After building my HO 11’ x 7’ Milwaukee Road layout, I’ve realised that I need a layout where I can fit more into my space, I have settled (so far) on the Lehigh & New England Railroad, circa 1949.
The stuff I’ve read says the L&NE was a bridge route for Anthracite to the west and served many cement companies. Another source mentions building suppliers - and I’m happy to do that too - unfortunately though I’m not all that clear on what other industries would be suitable in the timeframe - a coal drop for residential use, a furniture factory are easy ones - what else would be around and about in that timeframe?
I gather that creameries would be common further north-east than I’m looking to model (east PA between Ashland and Tamaqua) , I’d rather model the usual and mundane than the extraordinary!
I’m modeling PA in 1950. I was able to find Sanborn maps for 1950 that tell exactly what was along the line I modeled. There are also a complete set of aerial photos taken in 1938 of all of PA that are available online.
I grew up in Central PA (Lemont – right outside of State College), although we moved there almost a decade after your target year. That puts it about 100 miles West of the area you’re looking at.
In that area of the state, coal was king. However, my recollections of the area – before it became the “greater State College Metro Area” – there were no less than 4 limestone quarries in the countryside, a small chemical plant (Nice – pronounced “Neese” Chemical) and a small factory where Corning made TV tubes both a couple of miles outside of State College, and small farms and orchards beyond count. Due to the presence of the Pennsylvania State University (which has an amazing Creamery, where Ben & Jerry learned to make Ice Cream), there was a small Tech Park (NASA, General Dynamics, HRB, Josten’s Yearbook, and a Singer plant). Orchards and small farms really stick out, though. In Bellefonte, the Centre County seat, there were a couple of small, water powered textile mills that still survived. And if you model PA in that era, you have to model a scrap yard: acres and acres of rusting cars and trucks. A trailer park wouldn’t be out of place, either.[:)]
Not exactly the region you’re modeling, but within spitting distance. Hope that helps.
In 1949 the L&NE was coal, coal, and more coal. From Tamaqua and up the Panther Valley the L&NE originated it’s own coal traffic for shipment to eastern markets. Farther east it got into the cement country and general freight.
They mention that the primary products carried were coal, cement and slate. Also you may want to check on current availability of LNE locos, rollingstock etc. I have not seen much lately. I grew up near the Pen Argyl yard but was only 4 years old when they ceased operations so cannot really comment on seeing them in operation [:)]
Could try google Earth to get current views of active lines also. I did this for the Morrisville/Fairless Hills Pa. area where alot of lines had run for the Fairless Steel Works as well and the llines for the N.E. corridor. All this in a 2-3 mile area.
If you don’t mind, I’ve got a few questions: I’ve read the road’s 2-10-0’s would only work on the Summit Hill incline, and that looks fairly devoid of anything. I figure that long trains of coal cars westbound ‘through’ would be the easiest to represent with some of those lovely FA’s rather than large mine operations on-layout. So would this be a good idea?
Timetable west:
Anthracite mine/truck dump?
In the ‘town’:
Creamery
Junk Yard
Farmers Supply (feed, fertilizer, etc.)
Singer Factory
Freight Depot
Timetable east:
Cement Plant
Would I be right in saying there’d be passenger services? I’m not too clued up on this era and I’d like to do it justice! I guess it’d be the 2-8-2’s or 2-8-0’s on passenger service though right, given the FA’s freight designation?
Before moving to South Dakota (just after 9/11) I’d lived most of my life in Huntingdon, Pa.
Thirty miles from Altoona, State College and Lewistown though all in different directions. Back in the day there was a huge brickyard in Mount Union (roughly 15 miles East) and you might want to look into the Thousand Steps. Little known outside of the immediate area but worth a look if you can find them.
The story goes that the railroad workers were required to hike up the side of the ridge on a daily basis to harvest rock into a small line railroad or some such endeavor. Anyway, they got permission and put to placing stone steps all the way from river level up to the top, working on their lunch breaks. Remembering the effort it took to just climb the darned things I am awestruck to imagine the labor involved in building them.
I seem to rember an article in RMC a long time ago about a Talc Plant on the L&NE or one of the anthracite railroads, that would be alternate industry, but they still use box cars and covered hoppers.
In 1949 you should also have some very run down slate quarries. Slate was a huge business for the L&NE earlier but in 1949 most quarries were closed and those that were left had very little business.
Remember that in 1949 the post-war building boom was going on. Rather than today’s one all-in-one center (like Home Depot) you would have perhaps several small lumberyards, hardware stores, stone/concrete dealers and equipment dealers (caterpillars etc.) in a given area, many of which would be served by rail directly or (in the case of the hardware stores) indirectly thru the local team track.
National chain stores and restaurants were much rarer, except maybe for a White Castle hamburger place (which wouldn’t be that likely in a small town) you’d see local “mom and pop” type businesses.
Many more homes and businesses were heated by coal than now, even a small town would be likely to have a commercial coal dealer in town.
IIRC the 1950’s was the decade that for the first time, more than half of all US farms were worked by tractors rather than horses, so it wouldn’t be unrealistic in 1949 to have a farm still using literal ‘horsepower’ rather than mechanized farm equipment.
In Indiana PA, the last passenger train ran in 1940. F-units were in most pictures in 1950.
Other than coal and the service areas on the layout above, Indiana, pop 15,000 had a huge glass factory, a brewery, a foundry, and a tire factory that were serviced by rail.
Your town would need a freight/team track and a produce/grocery distribution facility. Automobiles might be regular delivery to the team track area.
While Bellefonte, State College, and Lemont all had passenger depots, I don’t recall ever seeing a passenger train. Lots of freights, but no passengers. Judging by the condition of the Lemont station (which, incidentally, was later restored and turned into train / hobby shop), I’d say there hadn’t been a passenger train in a decade or more, so 1949 would be pushing it for a passenger train. I’m guessing, though.
On the subject of big box stores, I have to disagree. State College actually had TWO big box stores in the mid 1950’s: Agway Feed and Farm store, which sold everything from fertilizer to lumber to tractors (in fact, the Life Like HO tractors are dead ringers for the ones I would pretend to drive). There was also OW Houts and Son, which was an enormous department store (kind of like a super Wal-Mart), which also had a large outdoor area where they sold some building supplies, sheds, lawn furniture & ornaments, flowers and plants, etc. Agway might have been a kind of chain – I know there are several in Central PA – but OW Houts was a strictly local place. Still there, too, as far as I know. Both of these businesses were easily the size of a modern Home Depot.
North East Rails says this about the Lehigh & New England: “The Lehigh and New England was formed in 1895 to serve as a bridge route for the anthracite(Tamaqua) and cement-producing region(Bath) of eastern Pennsylvania to a connection with the New Haven at Campbell Hall, NY.”
