Where is the ground in Chicago?

[Brakie]

My wife and I were in Chicago visiting relatives in October. It was closer-in than some of the other places I've been, and one thing that struck me was the different levels between streets, rail lines, and watercourses. Rail lines are often elevated on viaducts. The more I look at Chicago railroading, the more I'm impressed by the variety of operation and the overall distinctive atmosphere. However, in that case, I don't necessarily hold with the philosophy that you often see in UK layouts in particular, where a guy puts pine trees on his layout and says it's Alaska one month, and then changes the pine trees to palm trees and says it's Florida a month later. To do Chicago properly, you'd really have to incorporate various specific Chicago features, like the elevated streets, the viaducts, the variety of transfer and industrial operations, etc. -- and then you really couldn't get away with putting in palm trees and saying it's Florida whenever it suited you.

Rocky Mountains does not Appalachians make yet I've seen that.The flat lands of Ohio doesn't make a very good Kansas either no more then the rolling foot hills of the Appalachians in Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky makes the Appalachians.

When one builds a ISL attention to detail is a must since industrial areas varies from city to city and a ISL focuses on that area not the city its self like I mention.
Choosing industry names should fit the city's industrial area being modeled not generic whimsical names since that would kill the illusion of modeling (say) Packard Street Industrial lead in whatever city industrial area you're modeling....