin' nice!:Y:

I need to get back to work!

 

[UP4021]

Ok, my turn!

:hehe: School has been as school should be... hard. I've been busy, but I managed to squeeze out a bit of tracklaying tonight.
A couple of days ago I took advantage of the sale at rrmods and bought my first rrmods payware, so you will see them in the pictures (naturally). I thought I'd celebrate both with an authentic UP power move.

TRUE STORY: I saw something very similar to this in this area about five years ago. Pretty much a bunch of UP's old buckets of rust being moved to Proviso, where some of them were probably sold. So now, here they are, spewing out an ungodly amount of soot as they begin to gain speed after being stopped at a light. (notice the 15 or so engines are only pulling about 20 empty intermodals! True UP spirit.:hehe: )

And, because this IS a screenshots thread, and there has lately been a lack thereof, here's some more...

more of a shot for the engine and, back in 95'...

a recent aquisition for the UP is still showing its colors with pride, leading this westbound freight over South First St. in Geneva.
BTW, the actual thing looks like this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&i...d=5Eo-i9CYqMvxadGzpf9Jeg&cbp=12,28.39,,0,0.02
does anyone know of good stone abutments, or even bridges like these? These ones are only temporary, unless there aren't better ones. In which case these will have to do. It's not like it's a major point in the route.

 

[Steveo241]

Instantly recognized CP Peck Looks like I'll have to adjust my crossovers to match yours. Mine are a lot shorter. Also, which bridge are you using for Geneva? It looks great!

Keep it up!