John DePauw has the proverbial "Thick Roof over the Layout". And it's a very nice roof too! When John & Kay were looking for a new house some years ago, He went downstairs, saw the basement, and said, "I'll take it!" We're glad he did, because we have a great time running this very large and complicated HO re-enactment of Chicago's Elgin Joliet & Eastern.

This is a RailCommand railroad, with radio & tethered throttles. It's set in the fall of 1973, and has about every interchange on the prototype modeled. Lot's of big time CTC railroading here, with telephone call boxes (as the proto had in that year) and fully operational signaling just about ready for prime time. It takes a crew of about 20 operators with two full time dispatchers to move traffic over this road.

Here's some (outdated) CadRail drawings of the railroad.

bullet    Waukegan to Eola
bullet    Eola to Joliet (and full BN staging)
bullet    Marble Falls to Hammond / South Chicago

Here's some pic's of the layout:

Aurora Grain & Team Track Located in Aurora, Il.

Our "Pro" dispatchers, Mike Burgett & Justin Tiller. West sub single track DS board on the left and the East Sub Double Track DS board on the right.

This is Nottage Cement, at Electric Junction

Here's the US Steel South Works.

These industries are on the BN main line West of Eola yard.

Plainfield Grain, on the route from Aurora to Joliet

Nottage Cement, just east of where the J crosses the BN main

Another shot of Nottage Cement

Here's the West Chicago Tower

Another view of the scratch built West Chicago Tower

On the tracks...looking at West Chicago

Yet another view of Gary's scratch Chicago Tower

Here's a good view of some work Leon has done in West Chicago

More of Leon's West Chicago industries

This was taken from the running board of the West Chicago local...

Here's a good shot of the South Chicago Blast Furnace

West Eola on the BN (upper) and Gary Yard on the J (lower)

Here's the GM truck facility at West Chicago