Engine Driver Reader ChicagoRailfan Explains Why The Iconic Chicago Metra/Union Pacific Lines Should be Considered for Train Simulator
Many of us have been waiting and waiting for a Metra route for Train Simulator . I believe that maybe DTG needs some more insight on this historic commuter railroad. Chicago Metra is one of the biggest and busiest commuter rail services in North America. Spanning 11 different lines that spread out to all different places in the Chicagoland area not including the Indiana Shore commuter rail line. Each line has areas that are filled with history from their predecessor railroads.
I believe though in order to kick off a Chicago Metra route they should start off with the Metra UP lines. There are a total of three lines: Union Pacific North line to Kenosha, WI; Union Pacific Northwest line to Harvard and Mchenry, IL and the Union Pacific West line to Elburn, IL. There is a total of 194 trains during the weekday and 123 trains total during the weekend. Many of these trains do not actually go out to the end of the line but terminate sometime before the last station. All trains into Chicago terminate in Chicago Ogilvie Transportation Center.
Ogilvie Transportation Center or OTC is the terminus point for these trains. Spanning 16 tracks across and with 8 island platforms that are considerable in length this stations sees a great deal of action. OTC is one of the few downtown Chicago Terminals such as Union Station, La Salle Street and Millennium Park Station. One of the cool aspects of this station is that Amtrak or any other trains do not terminate at this station, only Union Pacific line trains terminate here. A cool fact about this station is that the terminal part of the station is literally an office building in a small shopping plaza. Another cool fact is the station was once known as Chicago Northwestern Terminal, rebuilt in 1984-87 and was named after Richard B. Ogilvie, once a board member of the old Milwaukee Road and governor of Illinois for a considerable amount of time. Lastly this is one of three lines that is not maintained by Metra. Union Pacific does all the work on these lines from operations, equipment maintenance and track work, Metra only supplies the equipment.
Speaking of equipment these areas are well diverse in rolling stock but are restricted on what locomotives can be used do to the bridges downtown, still being the original predecessor CNW bridges. So with these restrictions, Metra is forced to only be able to operate their F40PH, F40PH-2 and the newly rebuilt F40PH-3 models (which are almost identical in appearance) but they are not restricted on the cars they can run. Trains are all sorted with plenty of variety. You have the old Budd stainless steel cars, old Pullman smooth steel cars, Amerail cars and finally the Nippon Sharyo cars. Mainly the leading cab cars are the old or newly rebuilt Amerail cab cars which are somewhat similar to the Nippon Sharyo gallery cars but are distinguishable by thier smaller windows and K5LA airchime horns.
F40PH/F40PH-2
F40PH-3
Amerail Non Rebuilt
Amerail Rebuilt
Nippon Sharyo
Here is a little bit of video action of the UP lines
Metra UP NW line ride from Arlington Hieghts to Ogilvie Transportation Center
Ride on Metra UP west from Elburn to Winfield
Now all-in-all I believe that if DTG actually did this they would do a very good job on it and, as well this, will open the door for more great opportunities for the Midwest and commuter railroad add-ons alike.
I welcome your thoughts and comments below, thank you for reading - ChicagoRailfan