I actually had an idea (I know!) while watching “Truck stops; Modern Marvels” on the History channel-
I wonder if anyone ever thought about adding a truck stop to thier layout.
Initial thoughts were of a truck stop during the transition period- the era I model and I know is frequent with other modelers- the truck stops weren’t as huge as the modern era and might be incorporated nicely with a layout. I would think that a modern era truck stop would take up a lot of real estate on a layout as well as a large fleet of trucks to make it look realistic.
I’m not sure what the size of 1950s era truck stops were but even a smaller one would eat up a lot of space. This seems like one of those scenic features that would best be modeled with only a portion of it on the front edge of the layout or as part of the backdrop. Model railroad real estate is too limited to devote to a large scene, especially if it is not an operating element on the layout. It would be one thing to devote a lot of space to a large industrial plant with lots of in and out traffic, but to give up that same ground to a purely scenic element is not something most modelers would want to do.
I thought the same thing at first, but it doesn’t have to be all that big, particularly in earlier eras. It might not be railroad related, but how many of us have devoted significant territory to an urban scene, or a farm or a decent-sized body of water, complete with surrounding trees?
Still, I think it would be better integrated with your layout if you could make it part of an intermodal or TOFC facility, so there would be a reason to have all of those trucks so close to the railroad.
Any place with room for three or more rigs, fuel and a place to eat on the property becomes a truck stop.
I might model one myself near the layout’s future town… but I have seen way too many truckstops all across the land, both large and small to really care for one.
Google Rte 14 in North Central PA near three river truss bridges in a valley, and you will find Midway Truck Stop. It only had room for several trucks but had it all. Clean, good food to eat too.
I remember when my mom and I used to travel around the state in the early 50’s the way to tell a good place to eat was to look at how many trucks were parked there. It wouldn’t be a full fledged truck stop, but a diner with a bunch of big rigs parked outside would be authentic and not take up so much space. A service station next door would benefit from the good coffee, good food and pleasant waitress next door.
You can easily stretch the space, to make it appear bigger, by using a mirror. With this method, you can even make it appear that there are more trucks there especially if you only parts of rigs that can only be seen from the mirror.
If you model a small diner on a two lane road… make sure you put down some heavy braking marks on both approaches to that diner’s truck lot area. Sometimes these were the only clues there was a good place to eat in a unfamiliar area.
Modern ABS systems would leave a short black followed by a series of very short " skips" fading as the stop is made. Older 123 systems … well… just a thick mark followed by a lighter shade, somtimes with a skid when the driver horses the tractor into the place with an eye on the right hand mirrior.
Take a look at Wolcott IA for the largest truckstop in the USA and then look at the Triple T down by Nogales towards El Paso. The last time I was down there, the gravel lot had holes big enough to drown trucks in a rain. The worst one is Jersey City off 15C. That one is surrounded by containers two to three high with rather extreme measures taken to jam trailer doors against them and other useful tricks to survive your time there.
If you dont have space for diner, dont have space for a lot dont have space for fuel pumps or anything… then just park a roach coacher food/coffee van next to one of your rail industries and have alot of trucks gather there to eat.
Sometimes long before they really cracked down on the practice, gatherings of 3-10 trucks on the side of the interstate or some road tucked away into a forest somewhere with a picnic table and a BBQ made for a rough stop, just needed to put a few dollars into the hat to share the cost for everyone involved.
If you model a stop anytime from WW2 up until about 1990 or so, it’s probably going to be a “76” anything after 1990 but before 2000 is a TA or similar. After 2001 it became much more of a self serve deli and store with no place for a sit down staffed food tables area. Alot of that got cut out of new construction because they want volume and third party vendo