Chicago Tunnel Railway dioramas, 3mm gauge and now 9mm gauge

[Dunalastair]

This was an earlier, rather smaller diorama. There was an extensive narrow gauge electric railway system in tunnels under Chicago - much of which is apparently still there. This is what the original looked like.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company

 

And here is the model, just 100mm x 100mm, pretty much at the limit of my previous 3D printer. It made for an interesting print geometry.

 

 

 

 

 

All very different from British standard gauge!

Edited July 1, 2023 by Dunalastair

[009 micro modeller]

This partly inspired the Post Office Railway system in London. One odd aspect of it was that it was regulated as an interurban (a sort of longer distance tramway) despite being underground and in a city centre.

 

If it’s 3mm gauge, what’s the scale and overall size like?

Edited June 24, 2023 by 009 micro modeller

[Johann Marsbar]

A loco and a some examples of the rolling stock used are preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.......

 

 

 

I believe these were all discovered in one of the tunnels long after the system had closed.

[Dunalastair]

NIce images of the recovered stock, thankyou. The detailed wiki article on the railway describes several incidents after closure, including the 'Great Chicago Leak' in 1992 when the tunnels were flooded from the river - and many city building basements were inundated. 

 

I like this image of a more conventional railroad scene with a tunnel mailcar at Grand Central Station. A working version of the elevator would make an interesting model. I feel temptation beckoning - get thee behind me Satan...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company

 

I just put a micrometer on the model. The gauge is about 3.7mm (larger than I remembered) making the scale about 1:160, given the original is two foot gauge, if I have got my sums right. So about N gauge. The diorama is indeed 100x100mm.

[Dunalastair]

On 25/06/2023 at 07:53, Dunalastair said:

 

I like this image of a more conventional railroad scene with a tunnel mailcar at Grand Central Station. A working version of the elevator would make an interesting model. I feel temptation beckoning - get thee behind me Satan...

 

 

I fear that I have not altogether resisted temptation ...

 

The idea is that a printed RPO which has been sectioned lengthwise would make a backscene for the narrow gauge tunnel car and the elevator. Scale currently 1:76. Early days in the 3D design, and I'm not sure if the elevator will elevate.