Hello fellow Trainzers:
All of us who worked to bring you the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway have now begun work on another 'groundbreaking' route.
This is yet another two-foot narrowgauge route set in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Large gradients are practically non-existent, but curves are very short radius. Virtually the entire railroad is 40 ft. below the streets of Chicago! The line was started in August, 1899 as the Illinois Telephone and Telegraph Company and broke ground very shortly thereafter in the basement of a building on Madison Street. On October 29, 1903 the name changed to the Illinois Tunnel Company and shortly thereafter, the first electric locomotives arrived and were put to work. Construction continued until March 26, 1912 when a new company, The Chicago Tunnel Company, was formed. That name was retained until the railroad was dissolved in 1956. The tunnels, however, still remain even today!
Those of you thinking "oh, another subway line" would be wrong. The various companies neither catered to, nor were allowed to even carry, passengers. This line was created to handle merchandise to and from the area of Chicago known as the Loop.
The line carried goods through about 60 miles of tunnels to and from both businesses and railyards in the greater Loop area. This tunnel route interfaced with 22 railroad freight houses, 4 train stations, 26 commercial businesses, 13 non-commercial locations, and 4 public shipment stations in addition to 46 connections for coal and/or ash.
Access to the tunnels was via 96 elevators which hauled cars from subsurface to basement docks where they were tended to. As most commercial and non-commercial establishments used coal-fed boilers, this line hauled coal from incoming surface freight trains which was dropped into chutes to cars waiting below for delivery. Burning coal produces ash, so this was hauled out of the city to dumping areas.
So far, the Trainz Narrowgaugers have recreated all of the trackage of this unique line. We now need some help with things such as interactive rolling stock, coal chutes, ash dumps, commercial docks, and various commercial/postal loads of freight. This type of work is unique in that you would essentially be working from the inside out. Think "ship in a bottle" or "hamster habitat" where tunnels connect with interactive dock areas inside a shoebox. In some places, tunnel tracks lead right into a sub-basement where transshipment takes place, but others require the use of an elevator (which we have developed a working model of) to the surface.
Even on the surface, the action would be contained inside a box sitting on the "ground" (which is actually 15 Meters in the air over the trainboard). All of the new items would probably require GMax, so this is where we need help. Since Trainz works best in the Metric system, we have chosen 15 meters (metres) which is roughtly 49.2 feet, as our working height (above ground). This means that tracks are laid right on the trainboard (at 0.0) and elevators reach 15M up into the air.
If you want to give us a hand, and join the rest of us in the Trainz Narrowgauger's Group send me an email at "hiballer (at) sbcglobal.net"
Bill
A shot of one of the basement exits to a tunnel. Come on over to the Screen shots section for more live and Trainz pictures.
All of us who worked to bring you the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway have now begun work on another 'groundbreaking' route.
This is yet another two-foot narrowgauge route set in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Large gradients are practically non-existent, but curves are very short radius. Virtually the entire railroad is 40 ft. below the streets of Chicago! The line was started in August, 1899 as the Illinois Telephone and Telegraph Company and broke ground very shortly thereafter in the basement of a building on Madison Street. On October 29, 1903 the name changed to the Illinois Tunnel Company and shortly thereafter, the first electric locomotives arrived and were put to work. Construction continued until March 26, 1912 when a new company, The Chicago Tunnel Company, was formed. That name was retained until the railroad was dissolved in 1956. The tunnels, however, still remain even today!
Those of you thinking "oh, another subway line" would be wrong. The various companies neither catered to, nor were allowed to even carry, passengers. This line was created to handle merchandise to and from the area of Chicago known as the Loop.
The line carried goods through about 60 miles of tunnels to and from both businesses and railyards in the greater Loop area. This tunnel route interfaced with 22 railroad freight houses, 4 train stations, 26 commercial businesses, 13 non-commercial locations, and 4 public shipment stations in addition to 46 connections for coal and/or ash.
Access to the tunnels was via 96 elevators which hauled cars from subsurface to basement docks where they were tended to. As most commercial and non-commercial establishments used coal-fed boilers, this line hauled coal from incoming surface freight trains which was dropped into chutes to cars waiting below for delivery. Burning coal produces ash, so this was hauled out of the city to dumping areas.
So far, the Trainz Narrowgaugers have recreated all of the trackage of this unique line. We now need some help with things such as interactive rolling stock, coal chutes, ash dumps, commercial docks, and various commercial/postal loads of freight. This type of work is unique in that you would essentially be working from the inside out. Think "ship in a bottle" or "hamster habitat" where tunnels connect with interactive dock areas inside a shoebox. In some places, tunnel tracks lead right into a sub-basement where transshipment takes place, but others require the use of an elevator (which we have developed a working model of) to the surface.
Even on the surface, the action would be contained inside a box sitting on the "ground" (which is actually 15 Meters in the air over the trainboard). All of the new items would probably require GMax, so this is where we need help. Since Trainz works best in the Metric system, we have chosen 15 meters (metres) which is roughtly 49.2 feet, as our working height (above ground). This means that tracks are laid right on the trainboard (at 0.0) and elevators reach 15M up into the air.
If you want to give us a hand, and join the rest of us in the Trainz Narrowgauger's Group send me an email at "hiballer (at) sbcglobal.net"
Bill
A shot of one of the basement exits to a tunnel. Come on over to the Screen shots section for more live and Trainz pictures.
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