Chicago Routes?

[Amtrak72]

Are there any Chicago routes out there? I have checked the DLS but there is only the Chicago Metro route, and I am looking for realistic route not fictional.

Any help?

I am mostly looking for a chicago route thats a commuter route. (I already have ZZ_topz CP C&M route which is a route that goes from CHicago to Milwaukee).

 

[Klinger]

I am currently working on a route based on the entire Chicago CTA. Its not 100% perfect, but as close as I can get with Trainz.

But its years away from completion, I've already been working on it for 2 years.

 

[Euphod]

I think the scenery and trackage near Chicago makes it darn near overwhelming for route builders to model.

 

[mity22]

Yea I agree have you ever been to Union station in Chicago the amount of tracks is mad

 

[daylightguy]

They are right take it from a chicagoin Chicago is probbally one of the hardest cities to model I mean our stations and yards are massive we evean have a ten track station for one metra line.

 

[Klinger]

I think the scenery and trackage near Chicago makes it darn near overwhelming for route builders to model.

Gee, you think???

I had a hard time with just the Howard Yard. Very very complicated trackwork.

 

[schweitzerdude]

As a former Chicagoan I know one thing:

Chicago isn't called the rail capital of the USA for nothing. The only thing that makes it a little easier is that it is mostly flat. Kudos to Klinger for attempting the CTA - that's a huge effort in itself. But when you include all Chicago area rail, it's unachievable.

What I would like to see content creators work on (if I had any experience doing this I would do it myself) is to create some of the great suburban rail stations along the various Metra (suburban commuter rail) lines, many of which are over 100 years old and many of which are architectural masterpieces.

 

[mtldrm38]

Ive been doin a chicago route for awhile all track is laid and doin up the scenery now and for flat sheeesh most track is elevated man made earth
and crossing over each other at places so i basically used 0 ground level and
opted with the clearances as needed........
the eras vary to capture a lot of old yards and stations downtown
(dearborn yd and grand central) so basically so areas bring back the 60s trackage others are modern to convien with intermodal operations and metra....
realism well its off due to gotta work with what is offered........
frame rates so far no lower than 25 in heavy areas on my 5 yr old comp....
plenty of pics scattered on screenshots area havent updated lately though
due to bringin this route from 2006 to 2010 was a wrench in the gears for a while and back tracking compatability slowed me down a bit., but thats all caught up and ill drop in more progress shots soon 2010 runs a lot smoother now........

 

[Amtrak72]

Ive been doin a chicago route for awhile all track is laid and doin up the scenery now and for flat sheeesh most track is elevated man made earth

May I ask what line your doing?

 

[schweitzerdude]

To mtldrm38 I stand corrected to some extent

When I said "flat", I meant the terrain. You are certainly correct that many rail lines in Chicago run on elevated embankments, and then you have "L" lines having to cross over those already elevated rail embankments, so you have three levels at times.

 

[sniper297]

Kinda like this;

 

[mtldrm38]

Im doin the entire chicago area and surrounding suburbs., basically suburbs uptil the industries ended and after is basic main lines where i portal at.....

endless possibilities is where the end user will have to decide and at first i thought doin in sections but then connectin em would be the headache., so doin entire area then splitting it up as the end user chooses works better i feel....
p.s. its not vaporware just a time consuming project., snipers route is a good route to commute with but this one goes a lot deeper.........

 

[sniper297]

Yeah, my original plan was to do C&NW all three lines, I started with the Galena line since I grew up near 40th Street yard. Then I ran into the biggest problem with AI programming - instead of focusing on the "player bubble" like most games do, Trainz loads and processes in the finest detail EVERY AI train on the entire route regardless how far away. I originally had commuter and freight traffic running from Cicero to downtown on the Burlington, then out to Galewood on the Milwaukee line, along with freight and passenger east and west on the C&NW Galena line, north and south on the Chicago Belt Railway, L trains running from Harlem & Lake down around the loop and back every 10 minutes. So shots like the above and others with the Lake Street L passing over the commuters at Clinton were common as in real life - but tanked the framerates when more than a couple dozen AI trains were running at the same time. :'( So I was forced to split it up, now the sessions are either commuter and freight traffic OR rapid transit, can't do both at the same time.

http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread.php?303235-Just-for-the-L-of-it

Posts 3 and 4 show pics of the new streetcar and interurban sections for version 2, that's finished except for adding invisible stations for actual passenger loading - got a dozen more commuter stations on the main route with passenger pickup, currently debugging that, next problem is adding invisible platforms to about 50 L and subway stations plus every intersection on the streetcar line. I'm toying with the idea of running a short streetcar section under the L for half a mile or so, height clearance problems there, and again it's either drive commuter and freight trains or drive rapid transit mixing with AI traffic, can't run AI traffic on both in the same session. Extending the freight and commuter lines to the north is still an option, but the AI would need to spread out even further since what I have running now is already pushing the limits. Back in the day Western Avenue Interlocking used to average one train every 90 seconds during the day, there ain't a computer built that would handle that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0OG1nW7eaA

I had to cut that in half, FPS was dropping to 6 after a couple hours of it.