NICTD South Shore Interurban articulated cars by Mikey186

[Kenyon_karl]

I am a former member of Central Electric Railfans Assn (many decades ago) [cera-chicago.org] and current member of the New England Electric Railway Historical Society (trolleymuseum.org). To my knowledge, neither the NICTD nor the CSS&SB RR ever owned any articulated trainsets with any similarity to those provided to Download Station by Mikey186 under the name 'NICTD South Shore Interurban' <kuid:274806:1215, 1216, 1217 & 1218>. Indeed, neither Metra nor IC RR ever own such articulated trainsets for Metra's Electric District. I don't have as much familiarity with the electrified commuter rail services in the New York and Philadelphia areas, but I don't believe that any of them ever had an atriculated trainset like this.

The best that can be claimed is this is what the train might have looked like, if the CSS&SB had copied the CNS&M Electroliners in 1941 which were articulated. But note that I see no alteration of window arrangement in one of the cars for a diner-lounge area as the Electroliner had. Note also that the NICTD cars need some doors with traps as they still have some low-level platforms, with 11th St Michigan City being the most photographed of all!

I must admit that this is a nicely done trainset. I placed one on the C&NW trackage of the Chicago Metro 3 layout on my Trainz 12 Simulator for a trial run, and my only complaint is that the doors don't open at station stops. It will make a very appropriate trainset for the 'LA The Green Line' layout!

 

[JCitron]

Karl,

As you are probably aware, with Trainz many people will reskin models to represent something else even if the other company did not own that. A former Trainz user and creator Landrvr created some CSS&SB cars. He will email his models to you since they are not up on the DLS.

Be prepared though to do a lot of fixing since they were made for the earlier versions of Trainz.

It would be nice if you or I had the capabilities to make the prototypically correct equipment. I have made models, but do not have the patience or the software today to create them at the quality level we would all expect. At some point, I would like to see some MBTA Type 7s and Type 8's along with the Red and Blue Birds from the MBTA Red Line. I grew up riding on the old Blue Birds, including those that still had a trolley pole on them. I can't remember the type number for those. I was about 9 or 10 when the original aluminum cars showed up on the Red Line.

John

 

[Kenyon_karl]

The NICTD South Shore Interurban cars <kuid:274806:1215, 1216, 1217 & 1218> appears to be instead the DSB (Danish Railways) class IR4 used in Denmark and Sweden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC3). Obo's Trainz Locomotive Catalog (http://trainz.banal.net/catalog/pages/Denmark-Electric.html) offers the following:

Railway	DSB
Locomotive	IR4
Author ID	Rasmus Skov (rasmuss)
Identifier	kuid:1094:74
Source	Trainz Download Station
Screenshot	Trainz 2006

The Wiki also informs us:"An electrically powered four-carriage version, the IR4 was introduced between 1995 and 1998.[SUP][1]"[/SUP] "A total of 44 IR4 sets were built, and 43 sets are still in use, as 1 set burned in 2010."

I read about these trains when they were first introduced, and the noteworthy characteristic of the time was that they were designed to be coupled and uncoupled at low speeds instead of the usual practice of stopping the train for the purpose. Thus two of these four-car sets could be operated as a train on the lower trunk of a Y shaped route, then each 4 car set would travel separately on the upper branches.

I am about to put together another couple of sessions, where I assemble just cars A and 4 into a two car set (on three trucks) as being more suited to the wide variations in the total length of the EMU trains that I am used to in Chicago, so as to efficiently cope with wide variations in passenger usage with long trains during twice daily rush hours, then short trains during mid-day, evening, and weekend periods.

 

[Kenyon_karl]

Note that a short version of the NICTD South Shore Interurban (units A & 4) has just one pantograph instead of 2. Thus it takes more clicks on the pantograph button to lower the pantograph (and subsequently raise it?).

 

[Trainsim10]

Well I have heard & seen that there is a MUCH Better South Shore car by landvr1. You can look at it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPX5KM0yQ2c

The unfortunate thing is that I seem unable to get this car, so if anybody has this, please send it to me

~Thanks​

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