South Shore train leaving Randolph St. in Chicago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_eNUCYIvZ8&feature=endscreen&NR=1

As the train pulls out on the far right is the two tracks coming out form the underground Illinois Central terminal on the other side of Randolph Street.  The South Shore Line tracks are five and you will notice the tracks converge to one single track exiting the terminal.  We have modeled this exactly as shown on the prototype.  Then that single track joins the IC 4+ tracks wide right of way that continues for several miles.  We only have three tracks at this point.

Enjoy the video.  It is fairly new because the South Shore Line cars are the new types built in the 80s and we are modeling the 50s.  Also now the entire terminal is underground and a major park has been built over the terminal.

Progress Photos As Of March 31, 2013

These photos were taken on the Western Maryland starting at Warren's Gap going West (to the right) as far as our tall trestle.  The very last photo is the track work for Randolph Street Terminal of the South Shore and the Illinois Central.

 

Carved Rock Tunnel Portal in Warren's Gap

West Portal in Warren's Gap

 

Future Coal Mine, Tipple, and Mining Town

 

 More of the future mine area.  River goes in the flat area.

 

The Concrete retaining wall in the mine area

 

Leaving the mine area through the cut 

 

Beyond the cut 

 

Another rock cut tunnel leading to the East staging area  

 

Further West at the summit of the grade 

 

 

The West end of the tunnel 

 

Another cut as we descent the grade 

 

The East Side of the river were a 80 Wood trestle is being built 

 

Some test trees on the back drop 

 

Randolph Street terminal on the South Shore.  The five tracks on the right are those of the South Shore.  The lower four tracks on the left lead to the underground Illinois Central Terminal under the Prudential Insurance Air Rights Building to built at the end of the tracks.

 

All photos were taken with a Kodak EasyShare C180 with Flash and 2700 K CFLs

Features Selected for the South Shore portion of the layout.

Dear Followers.
Here is the list from the previous post:

Great Lakes Port with at least one ship

A Laker style ore ship

A Great Lakes Cruise Ship, the SS South American

A small Steel mill

An amusement park with animated rides including a roller coaster

A theater representive of the Chicago Theater

40-50 feet of the CTA Elevated ("L" in Chicago terms)

A downtown section of buildings

Here are my selections that I have determined are the best fit and will provide the most interest and value to me and to visitors.

Great Lakes Port with one ship

A Laker style ore ship

A small Steel mill

A selectively compressed theater representive of the Chicago Theater

40-50 feet of the CTA Elevated ("L" in Chicago terms)

A downtown section of buildings

The Great Lakes cruise ship is almost 9 feet long so that has been eliminated.  The Laker ship is much shorter being only 65-1/4" long.   The amusement park is too big for the layout and the South Shore's route did not serve any amusement parks as far as I can tell.  The theater will either created from my existing theater for the time being but may be re-built to be more representive of the Chicago Theater using selective compression.  The real theater if built to scale would occupy 42 by 53 inches.  The Port, the Laker ore ship, and the Steel Mill will occupy the same general area on the layout East of Calumet River.

Thanks for reading.

Features Wanted on the South Shore

Following is a list of features I would like to include on the South Shore railroad.  However, I do not have the room for all of them so I must choose which ones to eliminate or I will never even come close to finishing the layout to some acceptable degree of finished.  This list is in no particular order and being on the top of the bottom of the list does not imply relative importantance.

• Great Lakes Port with at least one ship
• A Laker style ore ship
• A Great Lakes Cruise Ship, the SS South American
• A small Steel mill
• An amusement park with animated rides including a roller coaster
• A theater representive of the Chicago Theater
• 40-50 feet of the CTA Elevated ("L" in Chicago terms)
• A downtown section of buildings

It should be obvious that this list must be trimed down.  That will be a difficult job no doubt but must be done very soon.  I am publishing it here and it is open for comments please.  There are eight items to this list.  I may remember a feature I left off this late at night and will add whatever I need to tomorrow sometime.  In the meantime feel free to comment.  I am thinking that at least one or two things need to be removed.  Email me at jay@thebeckhams.us if you care.  Thanks.

My Sixth Turnout made using the Fast Tracks Jig

 

I am using the Fast Tracks #5 jig.  The only brand of rail that fits these jigs correctly is Micro Engineering rail.  The rail is Code 148 and the type I had on hand was Weathered.  So I built six turnouts and then sold the remaining rail.  In the future I will use only Non-Weathered rail as I had a lot of soldering issues because of the weathering.  In fact Jim and I had to remove the Weathering from the top, bottom, and sides to properly solder the rails to the PC board ties.  Also I used Plibond cement to glue the wood ties to the rails.  It is OK but not the best method.  The first two turnouts were in locations somewhat difficult to reach so the glued ties helped.  Three will be used on our staging yard and they will be easy to reach so I may add spiked to better secure the rail to the ties.  I plan on shortly adding some photos of Warren's scenery.  A lot has been completed since I last posted in photos.  So maybe over the weekend I can take some and post them.

Major Announcement

As many of you know I have been going through a very tiring process of trying to finalize plans for my railroad.  I have interests in many things related to railroads and other things e.g. ships and amusement parks to name a few.  I also love the mountains and mountain railroading.  So after being pulled by these sometimes conflicting interests I have reached a decision that I earnestly believe I can live with.  Hopefully you all as casual observers of this very difficult process will be pleased that I have finally settled down and set some bounties for the layout.

Basically in a nut shell, the layout will consist of two unrelated but connected railroads, the Western Maryland Railway and the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad.  They have a common connection of the C & O as being owned by the C & O at various times.  The WM of course was purchased by the C & O/CSX and still operates what is left under CSX.  The South Shore was owned briefly by the C & O also but is now an independent railroad again.

The WM will run and haul coal and other freight mostly within WV.  A connection with the C & O will allow interchange with the South Shore.

The WM portion will be modeled after real locations and the South Shore also will be modeled after real locations and both with operate as prototypical as possible.

Also a future addition to the urban portion of the layout will include a short section of CTA L (elevated) from downtown to the suburbs.  The South Shore portion will go from downtown (Randolph Street Terminal) to Gary, IN.  Traffic East of Gary was and is very sparse.  So this covers 80% of the railroad's traffic.

My theater that has been seen in some older posts will be re-designed to represent the Chicago Theater in Chicago near the loop.

In the next few days I will be posting photos of the WM side of the layout showing the mountain scenery of which some is finished and other portions under construction.  I will also post an updated layout drawing.

I have also deleted out of date postings from this blog.