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Skyline User's Forum _ Templates _ Chicago Great Western route

Posted by: dgionet Jan 16 2022, 04:39 PM

Hello to all,

Following the release of the Cape Cod Template, I've turned my attention on one route for which a template has never been done for Activity Generator v4 ( only for v3): the Chicago Great Western route. For years, it was only available in the Mophouse Forum. Following its closure, it has reappeared in the TS site only in 2019. There has been a lot of preparation for this template in terms of required rolling stock, which includes two recent releases of repaints/renumbers I have done for this template. Some sidings were lengthened; others were created to optimize its potential. This route template will involve at leat five Railroads; The Chicago Great Western (CGW),The Chicago & Northwestern (CNW), The Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB),the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) and the Illinois Central (IC). Also a lot of head scratching to determine the era for this project.

The timeframe is precise on this project and has been set for June 1968, only a few weeks away from the official CGW merger with the CNW as of July 1st 1968. In 1967, federal regulators have approved the CGW to merge with the CNW. However, the SOO railroad has appealed the regulator's decision and finally in June 1968, it rejected the appeal. That finally gave the green light to proceed with the merger which the CGW will be absorbed into the CNW. The CNW has gradually taken its place as motive power has started to be used on runs during its last weeks of CGW existence.

For this project, you will need both the CGW and CNW sets from Belanger Locomotive works (BLW) in addition of 25 addditional downloads from TS, since it involves so many railroads. A lot of work has been done also on railfilling the heaviest areas of the route such as the Chicago Transfer yards and at Oelwein. Also some time has been spent on creating new consists for the route, including one 100-car consist which these long consists apparently were frequent acrossd its CGW network.

Here are shots of my latest repaints CGW F3 & F5 sets and one IHB GP38-2 which will complete the one available in TS. Also shown here are two shots from the first WB template between Chicago and East Stockton, its final destination, since there is a crew change in East Stockton. You see here the start of the activity in the Chicago Transfer Yards.

https://flic.kr/p/2mVL5kQhttps://flic.kr/p/2mVL5kQ by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2mVLDWzhttps://flic.kr/p/2mVLDWz by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2mXBVuFhttps://flic.kr/p/2mXBVuF by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2mXDSuQhttps://flic.kr/p/2mXDSuQ by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

A lot of work lies ahead with this project.

Will keep posting as it advances

Posted by: Harlank Jan 23 2022, 08:39 AM

Really great to hear!

harlank

Posted by: dgionet Feb 26 2022, 01:20 PM

Hello to all,

A lot of work has been done since my last post in late January. Work is now mostly finished. A total of 28 templates, one less that the Monon 17 template project.

A sixth railroad has been added to the project: The Milwaukee Road. It crosses the mainline at Byron, Oneida and at Dubuque. There will be one MILW template in Dubuque in addition to the B&O, IHB, CNW, IC and CGW; 6 different railroads for this project

Due to the length of the route(approx.250 miles), some of the templates has been split in two to allow as possible the highest car railfill possible.

Here are shots from some of the acts generated by AG.

https://flic.kr/p/2n5CM7chttps://flic.kr/p/2n5CM7c by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5M1Lyhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5M1Ly by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5KotEhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5KotE by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5M1KXhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5M1KX by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEEhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEE by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEzhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEz by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEuhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEu by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5M1Kmhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5M1Km by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEjhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5HLEj by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n5CM6fhttps://flic.kr/p/2n5CM6f by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

Will focus now on testing and tweaking the templates.

More later

Posted by: dgionet Mar 21 2022, 05:33 PM

Hello to all,

Testing has started a while ago and have focused my attention on the first Mainline CGW templates. Also tested all CNW, MILW and IC Templates, so far.

During testing, a major issue was found on one of the boxcar downloads: the handbrakes were not working. It took a while to find the cause of this problem but made corrections on all 20 boxcars of that set (Loads and empties). WAG corrections will be part of the template package.

In the meantime here are 20 shots of activities generated by AG.

https://flic.kr/p/2n9WZgjhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9WZgj by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9YtBrhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9YtBr by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoLMhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VoLM by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9WZfHhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9WZfH by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoLwhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VoLw by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLE3https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLE3 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLDGhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VLDG by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoLghttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VoLg by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoL1https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoL1 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLD1https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLD1 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

The next 10 shots on the following post...

Posted by: dgionet Mar 21 2022, 05:33 PM

The last shots:

https://flic.kr/p/2n9YtzYhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9YtzY by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9YtzThttps://flic.kr/p/2n9YtzT by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9QmR5https://flic.kr/p/2n9QmR5 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoK4https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoK4 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLCphttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VLCp by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9Ytzxhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9Ytzx by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9QmQJhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9QmQJ by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9QmQthttps://flic.kr/p/2n9QmQt by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VLBYhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VLBY by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/2n9VoJnhttps://flic.kr/p/2n9VoJn by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

Will keep updating as it advances

Posted by: bandorr2000 Apr 24 2022, 09:25 AM

Really looking forward to this one.

Posted by: dgionet Apr 28 2022, 05:01 PM

Hi to all,

Just to confirm that Benny gave me the go ahead on his side and testing on my side gave me no major issues. So the template is now available to our users.

As for the last templates, simply write me a request at photoman_57(at)hotmail(dot)ca

Here's the template image to be seen with the package

https://flic.kr/p/2nhk9afhttps://flic.kr/p/2nhk9af by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150924424@N08/, sur Flickr

This project has reached a milestone, being my 100th template project since starting building them in 2007. And Benny's testing was part of many of my work done.

Benny, a big thanks for your support over the years!

I Believe I have still some energy to build a few more. Like all of us, we aren't getting younger…

Enjoy the pack and happy trainsimming!