The Illinois Railway Museum Route

Matt3985

New member
Today Im officially going back to what I enjoy doing more than just running Trains... ROUTE BUILDING!!! :D

Alright for those of you who are wondering what happened to my White Pine River Railroad, I sadly lost it (although I could have transferred it over to TANE) I did not for the following reason. :eek:

Most of the scenery assets I used was from the DLC route Murchison 2 which has all the special scenery assets like the waterfalls and cliff faces that I used a lot in the area called Coldwater Falls and since its not been moved to TANE I lose my most vital assets That I need to make my route looks beautiful. (So thats the main reason) :(

So with this I had to sadly say good bye to my great route I work so hard on (especially the Harbor), The Mountain Pass, Coldwater Falls, Pine Creek, The Engine Faculty and others places I will miss playing with dearly. :(

But my route building days are not numbered... no no no... With TANE now I decided to go to do my very first prototypical route and it is none other than my favorite place in the world.

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Thats right the Illinois Railway Museum. Since I've always wanted to build this place since I first started playing Trainz back in 2004 and in fact I have attempted to build this place before. (Back in 2006) I tried building this place and only got as far as completing all of the Track work and a few buildings down before I gave up Trainz temporary... Now I want to give this project a second chance and this time to make it better than the last time I try this. Im hoping to also get help from Bendorsey to helping me possibly make some of the buildings and barns from this museum to help make it look complete so hopefully he will agree. I plan on posting screenshots once I get the word from Bendorsey, If he says yes I will start to lay the track work, if not then this project will be on hold until further notice and I will work on another fictional route.

My plan is listed in numerical order.

#1- To build the Railroad Museum Grounds and Yards

#2- To Build the Museum's 5 Mile Demonstration Mainline

#3- To Build the former Chicago & North Western ROW (Now Union Pacific) from Marengo IL to Huntley IL

#4- To Build the Trolley Bus system.

So thats my plan. I hope it works out.

Also I would like to mention I want to build this route not just for myself but I want to build a route for people who are also volunteers at this museum like SantaFeBuff who (although we never saw each other face to face yet) we have both spotted each other during the Museum Showcase Weekend back in September (My favorite event) and any other members of this community who are volunteers at this museum as my way for saying Thank you for creating the Largest Railway Museum in America. :)

Also I will appreciate any ideas on what to use for this route and any suggests or comments will be very appreciative towards this project. Finally then there is the big unforeseen question, "Matt where will you release this?" Well I don't know, I might want to release this route once its complete maybe at PerRock's Website or maybe Trainz Forge (If I can make it up to their standards). But Im still a long way away from deciding where to release at this point. That will have to wait until I can get this project off the ground.
 
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I've been to that place before. In fact, my family hasn't been there for ages since the last time. Now that 1630 is back on the track, I'm his biggest fan! But I missed that final seasonal run because of that Uncle Brad's visit. :(
 
When was your last visit? 1630 was out of service from 2004 to 2014 so was your last visit during that time Period? Plus speaking of steam, I talked to the guys at the steam shop and they say by next year the Shay #5 will be running.
 
My last visit was in July. And now I have to wait for next year's seasonal run of the 1630 since the guys of the museum have strictly claimed.
 
Im hoping to also get help from Bendorsey to helping me possibly make some of the buildings and barns from this museum to help make it look complete so hopefully he will agree. I plan on posting screenshots once I get the word from Bendorsey, If he says yes I will start to lay the track work, if not then this project will be on hold until further notice and I will work on another fictional route.
Please note that Ben is moving to a new home at the moment and as a result is expected to be off-line for at least a month. In other words: Don't be surprised or offended if he does not respond soon.
 
I see well thanks for the info. I appreciate you telling me. Thats alright also because Im conducting research about various things I will need to add to the route like evaluations and etc.
 
Good luck for your Project Matt.
Looks like a good idea to create a RR-Museum.

Your's TUME
 
Good luck for your Project Matt.
Looks like a good idea to create a RR-Museum.

Your's TUME

Thanks TUME, I especially had you in my mind of one of the few people I know (Outside the USA) would love to use this route because the nearly 90% of the track at IRM is electrified. Plus IRM is a perfect museum to replicate in Trainz because it offers the opportunity to run all 3 types of motive power in one place (Steam, Diesel, and Electric). Plus thanks to a few content creators, we already of some of the museums collection in Trainz. like The Milwaukee Road Fairbanks Morse (made by DaveSnow), The Electricoliner and the North Shore Interurbans by (Lavadrvr1), The BN 1 and 2 Executive Units, and the 1630 (From Plauz Trainz and soon from Subpar Productions). Its a museum that is just perfect for Trainz in many ways.

Also its a good thing IRM is posting their newsletters dating back the 1954 on their site. Im finding lots of good info like for example what is their about trolley poll hight, some neat dimensions on the Boot Creek Trestle and the track alignment distance between the UP and IRM track.
 
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Will there be a version for those who don't like playing garbage software (in other words, will you be making a Mac 2 version)??
 
I might make a second version that will be backwards compatible possibly but for now I only want to focus on what Im building in right now which is TANE.
 
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Don't worry highline,

it requires quite a lot time to make such a project comming true. Matt needs to make a lot of investigations and a lot of content like buildings and sheds needs to be created before he can start to take care of the final details.
T:ANE is already a nice trainz version and it will be developed further to remove issues and to implement nice new features and functions. So perhaps if Matt will be able to release his project T:ANE will be running just the way you will be happy as well.

Your's TUME
 
Don't worry highline,

it requires quite a lot time to make such a project comming true. Matt needs to make a lot of investigations and a lot of content like buildings and sheds needs to be created before he can start to take care of the final details.
T:ANE is already a nice trainz version and it will be developed further to remove issues and to implement nice new features and functions. So perhaps if Matt will be able to release his project T:ANE will be running just the way you will be happy as well.

Your's TUME

Thanks for the support there TUME, I hope that after I get thru the research process, I can start laying track down. Hopefully this time I can get more than just completing track work on this project this time than I did on the first try. Plus if any of you have a DRM map of IRM please send it to me since the DRM software for Trainz does not work in Mac. I hope to get this project to become my most realistic route project to date. For now if any of you content creators would like to help out with this project, I will be gladly be pleased of the assistance since I I'm not very good at creating content, so thats why went back to route building. If your willing to contribute, please either type in here or PM, or even talk to me on Skype and we can work it out. Now its back to research collecting.
 
I also have one more message about this project. If you have a particular piece of Rolling Stock or Locomotive (whether that is Payware or Freeware) or even Trolley Buses, that is in the IRM museum collection, please contact me about it so I can make sure I add you in my list of dedications of people who contribute to this project.

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As for my research I found something interesting while looking thru their "Rail & Wire" Newsletters. In there last one they posted on the site (back in 2013) they showed a future additions planned layout map for the museum in the upcoming (10 to 25 years) plan for the museum site which includes a fully set up main street style town like (With some buildings having interiors with shops and restaurants) (As well a buildings that are only their for show) Kind of like what Disney world did with their main street, with a possible (but not yet confirmed) of where the new streetcar loop extension might go as well for the trolley buses), finally they also show a new section of track (Where you see the letter G) where a new bridge will be built to content to the museum mainline (But unfortunately for me) it does not show where on the mainline will it contact too. Also it shows where the future roundhouse for the steam locomotive collection might go (This is a planned project because they did acquire a turntable for this project).

What does this do with my route. This gives me the plan to after I make the current version of how the museum layout is now. I will possibly try to create this (FUTURE) version of the museum if possible.

Ive also discovered that Barn 13 and 14 (And possibly 15) are about 512x62 in size and the [FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]dimensions are [/FONT]barns are 512' long, with 8' walks on each end. Also the number of feet of track inside them is 3,968 track feet of inside storage space.
 
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Last time I was there (which was quite a few years ago) there was a turntable where the future roundhouse is marked on the map.


Albeit the turntable was in parts, and more looked like scrap metal.

peter
 
Also found this map that could help me do both the future and Present layout of the museum ground.

Last time I was there (which was quite a few years ago) there was a turntable where the future roundhouse is marked on the map.


Albeit the turntable was in parts, and more looked like scrap metal.

peter

PerRock, when I went there in September. I thought I saw it laying in the ground alongside yard #13 and it was rusted but still in one piece.

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Found some deminsion for some of the Museum barns.

Barn 4 - 54’ Wide and 126’ Long. (Door Hight is 16’
Extended by 125’ Long

60’ Wide by 352’ Long, Hight 16'

Steam Shop - 45’ Wide by 90’ Long with 17’ Clearance over Rails

Andersen Garage - 42’ Wide by 135’long
 
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Hallo Matt,

sometimes I calculate the dimensions of some buildings. In Google Maps I zoom in as far as possible. Than I take a ruler and measure the dimensions of a building how it appears on the screen. So I measure how many millimeters the building is in length and width After that I measure the yardstick - mostly in the lower right corner of the screen. Than I know how many millimeter of length the yardstick (which indicates may be of 10 Meters in reality) appears at the screen. From that information I can calculate the dimensiones of a building as required . Mostly it is exactly enough.

Your TUME
 
Now some of you may have noticed that Trainman7616 has already finished laying out track work but sadly due to personal reasons he is not part of this project and if you think I'm going to throw in the trowel. I'm not... I'm not going to let someone take over this project from me because he is a step ahead of me. He might finish his version first but I'm building mine with the IRM staff In mind.
 
Still working on gathering research and still trying to figure out this adding google maps to TANE thing (and finding one that works for Mac) But I took this shot because I'm testing out JR's Generic Shed and to be honest, other than being a bit small for some of the barns, its a great (temporary) asset to use until either bendorsey or TUME builds me some of the Barns and buildings. If I can gain enough money into my savings, I can possibly commission The Nebraska Zephyr and a few buildings for this project from Jointed Rail. But until I can get the Google Images thing to work for Mac and then TANE I can only do so much right now.

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Im still struggling to figure out (and its putting a lot of pressure on me) to figure out this Google Maps Thing... (With a Mac and not PC) to get track work down and in my way to ease off some pressure for me... I built this.

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If your willing to help get this project off the ground (PC users Im asking you specifically) if you can provide or even make me with a DEM or Google Maps layout in Baseboards of this museum route, I will be forever grateful. I really need the help and If I can't find a way by the end of this year I will have to unfortunately pull the plug on this project. I would be very heart broken if I have to come to that. If you would like to help out, please let me know. :(

The set of Barn 9 in full screen.

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Credit goes to Steve Lerro of K&L for making me a model of Barn 9 specifically for my project. He plans on resizing this barn to make the other barns later. Thanks Steve Lerro for this contribution to my project as well as the first one. :)

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