The Chicago Tunnel Company in living colour.

[narrowgauge]

These are shots of the Trainz version of the Chicago Tunnel Company route. It may seem strange that there are no ground textures and that you can see into the tunnels. As this is a tunnel route, we built it so that from the inside you can see only the tunnels, if you get lost you can switch to tracking view and see where you are. The coal hopper is another tricky one, there is no outside, we modeled the coal, and ignored that there would be a railroad at the higher level. As far as we are concerned Chicago and anything that is not visible from the inside of the tunnel we have not included.
Strange but it works.

Note how the walls appear solid here

The tunnels followed the street alignments

Multi crossing called a "Grand Union"

Railroad Coal hopper to supply coal to tunnel cars

Typical elevator to raise loaded cars. Normally single tracks

Note the tight radius curves

Normal and Registered mail cars (White)

Tunnel loco and merchandise cars.

Cheers

Peter

Edit. I will need to reduce the links as this stupid system breaks the line. More later

 

[sethmcs]

Wow. I posted a request for progress shots and....

Wow. I posted a request for progress shots in the Freeware forum at 9:41 and the request was granted at 9:36. Nice work.:Y:

 

[Barchifowski]

Wow, I must say this is simply incredible! This is an amazing route! I can't wait to see more!

 

[lornyk5]

WOW, I'm blown away Peter!

Now that's something you don't see in trainz everyday:wave:

Lorin

 

[jadebullet]

That's a very cool idea. I love the cars. Very nice work.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Chicago Tunnel

Facinating Prototype ! I once saw it on a RR video tape. I wish to create an underground coal mine RR, can you suggest a timber framed, rock walled, dark tunnel ? Your tunnels look great, with the overhead juke wire. I believe it was quite dark in the Chicago tunnels, with only sparatic lights here and there in the Chicago Tunnel. I'm looking for a dark tunnel.

 

[Barchifowski]

Please tell me this is for a release! :mop::udrool:

 

[narrowgauge]

Barchifowski

Hopefully we will get it to the point where we can release a fully functioning version complete with 85 active industries. Unfortunately we have gone from a team of 3 to a team of two and that does not help.

cascaderailroad

Dark tunnels are no problem, we intend to solve that two ways. Firstly we will change the interior textures, and then for the user, it just needs him to set the start time to say, 10:00 pm and it will be pitch black inside. The current textures make debugging the trackage easier

A timber walled tunnel using our methods would work but the poly count would be higher unless the wall textures were done using the TS2009 normals method. It may be wasted work as if you are driving in the dark using headlights, you may not see the texture detail.

All the tunnels are made using the same 'tunnel track', everything combined in the same mesh, except for the junctions. As you can see you can't make a junction with tunnel track so at the junctions we use track without tunnel walls. The junction wall sections are made to suit specific junction layouts and are placed over the top as a scenery item, there are about 30 of these.

The junction levers are special, no working lever but the trackside item is made to centre on the track so that the coloured flags are visible inside the tunnel.

That's enough secrets for now.

Cheers

Peter

 

[mtldrm38]

Great work always admired the Chicago Tunnels.........
Interesting note is that downtown wasnt the only area in Chicago
with the tunnel railroad s..........
Al Capone was a crafty character on the southside.........

Dave =)

 

[narrowgauge]

Noel.

You posted this in another thread, was there more?

At the "Grand Union" junctions, you may like to consider some minor texturing in these areas. The rest of the tunnel system being the uniform solid colour as now?.

This then would give the route more 'life'?.
The other possible areas for a little texturing, would be the elevators, pick-up & put-down docks, coaling stations & the like.

When the route is finished the entire area will probably be textured in a bluish grey to simulate the blue clay of the sub zone inder Chicago. I'm not sure what you meant about texturing at the Grand Unions. The tunnel colours there were the same as everywhere else, just smooth concrete, no rough texture. Nearly all the tunnels were plastered to a smooth finish. I would like to have some variation in tunnel colour to simulate the general dirt that accumulates but because the result would be repetitive we decided to stick to the same standard colour.

You must remember that the route is inside the tunnels, that is what the driver sees, the outside is a 'No zone', used if a driver gets lost but not part of the experience we are aiming for.

The interior of the basements will have different treatments but what do you suggest for the elevators. The interior of the shafts is the same grey concrete as elsewhere. There is some colour in the elevator carriage, but probably those would have been the same shade of 'grunge' as everything else.

We will need to add people, finding those suitably clothed may be a problem and the general dress appeared to be boiler suits in varying degrees of dirtyness. Every one wore hats, a general habit in that era but as they were walking under a 250 volt live wire, a hat is a very sensible safety measure.

Does this address your concerns? Do you want to get involved?

Cheers

Peter

 

[applegathc]

el coolio

Now THAT'S cool.:wave:

 

[narrowgauge]

Here are some more shots, Bill's going to kill me for showing too much
-

Another coal hopper

A typical basement with access via an elevator

A longer view of the basement. Note the track, cars are moved by manpower or electric mule

Coal cars loaded

What you would see in the tunnel

The driver would see this at a Grand union, It tells him he is travelling North on State, is about to cross Washington and can go left for Westbound or right for East

This one is for Noel, does this look better

Another view of the Marshall Field basement with the new ground colour

Cheers
-
Peter

 

[mtldrm38]

Wow absolutely a modern marvel for sure great job again so far.........


Dave =)

 

[HiBaller]

One never knows, Peter. Maybe this thread will generate some interest in giving us a hand.

Bill

 

[S301]

Well, it's certainly inspired me to get my current projects out the door and come back to you!

he he

Zec

 

[sirrliv]

Brilliant work, mates.

It kinda makes one think, though. If such a system were to be installed beneath every major city, in combination with main-line rail, it could potentially eliminate the need for urban trucks. It certainly makes one think...

 

[narrowgauge]

Zec

I'll email you.

sirrliv

I think that to be efficient any present day version of the CTC would have to be standard gauge with tunnels large enough to handle containers on flat cars. You would also need access to all the unloading docks from ground level. What really killed the CTC was the small cars and the need to double handle all freight. It was the right thing for its time, and a brave attempt.

Fancy digging 50 miles of tunnels, all by hand, that was a real undertaking.

Cheers

Peter

 

[narrowgauge]

We have reached the stage where we would like to release the route as Work-in-Progress to a small group. The purpose would be to get comments and suggestions, while at the same time, having new eyes looking at everything would help to find errors we've missed.

We do not expect anyone to do any work on it although offers would be appreciated. Just install it, play with it and tell us what you think.

I regret that it has now become a TS2009 SP1 map as it makes use of the new stitched-track system.

Email me and I will send a download link. I do not promise to select everyone who applies, we want to keep it to a small group.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Mick_Berg]

I'd like to congratulate everyone on this great project and thank them for all the hard work. I'm not going to get 2009 for quite a while, not until the EE is released and all the bugs are fixed. But as soon as I have it, this will be the first route I will download. Looking forward to it!
Thanks,
Mick Berg

 

[HiBaller]

Free, to a good home

I have made a post in the Content Creation board concerning the CTC. We have decided to turn the whole project over to one, or more, persons willing to take up the challenge. My post can be found at:

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=38780

Bill