Missouri DLC ideas

[1948LJMack]

By looking at the 1.3 driving scale in the game, my guess the city of St. Louis streets that is seen on Google is Jefferson, Broadway/4th Street, Kingshighway, and Lindbergh Blvd. In a Midwest Expansion mod, I noticed that Lindbergh was routed to where it comes right out of where MO 141 would be and goes under 44. But by looking how 50 goes on Google it does follow Lindbergh up to 44 along with both US route 61 and US 67. 50 follows 44 out to Union, MO and heads mostly straight west. 61 stays with Lindbergh along with 67. But then in the two suburbs of St. Louis both Frontenac and Laude, 61 follows US 40 (I-64), and then 67 is all that is left on Lindbergh as it travels up past the airport. In the days of when I was a kid, Chesterfield was almost a rural town. Just about everything that had the zip starting with 631 was considered as St. Louis and anything that was 630 was more like out in the country.

[1948LJMack]

Patrik, incase you didn't see the St. Louis transit system, St. Louis calls their light rail MetroLink. Now for a parody, why not not parody it as SCS Link. And since they are adding security gates and turnstiles, that might not be a deliverable thing to add. MetroLink has two routes. The red line goes from Shiloh, Illinois to the airport. And the Blue line goes from Fairview Heights, IL to Shrewsbury. Now some of the stations might not be truck friendly. The North Hanley station is one of the biggest stations out of the entire MetroLink network. That one and Shrewsbury. Now for a good delivery route coming from the offshore intermodal center, there are two ways to come up. Going via Houston to one of the two stations, you work your way up to Houston, then north on US route 59, northeast on 30, continue northeast on US 67, then you go only a short distance along 55 to 61, and then take 61 to MO route 366. East on 366 to River Des Peres, north on River Des Peres all the way to where it terminates at Lansdowne. Now to go to North Hanley via Houston, Texas, same thing but once you reach 55, you want to follow that though downtown, and get off at North Hanley Road, and then make three left turns. One right at the highway off ramp at Hanley Road, the 2nd one at University Plaza Drive and the 3rd into the parking lot at the North Hanley station.

By looking at where 270 crossed I-55, Lindbergh is too close and that could be one reason why I think keeping I-270 out of the game is a good move. If MODOT does start the construction of the I-55 rebuild, you may want to have a section of 55 between Lindbergh and US 67 out of the game except for a few places of delivering dirt and material. That is because using the 1:20 scale, it is 8 tenths of a game mile between state secondary route Z and Lindbergh.

[Patrik]

Hi man, at this moment of development its unfortunatelly too late for us to add metrolink to St.Louis. However, we hope St.Louis residents will recognize the city in our game well and will have similar impressions as from the real life one.

[1948LJMack]

Patrik, I am very excited to even see how many other ideas for businesses and buildings I may recognize from my home city including the many business parks I myself told you all about. Plus I sounded my horn last year about a great location for Kenworth and ideal places for truck service centers.

[1948LJMack]

Where I live, I can see Walgreens (Halgreens), and a glimpse of Global Foods. Many times, I can see a truck parked at Halgreens making a delivery. And also if the time is right, I can see the big trucks roll down highway 61. There is also some historic artifacts about the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. The beautiful train station, and there is a doctor's building that was built in the late 1950s. When I was very little, I could remember riding in my father's VW beetle, and he and I rolled up alongside a 1955 RDFC 405 International.

When I saw you guys demonstrate how a building is built in the game, I was very impressed. Now, to learn how that building you put in the game is made to be deliverable and which building is not to be made as a deliverable place. Now if you are putting the beer brewery into the game, I saw on a Modern Marvels episode on YouTube a portion of Busch Beer brewery an aluminum smelter. I am not sure if we are going to be adding aluminum bales to the game or not.

Now I am not sure if there will be a news story about the development of St. Louis in the game, but the fun part is I could look and see how many of those places I found myself and alerted you guys about.

[1948LJMack]

Patrik, there are some stuff about St. Louis that I had mentioned about on how the roads would go that the scale would allow. One of the moves was really how MODOT used to route 44 when US 50 and US 66 followed that road. Just east of 2370 is where I-44 would turn slightly to the northeast and go under Geyer Road, the service roads coming off of 44 would join MO 366. In the early 1960s, that was how the old Route 66 used to go. And of course back then, I-270 in my area was I-244. Now I am not sure if you are going to have 44 stop just east of what is now I-270 and have it become MO 366 or is 44 going to run all the way downtown. The 366 way takes you past the historic landmark Ted Drewes.

And as for 270, I am not sure if you are going to have it run only between the river and US 67 or are you planning on having it swing all the way around. The reason why I like the idea of having Lindbergh take the place of 270 going all the way from what is really Florrisant down to what is really Mehlville. Because that would be cool if you did.

[1948LJMack]

I saw on C2C what some might think as a preview of Joplin but on C2C, I did noticed that they managed to put in MO 43 and one of the truck stops that was used in the show "Trick my Truck", which was the Joplin Petro. I know that the main access to the businesses are by surface streets that come off of the highways. The main roads I know in Springfield are Glenstone, Kearney Street, Sunshine, and Campbell. The intersection of Campbell and Sunshine is the intersection of the Bass Pro corporate office. And I think the loading bays are sheltered by a roof or canopy. in Cape Girardeau, we now have Business 55. When I was a kid, it was a part of US route 61. MO 72 joins Business 55 and deeper into the city of Cape Girardeau, it becomes Kingshighway Blvd. Every Father's Day and every Thanksgiving when I was a kid, I traveled that road with my parents. In the Midwest Expansion mod, I think the only street in Cape may have been Williams Street. Williams Street is a major street in Cape, and you also have Broadway Street and Southern Expressway. Now I am not sure which one of those streets in Springfield and in Cape will be in the game.

When I talk Route 100, that is Manchester Road in St. Louis. Just to be safe if we do put it into the game, the major street to the east of Lindbergh is Brentwood Blvd. The St. Louis suburb of Rock Hill does allow trucks on McKnight Road, but that is only between Manchester Road and Litzsinger Road. Now the further west of US 61-67, space increases between I-44/Watson Road and I-64. Also we can see what I like the idea of cutting off I-44 between Geyer Road and Jefferson and cutting off I-64 between Chesterfield and just about close to downtown. Because that way, more space is opened up. Right were Watson Road picks up off of 44, I think that is where Watson Road/Chippewa should take over 44 and then Gravois from Chippewa the rest of the way to where it becomes Tucker.

[1948LJMack]

Now although I emailed you guys about adding the Kaldi's warehouse, but when you guys did the research tour, and may have missed it, I am sending you a google street view link so that way you can see it.

Kaldi's Coffee Warehouse
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6298091 ... FQAw%3D%3D

Although Kaldi's have vans to deliver the coffee to the cafes, this could be one place for a rest stop for about a handful of trucks.
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.5798862 ... FQAw%3D%3D

[1948LJMack]

Now the National Museum of Transportation which is also a truck enthusiast's paradise, they have several entrances. They have three or four off of Barrett Station Road and one off of Old Dougherty Ferry Road. And like I say, the place holds an annual Pistons and Pumpers Show which occurs each Spring.

National Museum of Transportation main public entrance
:https://www.google.com/maps/@38.5742671 ... FQAw%3D%3D

National Museum of Transportation Commercial vehicle entrance:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.5728991 ... FQAw%3D%3D

The top entrance leads to the Museum's TCI building where they repair the exhibits.

[1948LJMack]

For the replacement of I-270, I still think that there are two great roads we could put into the game. MO 141, and Lindbergh which is US 61 from Oakville up to Frontenac and Lindbergh is also known as US 67 the entire stretch. 141 does have the Loves fuel stop at MO 141 near MO 370. Now if we do rip out I-64 from MO 340 and at least Vandeventer or 8th Street, then we stand a good chance of having MO 340 run at least from 100 over to US 67, then Clayton Road from 67 to Skinker, then Oakland Forest Park Blvd. Big Bend Road from Clayton Road to Forest Park Blvd., Forest Park Blvd. from Big Bend to Compton, and Market from Compton to 8th Street. Then if we take I-44 out of the game from I-270 to at least I-55, then we can have MO 100 go from out west like near either MO 109 or MO 340, and have it stop at Hanley Road, and 366 would run from where 44 crosses under 270, to Gravois, and then Gravois on up to the I-44/I-55 interchange.