Hi all I’m thinking about planning a small 4x8 ho scale RR based on the L&N rr in the late 30’s to mid 40’s maybe a little later my questions are
what states can I use?
what rr’s connected with them
I know king coal would be a major item shipped what othertypes of loads
thanks J Urich
I would do a web search to see if the L&N has a Historical Society you could gain a lot of info that way
The L&N historical society http://rrhistorical-2.com/lnhs/index.html Has a brief history of the road and the states it was in.
Enjoy
Paul
According to the L&N map in the 1930 ORER, the L&N ran in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. With trackage rights and interchange traffic in St Louis, add Missouri to the list, and add Ohio to the list for traffic and interchange at Cincinatti.
Again, looking at the 1930 ORER’s listing of connection points, 102 different roads, with well over 500 different interchange points. Some were tiny roads, like Pullman’s plant switcher in Mobile, while some were the big boys like the Pennsy and NYC. Surprisingly, the list doesn’t include direct connections with the ATSF, even though both roads went to St Louis.
Indorect connections would include EVERY standard gauge railroad in North America.
One thing to keep in mind is that the L&N was NOT a sleepy little jerkwater choo-choo. We’re talking about the 11th largest railroad in the USA in the 20th Century. There were very few railroads that were larger, made more money, had more route miles, had larger freight car rosters, or had more passenger service. It makes “large” roads like the N&W look like pipsqueaks.
Everything. Literally. Everything from baby rattles to nuclear reactors (well, after 1950 or so). With a road this large everything HAD to be hauled. There’s no doubt that the L&N’s bread and butter was coal, but as the only other large north/south railroad in the USA (next to the IC, which was slightly larger) they had a large amount of bridge traffic. The L&N served every gulf port between New Orleans and Tallahassee, so they saw a lot of expor
THe busiest lines of the prewar L&N ran from Cincinatti OH, Louisville KY, Nashville TN, Birmingham AL, Mobile, AL & New Orleans. One line ran NW from Nashville to Evansville IN. THat line with the C&EI gave the L&N access to Chicago. It also had a direct line to St Louis. L&N owned the NC&STL that gave it a busy mainline SE from Nashville to Chatanooga & Atlanta GA. L&N merged with the NC&STL a few years later. In the 40’s the L&N had another line from Bowling Green KY to Memphis TN.
Coal is king in the mines of eastern KY. THe L&N developed a direct line south from Cincinatti south to Atlanta, but the curves & grades kept it from being a good fast mainline. Most of KY-TN is in wooded & hilly territory.
You can have all types of freight traffic. An increasing industrial South built new factories. You may find parts mfr’s using pool service to feed final assembly plants elswhere. This goes from cars to appliances. The Gulf ports have a fair amount of produce trade. The Atlanta connection provides a link to Florida produce (citrus, beef, sugar, strawberries, etc).
From a passenger trade, there were a series of popular trains. THe PanAmerican was L&N’s premier train. It fowarded a series of Dixies down to Atlanta that connected Florida with thr Midwest. Another train connected Jacksonville to New Orleans.
L&N was owned by the ACL. You could mix in any of the Family Lines cars before the 1980’s merger. You could look at L&N as a North-south connector, with interchange with northern NYC-PRR-B&O etc . I see a lot of UP traffic from the West.
There are a lot of good books about the L&N. Many of them also supply good suggestions for what models to look for.
I’m modeling L&N as an interchange provider for my 1948 PRR based layout.
There is currently a very good crop of steam available in HO, since L&N had lots of USRA style power. I have two of the Broadway LTD 2-8-2’s with DCC/DC and sound. I paid $120 each on ebay, but $150 is more realistic, still not bad for top quality with sound. I also have the Lifelike/Walthers Proto 0-8-0 with DC/DCC and sound. There are currently multiples listed at $159 buy it now. Another great price for top quality with sound. There are also USRA style 4-8-2’s and “standard” 2-8-4’s available. I believe they had both.
The L&N dieselized late, but did it quickly, so late first gen around 1950, then early second gen. The exception is the E6’s they bought in the 1940’s for name train passenger service. Someone correct me if I’m wrong on this.
One problem I have found is that with all the prototypically correct steam available, no one makes a steam era caboose. Not even close, but you can find 1956-ish bay windows all day. I’m kitbashing an AMB wood kit of a Rock Island cab. It’s the closest I’ve found, and still needs a lot of work.
It also seems that most freight car kits are concentrated in the mid fifties and later era. Anything painted blue is out prior to that time. It’s been a pain, but I have found oxide hoppers (with correct “Old Reliable” slogans) (“Dixie Line” was stolen from NC&StL after the 1956 merger) from Accurail (USRA again) and the composite hoppers from P2K. Branchline makes a period correct ARA/AAR 40’ boxcar, and that’s about all I’ve found. Can anyone point out others?
Passenger equip I’m not so sure about other than the EMD E6, which may be too late. I want to say bought during WWII. I think Branchline makes some neat, correct kits, maybe Walthers. My Branchline PRR 8-1-2 goes around my 22"-24" curves, but the Walthers 14 sec does not
I remember seeing a lot of auto racks on the St. Louis - Evansville line in the 1960’s. There is a steam era “Big Woody” caboose offered by Blue Ridge Historics, P.O. Box 246, Apison, TN 37302. I have not built one yet, but plan to soon. Reviews in the Historical Society magazine indicate this in an excellent kit.
I model L&N and NC & StL circa early 1950’s. I would certainly like to get ahold of one of those BLI 2-8-2’s with dcc and sound. They apparently came out before I made the switch to dcc late last year.
As orsonroy pointed out, the L&N went a lot of places. There was also the line into Murphy, North Carolina, and the Cumberland Valley Division that pushed into the coal fields of southwestern Virginia.
The L&N ran passenger trains as far west as Saint Louis’ Union Station, but I think they ran on another line’s rails – possibly what is now the Norfolk Southern line which at that time was the Wabash.
I believe the following are correct:
Blue Ridge caboose kit referenced is actually an NC&StL prototype, and would not technically be correct for L&N until after the 1956 merger.
The St Louis connection was in fact via NC&StL, as L&N was the parent road, and easily obtained trackage rights.
BTW I bought my BLI L&N Heavy 2-8-2’s less than two months ago, and there were at least two on as of last week. Keep looking they are currently easy to get cheap, but probably not at this volume for long. Both mine are perfect. I just load tested tham and they each pull 50 free rolling cars on level track. Almost 60 with severe slippage. They are the “Powerhouse” series, and not quite as nice as the “Paragon” Light 2-8-2, but still top quality in my books. There was also recently a Stewart F3 set custom painted for NC&StL----SWEET, but too far out of my scope to justify the $. For the record, my P2K 0-8-0 pulled 87 cars with ease, I ran out of cars!! Unbelieveable!! It does have traction tires.
I would asume that NC&StL revenue equipment would show up frequently on L&N. I have some Accurail USRA twin hoppers lettered for them as they were probably mixed in with my tranfer cuts of L&N from across the river. I have also seen a couple nice boxcars offered in period (30’s-40’s) NC&StL.
Link to only known steam era L&N caboose photo on web (and it’s a model):
http://www.steamfreightcars.com/modeling/models/welch/ln82main.html
1948PRR, i just sent you a private email, but looks like the subject line dropped off. If you see a strange email with no subject from somebody with the letters gkh, that’s me.
I just tested my P2K Heritage 0-8-0. It pulled 40 cars, which is about the maximum I have on my temporary layout, with no problem. No grades, but I don’t plan on this loco pulling more than 8 to 15 cars at a time.
The L&N was a member of the Terminal RailRoad Association of St. Louis (TRRA), along with the other roads that used Union Station. When I was a kid, we took the L&N to see a Cardinals game in the mid 60’s, then returned home that evening. With all of the stops, it made for a very long day, but I’ll never forget it. L&N crossed the Mississippi on the Eads Bridge, along with other roads. The Eads had auto traffic on the upper level. There were other such bridges in the area. I think the Merchants Bridge connecting Venice, IL with St. Louis was rail only. The L&N had a freight station in East St. Louis, and another freight station in St. Louis at Broadway and Cass.
The Merchants Bridge has always been rail only. The one bridge in St Louis that had always impressed me is the MacArthur Bridge. The upper deck will never see automobile traffic again. Of Course there is the McKinley Bridge, which I last saw was sheduled to re-open for automobile traffic in 2007. Does anyone have an update on this? I was sort of sad to see the double track wooden trestle of the east approach to the McKinley come down, but that was definately a safety issue. It was quite impressive to see, and I was able to snap a few pics in 2001.
I believe the upper deck of the Eads Bridge is open for auto(?), foot and bike traffic now. It had been quite a few years since I have been back to St Louis. I need to get back there and check some of this stuff out. I really enjoy visiting the old Chain of Rocks bridge, although it was an automobile bridge.
I believe Metrolink used the old L&N ROW through Belleville. It was nice to see something roll on the L&N again.
Edit: Does anyone know what year rail service ceased on the Eads Bridge (prior to Metrolink)? I saw a mention above of someone riding the L&N over the Eads into Union Station.
Smitty, I know that L&N used the Eads at one time, but can’t guarantee that is the bridge we crossed on in the mid 60’s. I was only 10 or so at the time. In 2003, coming back from St. Louis, we drove across the Eads, which had recently reopened. Then we were in downtown East St. Louis and got back onto I-64.
I am getting some of my L&N St. Louis info from the TRRA Historical & Technical Society. They had an issue in early 2001 dedicated to the L&N. You can get a back issue for $10…well worth the investment.
Oh, I thought that you meant you did ride the L&N on the Eads. I honestly have no idea when rail traffic did cease over the Eads, but I believe it only went into the tunnel under the city on the west end, but that is as far as my knowledge extends. Where it appeared on the surface again is a mystery to me. I am assuming that the Metrolink line follows the original line for the most part, which would bring it out right at Union Station. I was stationed at Scott AFB for a few years, and became absolutely fascinated with railroad history in the St Louis area. I wish I had the space and the money to model the St Louis area in the 50s. I actually model the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe in west Texas in the late 50s, so I am way off. Sorry to hijack the thread.
According to the TRRA HTS issue I mentioned, the tunnel was on the east side of the city and went to Union Station.
A model of St. Louis would be quiet an undertaking, but think of all the operating possiblilites!
I meant the west end of the bridge. I always love the ride in the tunnel. I wished that I could just walk through the tunnel and check things out.
I wished that I could find the site again, but I saw where someone did a scale model of St Louis Union Station (I am pretty sure it was HO), and it was MASSIVE. Operating Union Station alone would make for a great layout.