I am interested in running some passenger trains on my HO scale layout. It is more of a prototype/freelanced layout featuring the N&W in the 1950’s along with some Southern Railway traffic. I would like information about some of the passenger trains that ran through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. Not just the famous trains such as the Powhantan Arrow, the Pocahantas, and the Southern Crescent, but some “typical” passenger trains. I would run about 3-8 cars behind class J’s or Southern E8’s.
Google is your friend.
Passenger Operations
While the Southern’s most famous passenger trains included the Crescent and Southerner it also rostered an entire fleet of named trains. These include:[citation needed]
- Aiken-Augusta Special
- Asheville Special
- Birmingham Special
- Carolina Special
- Crescent Limited
- Florida Special
- Nancy Hanks
- Peach Queen
- Pelican
- Piedmont Limited
- Ponce de Leon
- Royal Palm
- Southerner
- Sunnyland
- Tennessean
Thank you for the information.
Other sources for information:
You might want to get to a railroadiana show or check some of the sites to try to locate some old N&W timetables for the period of your interest. I have a N&W timetable (No. 5) from September 27, 1953 that shows four trains daily each direction between Roanoke and Bristol. Such timetables can not only provide scheduling information, but can allow calculation of average speed of the different trains between stations. Some information about equipment is also provided.
I think that the publisher TLC, based in Lynchburg, Va, has published a book with the title of Norfolk and Western passenger trains (or a similar wording of the title).
Recognize that N&W “J’s” and Southern “E’s” would not have been the only motive power for passenger service in that era. N&W make great use of their K-2 4-8-2’s (some with J-like streamlining) in such service.
Bill
Actually, I have an N&W K-2 brass model that is currently being custom painted and having a Tsunami sound system installed. I must admit that seeing the old DVD’s and videos offered by the N&W Historical Society really got me started on passenger trains. I like the idea of running two passenger trains each way on a 24 hour schedule. My layout is fictional but is heavily influenced by N&W and particularly of the Pocahantas Division. But, I like the fact that the N&W and the Southern went through Lynchburg, VA. I am thinking about a Southern PS-4 to pull one of the Southern Railway passenger trains. I like the Crescent. The great thing about prototypical freelancing, is that you can use the prototype to answer questions like locomotive power, rolling stock, structures, and signaling while building your own version of what “might have been”.