I am building a layout based on chicago. I am starting to build it before i have fully designed it. This is because i am sharing the room with my dads N scale layout. My Chicago will sit under his. So i got a plan in my head that i am trying to build from until he finished the frame that will hold both of our layout up.
Right now it is a mess but we have alot of project going on between both layouts.
The right wall will have the ogilivie transportation center, union station, a compressed BNSF yard. The back wall will only be a foot deep so my thought is to put the main line back by the wall. Then put a backdrop in front of it and use the rest of the spave to do a break water and a light house. The left wall will be brookfield IL (metra station, small intermodel yard, and some of the city). The peninsula will be downtown chicago. It will have the millennium station, Van Buren station and the upper EL. I hope to get this as accurate as posible while condencing the parts i am modeling.
I was born and raised in Chicago (NW side) and grew up trainwatching there in the '50s.
IMHO, what you are looking to do is extremely difficult, at best. “Chicagoland” covers a huge congested area with umpteen RRs operating there. Of course its nothing like it was pre Amtrack and pre merger mania, but it still is a major undertaking.
I would suggest you look to model one or two RRs and have Chicago as a “stopping point” somewhere on the layout, which may be much more doable.
Also, building a layout under your Dad’s which is also under construction looks to be a pretty complicated undertaking. Maybe it would be a good idea for you to work hand and hand with your Dad to get his up and running and then look to build your own layout - if you still want to do so.
Believe me, I’m not trying to be a wet blanket, but “getting in over your head” is an excellent instigator for getting out of the hobby…
Like mobilman44, I grew up in Chicago and, today, I remain a lifetime resident of the Chicago area, living in the southwest suburbs.
Taking on a project like modeling Chicago can be a huge undertaking, especially if you are trying to model an area extending from downtown Chicago, including the lakefront, and stretching sothwest to Brookfield.
I gather from your post that you are a younger model railroader who is more familiar with, and therefore interested in modeling, the contemporary Chicago architectural and railroad scene. Let me say this. Given Chicago’s historical railroad heritage, modern railroading in Chicago is boring by comparison.
Even though you may have grown up in the post-steam era, even the 1960’s and 1970’s still offered a lot more railroading interest when the south end of the downtown area still had a huge amount of space devoted to freight operations and passenger trains activity. During that time frame, there were still six passenger train stations including not only Union Station and C&NW station but also Central Station, Dearborn Station, La Salle Street Station and Grand Central Station.
I am planning a layout in HO scale that would include Dearborn Statio
I know there was going to be alot of selective compression. I collected alot of city stuff over the years and when my dad offered this space to me, i knew it was my chance to do a city. I have always been fasinated in chicago. It helps that all the railroads that i have engines to stop in chicago. This past summer i took a week long trip to chicago and paid attention to the size of things. I knew then it was going to be a challenge. This layout is ment to be a running layout. I am not trying to design much switching into it Like chicago is.
When i am done i hope when people come to see the layout and get the feel of chicago. The stations i am modeling i know there is no way to fully model them. The Ogilivie Transportation center area would need to ba about 4ft by 12 ft to do it right. On my trip i used every metra station that will be on the layout. I would love a bigger basment to do chicago right. So i settled on making it feel like chicago. So i deside to make certain details stand out. It is funny my dad keeps saying “why are you planning to do that the average person will never know that detail”. My responce always is “i want to do it right”.
The wall that will have brookfield will be cut off from the rest. The mainline will go through a backdrop on one side and crossing over the walkway on a removeable piece onto the peninsula on the other end. This area was hard to deside because in real life it would be the shoreline of lake Michigan, it also has no tracks let alone a main line. So i desided why not have the train loop a coulpe of times and then stop at the station. That would play out my metra tip from union station to the hollywood station when we went to the brookfield zoo.
