[MOC] Chicago Aurora & Elgin #308 Interurban

[coaster]

The Chicago Aurora & Elgin Railroad provided interurban service from downtown Chicago to the western suburbs, branching off at Wheaton either north to Elgin or south to Aurora.  Sadly, the railroad ceased operation in 1957, but the right of way was preserved as a walking/biking trail.  Remnants of the railroad can still be seen along the trail.

Several of the interurbans themselves have been preserved at local museums, so here is my take on #308:

I build in 1:38 or "10-wide" scale, and it is indeed 10 studs wide and approximately 54 studs long.  It is driven by 2x 9V motors controlled by a PF IR-receiver and rechargeable battery, and the headlight at each end works, too.  Aside from the decals, it is completely purist.

What I enjoyed most about this build was that it utilizes parts from all different eras.  The white windows are the old style 1x3x2 windows from the 50's, up to small structural elements just released last year, and everything in between.

The thin red stripe above the windows is brick built, made from 2x2 hinge top plates.  To account for the 1/4 plate offset, this is repeated in grey at the roofline.

Unfortunately, there is no interior to these.  The older windows and bricks have notoriously poor clutch, requiring quite a bit of internal structure to keep the roof in place and the windows themselves from falling out. 

Of course, the first rule building a model is "why build one when you can have two at twice the price?", or in this case, three:

#309 and #316 are just trailers, but are each uniquely different in their build, as their real-life counterparts were actually built by three different manufacturers, but to very similar specifications.

[JintaiZ]

Great build! Looks very close to the original one.

[Pdaitabird]

That's beautiful! I like the brick-built lining technique. 

[Feuer Zug]

Fine collection of well constructed interurbans. It's said before the Great Depression, you could take interurbans from Chicago to NYC.

[zephyr1934]

Excellent work! Great use spanning 1950's to today in your build.

30 minutes ago, Feuer Zug said:

Fine collection of well constructed interurbans. It's said before the Great Depression, you could take interurbans from Chicago to NYC.

In five days or less (grin). Seriously though, most of the interurban lines offered high speed service (60 mph or more) and a few of the interurban companies even had sleeping cars. The route would have been circuitous though, and you would lose time on interchanges. I believe the window when all links were in place was fairly short though (under 5 years?)