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BN's Racetrack - Aurora to Chicago 1970-1995 BETA 1.0

A backdate of the fantastic Racetrack-Aurora to Chicago Route by GTrax/Chicago & Southwest Simulations.

Summary: Backdate the Racetrack to the days when BN owned the line (1970-1995).

This is a Work in Progress and is NOT finalized by any means!

Required DLC:
The Racetrack
Feather River Canyon
Sacramento Northern
Sherman Hill
Marias Pass

Route History:

BN's Chicago Subdivision was one of the busiest in the United States, seeing an average of 100 trains per day. The subdivision was the Eastern Terminus of BN's Northern Transcon connecting Chicago to Seattle, Washington. An average of 80 daily freight trains ran alongside 60 BN Suburban Service passenger trains.
The line originally opened in 1849 as the Aurora Branch Railroad. This earliest track followed the Fox River from Aurora to West Chicago and connected to the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, today part of Union Pacific. In 1850 the railway expanded building the line between Aurora and Chicago and extending westward to Galesburg, Illinois. During this time the owner bought out and consolidated several other railroads and became the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad.
This was the home of the Zephyrs in the 1930s and some of the fastest passenger service in North America. In the late 1960s, passenger service was in decline, and on May 1st, 1971, most of America's railroads gave up their passenger service to Amtrak. BN continued to run its local Chicago-Aurora "Suburban Service" commuter trains that came under RTA ownership in 1980.
Traffic continued to grow on the route, increasing with the CB&Q-GN merger in 1970 to form Burlington Northern. BN's Suburban Service was upgraded in the mid-1970s, giving way to today's Metra. Amtrak ran 6 trains a day on the Racetrack and were quite common. The Suburban Service was always the little brother to Amtrak, and as such received less funding, prompting them to run EMD E9s until 1994, while Amtrak had brand-new F40PHs since 1975.

Route Stats:

Location: Northeastern Illinois, USA
Route length: 42 Miles
Operating Railroad: Burlington Northern Railway Co
Line Speed: 70P-55F
Line Gauge: Standard
Passenger Stops (Suburban Service): 28
Major Yards (Listed Westbound): Union Station, Western Ave, Clyde, Eola, Hill, Aurora, and Montgomery.

To further enhance the backdate feeling, I changed some certain things:

Stations Removed:
RT 59. Even though it was built in 1989, I removed it since it looked way too modern for the look I was going for.

Stations Moved:
Cicero was moved about 1/4 mile east of its present location, to under the Odgen Bridge

Aurora was moved about 1 mile west of its present location, west of the IL-25 and Washington St intersection. It has 6 island platforms, with one main going through and one main going around the platforms.

Stations Added:
Morton Park, at 52nd Ave and 21st St in Cicero. A Station building existed until the 40s or 50s, a platform and shelter existed until the late 70s, early 80s.

Clyde, located between Austin Blvd and 59th Ct in Cicero. Existed as a Metra stop until 2007, when it was dismantled.

Eola, located about 1/4 mile east of Eola Rd, in Eola yard. There was a station until 1974, and certain trains stopped there until about 1980.

Austin-Western, located about 1/4 mile east of Farnsworth Ave in Aurora. Austin-Western was a factory, and the stop was for factory employees. Certain trains stopped there until about 1975, and the platform existed into the 90s, slowly rotting away.

Aurora, moved from the Aurora Transportation Center (ATC). 6 Island platforms + 2 storage tracks. Trains stopped there until 1986 when the ATC opened.

Further, since some details were sketchy at most, and satellite photography was unavailable (for the most part), I was forced to guess where exactly tracks and platforms were, and what their names were.

Aurora: There is a single semi-elevated track leading away from the Aurora roundhouse that connects back to the mainline over Spring St. This is so that coaches and engines coming from the Aurora Suburban Service Station do not have to back up all the way to Eola Yard to enter the Hill Yard. Heading eastbound, it has a spur leading off to the Aurora roundhouse so you don't have to back up all the way into the Hill Yard to enter the roundhouse. There is also a spur leading off in so you can access the roundhouse from the other direction as well. Past the roundhouse, there is a gradual split into two mains, with access to the Aurora Diesel Shop, Hill Yard, WC branch, and back to Eola Yard.
There is also a diesel shop north of the Aurora roundhouse, west of Hill Yard. It has 6 stalls, and a set of interchanges with the surrounding tracks and Hill Yard.
North of the Diesel shop and West of Hill yard, there is a coach shop, also with 6 stalls.
West of Hill Yard, there is a single track coming out of the elevated mainline connection that connects with the diesel shop, coach shop, north end of hill yard, and the WC Branch.
A small wye connects the single track to the left and right, with the WC Branch and Hill Yard respectively. This is so that trains from the WC Branch can take the wye, head west past Hill Yard and the shops and roundhouse, and merge onto the mainline without any elaborate switch moves.