Illinois Central: Iroquois Prairielands

About: The Iroquois Prairielands route (pronounced ee-roh-koy) is a work in progress by Drangus (Daniel) for the simulator Train Sim Classic. The solo route building project began in early 2023, and is a result of the builder's love for the railroads and ruralness of his home state of Illinois. In order to achieve as much historical accuracy as possible, Drangus has consulted historical aerials, photographs, track charts, and employee timetables. The project is expected to be fully finished by the end of 2024, but as route building for Train Sim Classic is a hobby of Drangus' outside of his day job, dates of completion are subject to change. He thanks you for your patience as you await this meticulously researched and designed project.

History: The route features the bidirectional, double mainline, CTC controlled Illinois Central main line as it appeared in the late 1940s/early 1950s between Kankakee, IL and Gilman, IL (about 30 miles) in northern Iroquois County. At the peak of wartime traffic, it was the busiest section of track on the Illinois Central system. With few curves and gentle hills, this section of track saw high speed passenger and freight service. As part of the IC Chicago Subdivision, the main line also connects to The New York Central System at Kankakee, IL, the IC Bloomington Subdivision to Bloomington, IL at Otto, IL, and the IC Gilman Line to St. Louis, MO and the Toledo, Peoria, and Western Railway at Gilman, IL. The line was later reduced to a single bidirectional track in the 1980s, and continues to be used to this by Canadian National Railroad after their absorption of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1999.
Read more about this interesting stretch of track here: https://www.jonroma.net/media/signaling/railway-signaling/1952/Double-Track%20CTC%20on%20Illinois%20Central.pdf

Recommended Rolling Stock:
IC Lima Mikado Steam Locomotive by Machine Rail (commissioned by Drangus for this route)

• Product Link: https://www.machine-rail.com/product-page/icrr-1923-lima-mikados-great-freight-fleet
  IC EMD GP9 Diesel Locomotive by RSC (repaint by Drangus)
• Product Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/208371/Train_Simulator_GP9_Loco_AddOn/
• Mod Link: https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/mods/c1-train-sim-classic/c10-reskins/c25-north-american/c27-locomotives/i3902-emd-gp9-illinois-central

Current Features: The towns of Otto, Chebanse, Clifton, Ashkum, and Danforth have been completely finished. This finished stretch has also been given a foliage update, where the foliage is more true of the modeled area and changes with the seasons. Kankakee to the north and Gilman to the south have some of their trackside structures placed, and have not undergone the foliage update yet. The entire route's trackage has been built and signaled for the most part. Custom signage modeled by the builder will also be added towards the end of the route building phase. At this time, the route is unfortunately not Quick Drive enabled, so you will have to edit train consists in the scenario editor.

Thank You to:
Dovetail Games for base game
DSGDDR Discord Group for route testing
Machine Rail for locomotive and rolling stock commission (IC Lima Mikado pack)
Historic Aerials for aerial photographs and topographic maps
Illinois-Central.Net for miscellaneous historical info
Illinois Central Railroad Heritage Association for historic photographs
Jon Roma for signal information
Vintage American Railroading Simulations Facebook Group members for route testing
WX4 for track charts and employee timetables
...and lastly, you - yes YOU - for downloading and giving feedback in the comments below!

Requirements

Assets:

• Boston and Albany - G-Trax
• B&O Mountain Sub - High Iron Simulations
• Caltrain Gilroy Route - DTG
• CalTrain San Jose Route- DTG
• Clinchfield - DTG
• Horseshoe Curve - RSC
• Pennsylvania Steam - G-Trax
• Rail Simulator US (US Loco and Asset Pack) - RSC
• Sacramento Northern Suisun Bay - G-Trax
• Wasatch - JL

It's recommended that you have all the required assets, or the route may not load properly. It is also best for you to set your in-game graphics to the highest detail setting of 10 if possible.

Installation Instructions

Simply unzip the .zip folder and place it in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\Content\Routes.

The route builder is not responsible for any system damage or data loss that may occur to your computer due to the use of this downloaded content.

Tags: drangus emd gp9 illinois illinois-central illinois-central-gulf machinerail mikado steam vintage