Any Info on the St. Charles Line?

Hi! I can't believe I didn't hear about this before! It is almost ready for upload! Any Screenshots, ETC?Thanks!
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The "Metra Man" David Kuntz, 14 year old Simmist
Formerly DavidPagesWeb Until Virus. METRAUP until Forum Forgot Me. Add 350 Posts to my number

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RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, mdeming, Apr-18-03, 04:04 PM, (1) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, NS4Life, Apr-18-03, 04:19 PM, (2) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, kevarc, Apr-18-03, 05:15 PM, (3) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, NS4Life, Apr-18-03, 06:40 PM, (4) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, CGW409, Apr-19-03, 10:35 AM, (5) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, NS4Life, Apr-19-03, 12:32 PM, (6) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, sparkie101, Apr-19-03, 12:53 PM, (7) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, mdeming, Apr-19-03, 03:45 PM, (8) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, sparkie101, Apr-19-03, 05:58 PM, (9) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, mdeming, Apr-19-03, 10:05 PM, (10) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, chuckzeiler, Apr-20-03, 10:27 AM, (11) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, CGW409, Apr-20-03, 11:08 AM, (12) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, CGW409, Apr-20-03, 11:19 AM, (13) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, sparkie101, Apr-21-03, 11:39 AM, (14) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, CGW409, Apr-21-03, 08:04 PM, (15) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, philmoberg, Apr-21-03, 08:25 PM, (16) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, CGW409, Apr-22-03, 06:17 PM, (17) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, philmoberg, Apr-22-03, 08:37 PM, (18) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, shawnbecher, Apr-22-03, 09:27 PM, (19) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, kevarc, Apr-22-03, 10:30 PM, (20) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, BNSF4999, Apr-23-03, 01:45 AM, (21) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, mdeming, Apr-23-03, 10:12 AM, (22) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, shawnbecher, Apr-23-03, 10:26 AM, (23) RE: Any Info on the St. Charles Line?, CGW409, Apr-23-03, 06:04 PM, (24)

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The first picture is of CGW #64 a nw-2 crossing rt 31 in St Charles Illinois. The second is the same loco a few miles west of Dubuque Iowa. The 3rd is CGW #120 at Ingalton Illinois.
Mike

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Nice looking route, I'm not familiar with the railroad, is it a short line? If it is that's cool, I was possibly going to do a short line myself.Looks good at this point, except I think that water is a little to blue.NS4Life

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It is the former Chicago Great Western Line between Chicago and Oelwin (sp). Very nice Route.Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES

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I was just wondering, thanks. Looks great.NS4Life

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NS4
Hey thanks for making us guys that remember the Great Weedy feel like a bunch of old f**ts Gary S

"Some say this country's just out for a fight. After 9/11 man I'd have to say thats right"
"Have You Forgotten"
Darryl Worley

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LOL!NS4Life

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I grew up about a mile from Ingalton. Your picture looks pretty much as I remember it from the 50's. I don't recall the large building on the north side of the mainline though, but that was 50 years ago. I recall five or six houses running west from route 59 on that side, then just trees and underbrush. I spent many hours standing on the Rt 59 bridge watching CGW and EJ&E trains switch the interchange. If you have any specific questions on the area around Ingalton or St. Charles, I would be happy to give my 2 cents.I am in the middle of building the Aurora and Elgin but I started before Xtracks and Demex and I'm trying to decide if I want to start over.Keep up the good work,
Sparkie

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You cant remember the building there cause it was torn down in the 1930's, about 20 yars before I was born. A barbed wire factory was there in the 1890's and it had various identies up to the 30's. Where did you go to school sparkie? I went to Ingalton school in the early 60's. I lived at Ingalton till 1965. We lived in the first house west of rt 59.
Mike

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Mike,Well, I guess we are both correct about the barbed wire factory. Only a factor of time. I don't think I ever went to the end of that street. Was there anything left of the building in the 50's?I went to Ingalton School until about 1956 or 57. I think I was in the last class that went into West Chicago for Junior Hi. We lived over in Waynewood. Did you live in the first house past the old store? Sparkie

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Yes we lived next to the old store, You might remember my older brothers, Ralph or Maury. The only thing left when we lived there was remenants of a foundation, and an old flatcar. The farmer just up the road,Brummel, used the area for his cattle. I included it to give the siding some life. Last time I was at ingalton there were only 3 houses left. The first foto is the last time I saw the old store, it would be an interesting model for msts, sag and all. The second is of the Ingalton depot in 1963, my older brother sent it to me. Do you remember the train wreck at ingalton when 2 texas steam engines ran into each other? I have a picture of that, my daughter has the negative and is making it into a print for me, when I get it I will post it.
Mike Deming

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As a lad, one of my first jobs was as a caddy at the St. Andrew's Country Club, just a bit up Route 59. I peddled my bicycle over the tracks many a time to get to work. Later, March 13, 1966 to be exact, I happened by Ingalton to get a couple of pictures:

On the same day, I headed out to St. Charles:

And, FWIW, exactly a month previous to the photos above, a picture of a disagreement between the CGW and the laws of physics, in St. Charles.

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Chuck
Glad to see more pics of St Charles.
The pic of the rt 31 bridge back in the day was just what I needed, so after I clear a few projects(like # 605) in TSM I'll probably tackle the river/road bridge setup.
I was out that way about a year ago and noticed the bridge logos had gone missing,I had hopped that they ended up in the historical society museum but was able to find out a couple of weeks ago that was not the case.
I noticed some of the pics look familiar (and since I don't have the book handy at the moement)Did you contribute for the CGW in Color book?
Please post more pics if you got em,you know educate the youngsters and put some of us older CGW buffs into full drool and rememberance mode.Gary S

"Some say this country's just out for a fight. After 9/11 man I'd have to say thats right"
"Have You Forgotten"
Darryl Worley

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Sparkie
Actualy the change over to xtracks shouldn't effect what you have now and unfortunately I discovered Demex after I had track laid from Forest Park to the west side of Lombard on the second rebuild(installed signals before I learned what a no no that was or realized the words "back up files" can save your sanity) but seeing as there are now at least three of us workin on the Roarin Elgin I should probably zip up and upload some of the CA&E buildings I've done Gary S

"Some say this country's just out for a fight. After 9/11 man I'd have to say thats right"
"Have You Forgotten"
Darryl Worley

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Mike,I spent some time trying to recall Ralph's name. I believe he was a year older than me. I have only made short visits to the area since I left to go to college in '62. In some ways it is sad to see such great changes. It isn't the rural area we grew up in.RE the CA&E: I found there was no problem adding xtracks, but I spent some time considering starting over with Demex and I think I'll pass on it. I included the St. Charles branch with all the street trackage and to do it again matching terrain, streets and roads would be more then I care to do. It would be great to have some specific CA&E buildings available. I wouuld be happy to do some myself if I could get plans or some good photos.Thanks for all the good work,
Keith Sponholtz

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Keith
As it stands right now all I have is the substation/depot as Maywood,Lombard and Warrenville appeared in the mid to late 50's(red & gray paint) I am going to have to reskin for Clintonville anyway so I'll make seperate signs since the red & grays wouldn't help you too much.
BTW I did make a switchstand pack that includes 2 CA&E type stands as well as a 1920's bridge ala the rt 64 overpass at Lakewood
Just punch the name Gary Sprandel in to the file search and you should find them.Gary S

"Some say this country's just out for a fight. After 9/11 man I'd have to say thats right"
"Have You Forgotten"
Darryl Worley

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Here are a few more shots, from the western end of this route. The first is eastbound out of Oelwein, the next two a bit east of there, and the last eastbound out of Aurora. This particular train had nine units and eighty-some-odd cars. This route promises to be 250 miles of very interesting railroading, indeed... -Phil

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Phil
You got a true CGW mortage lifter there(make sure the dispatcher checks on river traffic on the mighty Miss before you get to Dubuque though) from what I understand the Illinois Division was the line for line 110-130 car freights the KC and Twin Cities lines were where you saw the 200 + car freights (maybe due to concerns of holding up barge traffic on the Miss)
BTW are those F's avalible in the FL kind of a nice tough with the twin sealed beamsGary S

"Some say this country's just out for a fight. After 9/11 man I'd have to say thats right"
"Have You Forgotten"
Darryl Worley

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I knew the eastern end of the Illinois Division casually when I was a youngster, during the early '60s. My father was stationed in St. Louis, and later in northern Wisconsin, but his folks lived in De Kalb, and his sister was in Rockford. During our travels, I was occasionally treated to what appeared to be endless strings of freight cars pulled by death-defying numbers of F units. My test train is actully patterened after a photo in one of the magazines, about th time CGW was absorbed by the C&NW, which had a GP-30 cut in a few units back.The 110-130-car train lengths answer the question as to why the yard at Oelwein would take a train half again as long as the one I was using. As it is, eighty-four cars can be a bit of a challenge on parts of this route, particularly east of the Mississippi. I imagine a train around 120 cars would be nearly crawling in some places, such as westbound into Stockton, where this train was down in the mid-40s before enough of it got over the crest of the grade. This explains why I heard a lot of F units in Run 8 when I lived in the Midwest .I'm working back eastward and will be taking more screenshots, as I go (I have yet to have the time to do the 250 miles in one sitting). Mike's done a really nice job with this route, just in the Beta version. The final version will definitely be worth the wait... -Phil

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I had to take a 2 week break from beta testing, but I also like what I've seen so far. I started out west headed east with a short train (sorry, no CGW livery on my hard drive at the moment) and I'm past MP 100 headed towards Chicago. Sorry, I don't have any screen shots either. The final version of this route will undoubtedly be fantastic.Shawn

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Yep, it is nice. I emailed Mike with things I had found, which weren't many. Once the signals are fixed it is going to be areally good route.Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES

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Yeah the route is very nice-but there are 2 things I would change:
put in semaphores and whistle posts for all crossings, and some of the mainline curves from chicago-ingalton and maybe farther west-seem extremely sharp for mainline use-Id recommend widening them!
Also, Im sure the CGW had apeed restrictions besides the default 65...my friend has said that in the 60s and 70s the track was terrible...a limit of 25 or 30 was in place out of chicago...just some suggestions. I had an 8 F-unit freight with 165 cars running west from chicago-barely got her over 35...great route.

Kevin V.

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As to the curves, I just followed the route as it was back in the 50's. I was supprised at how sharp some of the curves were, but to the best of my knowledge they are accurate. The speed limits were taken from several timetables I have, I figured that there would be more but I could not find any info on them, so I left it at 65. The system wide was 50 for freight and 65 for passenger. I would change it but not real sure I can do it except in the activity editor. I hope to get all the crossings whistle posted but we will see. As to semaphores, I am assuming you mean signals. I would love semaphores also, along with the searchlights as the CGW used both. I tried to include them but couldn't get the sigcgf to work with both, and I got tired of messing with it. The CGW used a train order type of system and its signaling was rather crude, at least on the eastern division. I decided to upgrade the signaling at Kevarc's suggustion. In the photo of the Ingalton station above you can see the signal in front of the station, its a double headed signal, one east and one west, with a red and green light on each. I would love to do this in msts but no signal would accomplish this. The signal was used for train orders, but I am unclear as to how this really worked. A suprising thing came during the building of this route, The very thing that makes it a fun railroad to operate made it amoney losing venture also.
The first Photo is of a head- on at Ingalton. This was in the early 40's I believe, and judging from the picture it looks like its on the east side of Ingalton, probably east of the siding. The Second is of Ingalton Station, and I included it to show the signal. As kids we would keep an eye on it to tell when trains were coming.
I would like to take this space to thank all the beta testors. Your comments and insights have proven invaluable. Kevarc, Phil, Gary, Shawn, and Kevin V. Thanks for your time and effort.
As always if I forget someone it is not out of spite, rather its an issue of lack of available brain space. I am sure others have helped but I cannot recall my wifes birthday much less train- sim issues.
Mike Deming

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You're welcome Mike. I enjoyed testing your route.Shawn

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Mike
Great job,though I've gotten only a slight chance to do any running as I've now gotten into cranking out some CGW rolling stock.
I've nearly got the probs worked out on caboose #605 and then I'll try to get the Fox River/rt 31 bridge cranked out for you.
BTW does anyone know when the current bridge was built? I've seen pics of the gas-electric taken about 1952 with the old bridge and the freights rolling over the new bridge in about 1962Gary S

"Some say this country's just out for a fight. After 9/11 man I'd have to say thats right"
"Have You Forgotten"
Darryl Worley

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