Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad

Modeling the South Shore passenger and freight services in the

Appalachian Mountains in O Scale in Berkeley Springs, WV.

The layout will be controlled by a dispatcher using a CTC machine. The CTC will be interfaced with a PC using DCC by NCE and Bruce Chubb's C/MRI.   All benchwork is completed and 95% of the track has been laid. We have completed wiring all 98 blocks and have wired and tested the occupancy detectors. The PC running C/MRI detects all blocks on the railroad now. All switch machines have been installed and tested. The local panels have been wired and installed. Construction has been started on the CTC board and soon will control all signals via a Dispatcher. The design and construction of the CTC is the result of many hours of work by the following: Bill Carr, Joe Donnelly, Jim Withrow, and Jay Beckham. Of course there is 40 or 50 feet of building representing downtown Chicago to build, 100s of feet of overhead towers and wire to hang, station platforms to build, trees, people, and wiring for all this. Today 4,000 feet of #12 wire for track power has been installed. Several years ago we removed the uppedeck and the wall that stood between the two rooms to open up the railroad to the entire basement area. Web site updated 11/27/11.

Click for a brief History of the South Shore

A Revised Drawing(pdf) Of The Layout Can Be Downloaded Here

Watch A South Shore Video

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More Photos Coming Soon!

Left Side of CTC Board Under Construction

Warren's Gap East of Gary - before Overhead Installation

Bridge over Calumet River

Theater in South Bend

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