Midwest Odyssey

Midwest Odyssey was a cancelled Rolling Line project made around October 2019, being based on Chicago Railroads in the Modern Era. It's mostly notable for its large scale, various plans, and the mass amounts of content proposed for the project.

How It Started
Haltonalltheway got Rolling Line in June 2019, starting out as a normal player, as i first got into the game from a map Frantic reviewed called "Tiny Chicago". I found the content to be decent, and I encountered bugs like decoupling cars, odd train articulation, etc. When getting the game, I found the content to be decent, and I encountered bugs like decoupling cars, odd train articulation, during the time, as this was way before mass improvements were made.

The main inspiration for Midwest Odyssey sparked in August 2019, when Halton went to Chicago for 5 days for a vacation. There, he managed to observe most of the railroad operations on the BNSF Racetrack, Belt Lines, METRA Electric District, and even going to the Illinois Railway Museum for a event. Because of the trip, this would be the major inspiration for Midwest Odyssey's creation.

Around October 2019, a Diorama was made recreating a scene that represents the Racetrack from the 1970's. However, the layout expanded far to the point were 5 lines spanned across a 50x45 room.

Layout Contents
With its size, the layout contains:


 * 5 railroad lines
 * One CSX/CN Mainline
 * One UP/NS Mainline
 * A Belt Line starting out of Chicago Union Station
 * A representation of the BNSF Racetrack
 * An Electric District with a branchline.
 * An Intermodal Yard
 * Various Freight Yards for each line
 * METRA Stations on 3 lines
 * Hidden Movie References (even with the shortage of scenery)
 * Signal Gantries
 * A Railroad Museum
 * A recreation of the Chicago Sears Tower
 * A legacy Lift-bridge made with shapes

The following Railroads operate on the map:


 * Amtrak
 * Belt Railway of Chicago
 * BNSF
 * Canadian National
 * Canadian Pacific
 * Chicago Indiana Southern Ontario (Fictional)
 * CSX
 * Indiana Harbor Belt
 * METRA
 * Midwest Traction Co.
 * Norfolk Southern
 * South Shore Line
 * Union Pacific

Layout Progress
During the early days of the layout, everything was a pale-green color, to give it a 1970’s-esque feeling. However, It later changed it to a more vibrant-yet realistic green which blends in. The original name was going to be “Chicago Odyssey” but later changed it to “Midwest Odyssey”. Few scenes on the layout were made alongside for promo images. Discord user wrobo1999 has made some custom edits for a proposed upgrade, which included detailed buildings, parks, etc. Most of the details which included wide ballast for tracks, signal gantries, and the ROADS all used old building techniques.

References and Easter Eggs
Halton has included several hidden Easter Eggs and small references to movies before the project was cancelled.


 * The house from the first 2 Home Alone movies was recreated.
 * The ED and MILL CO building has a secret message thats only revealed at Night
 * "Patrian St" is named after Discord User "The Russian Aviator"
 * 2 cars are spotted in one of the yards, as a small nod to the ending scenes in "The Italian Job" when it was filmed in a UP Yard.

Midwest Odyssey Railroad Club
MORC is the nickname for the "Midwest Odyssey Railroad Club" which was created to allow devs to get updates on the progress, etc. Only 15 people are in the server, as the server hasn't been public since its creation.