TIP spans a fictionalized Chicagoland of cities, suburbs, industrial corridors, commuter towns, exurban communities, and open land. This page provides a tour of the region through some of the places where its geography, transportation, and development patterns are easiest to see.
West of Chicago, communities such as Le Moyne and Albany Grove illustrate one of the region's oldest suburban patterns. Both developed around early roads and the historic railroad corridor leading west from the city, but each acquired its own identity as settlement and commuter service expanded.
Albany Grove, for example, began as an agricultural settlement along an early road before the arrival of the railroad in 1864. Rail access transformed it into an established commuter suburb, while its older road and settlement pattern remained part of the modern village.
In-game, these layers appear together: an older downtown and street grid, the railroad through the community, later residential districts, and modern transportation infrastructure occupying the same landscape.
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Image caption
Some places in TIP matter because several regional systems meet there. Railroads, arterial roads, industrial land, rivers, and municipal boundaries can concentrate activity into relatively small areas.
These intersections influence what gets built nearby. Freight access favors industry and warehousing. Passenger rail can support a traditional downtown. Major roads introduce commercial development and regional traffic. The result is not simply a transportation junction, but a particular kind of community.
Albany Grove/Le Moyne
Novak/Cook Junction
Crestview (or another post war suburb)
All three belong to the same metropolitan region, but they should not be interchangeable. Their street networks, land uses, transportation systems, institutions, and built form reflect different origins and periods of growth.
TIP does not end abruptly at the edge of continuous development. Moving outward, subdivisions, commercial corridors, industrial uses, and older towns become increasingly separated by agricultural land, wetlands, forest preserves, and other open spaces.
Communities at the metropolitan edge remain connected to Chicagoland through roads, employment, and transportation, but their landscapes are less continuously urbanized.
West of Chicago, communities such as Le Moyne and Albany Grove illustrate one of the region's oldest suburban patterns. Both developed around early roads and the historic railroad corridor leading west from the city, but each acquired its own identity as settlement and commuter service expanded.
Albany Grove, for example, began as an agricultural settlement along an early road before the arrival of the railroad in 1864. Rail access transformed it into an established commuter suburb, while its older road and settlement pattern remained part of the modern village.
In-game, these layers appear together: an older downtown and street grid, the railroad through the community, later residential districts, and modern transportation infrastructure occupying the same landscape.