If a passenger train stopped at a smaller station (in the 40’s & 50’s) how do people get on and off? Most station platforms were only about the length of the station, right? If a passenger train was 10 cars long do they have to walk to the correct car or do they just get on at the car that pulls up to the platform.
Thanks,
Aaron
You enter whichever car the crew designates. They will provide a step box to assist boarding. Usually it is only one or two cars. You then walk through the train to your assigned car (if you have a seat or sleeping car assignment).
Even with today’s Amtrak the conductor designates from which car passengers embark or disembark, and guides the engineer by radio to stop at a designated spot. The Conductor gets off first and puts a one-step wooden platform down for the passengers to use.
I’ve seen this done at the Amtrak stop in Benson, Arizona several times, and this is a location where the train stops only if it needs to let someone off or pick up someone (a Whistle Stop).
It was no different in 1957 when I boarded Illinois Central’s City of New Orleans passenger train at a whistle stop in southern Illinois.
And that assumes the train is on time. I was waiting for the SuperChief at the station in Lamar Colorado in 1972 or so. There were some people there waiting for a disembarking passenger. The train was about an hour late and came blasting by the station at about 100 mph. and threw out a note. It was from the conductor who said he told the engineer not to stop here because if they made one stop at Garden City Kansas then they could discharge 5 passengers there instead of making five stops a the smaller stations. He figured they would make a similar stop in Newton and be back on time when they got to Emporia.
This means the people waiting for the passenger had to drive 90 miles to pick them up. They were NOT happy.
The longest trains were generally limiteds which did not stop at every small town station. That said inevitably, there would be trains that were longer than the platforms. In some cases, passengers would be directed to move forward or backward in the train to reach the cars that were stopped at the platform. In other cases, the train might actually pull forward after making the initial stop to allow passengers near the rear to disembark. Keep in mind that head end cars contained both baggage as well as mail and express which would need to be loaded onto carts at the platform. It also was not unheard of for passengers to disembark beyond the limits of the platforms and walk the cinders to reach the platforms.
A more interesting situation might arise when multiple trains, or sections of the same train, arrived in a station with a single platform. I have read that sometimes passengers would actually pass through the train on an adjacent track to reach the platform, although I’ve never seen a photo of such an event.
Every train I’ve ridden herd passengers with similar destinations to certain cars. ‘X’ to your left, "‘Y’ to the right. Helps the crew keep track of passengers.
Similarly with reservations.
Here is an example of passenter operations in the 60’s. The Burlington would stop at the East Winona depot platform(about 5-6 cars long) with a combined Twin Zephyr/Empire Builder/North Coast ltd(about 20+ cars long). All Twin Zephyr/Empire builder coach passengers would be herded to the 2 Twin Zephyr dome coaches for unloading, and a second stop would be made for 1st class passengers and North Coast Ltd coach passengers about 15 cars back. This took all of 5-10 minutes delay before moving out for La Crosse. Smaller trains like the WB Twin Zephyr(4-7 cars) would fit on the platform and take up maybe a 2 minute delay for the station stop.
Most streamliners of the 50’s had limited stations they stopped at and vary rarely stopped at a depot that had a cinder platorm only 1-2 cars long. A typical passenger train had a ‘head’ coach that carried the ‘shorts’ passengers. Those passengers rarely rode in 1st class parlor or sleeping cars…
Jim
Thanks for the info everyone, great help!
Actually, most small town stations didn’t have a “platform” at all, just a cinder or gravel pad. On the few lines that still serviced small towns in the 1940s and 1950s (secondary trains were dying off fast, ever since the Depression) the train would pull up to the depot with the RPO or LCL/baggage car in front of the station, since that traffic was MUCH more important than the few passengers that MIGHT be getting on or off. Passengers would usually have to walk to the front car (coach) and get on or off.
At least, that’s how shorter trains on the IC worked. Besides the named Chocolate & orange trains that usually had less frequent stops (and usually at larger cities with “real” stations and platforms), mail and LCL were the only reason that the trains still ran at all. The IC actually built a series of cupolaless “baggage cabooses” at the beginning of WWII to handle what little passenger traffic was left on secondary lines. The cars could carry 12 passengers and the LCL clerk, and usually had a company boxcar tacked on behind to carry the LCL itself. These cars were then tacked onto the local freights, eliminating “passenger” trains completely unless the line still had a mail contract.
What a difference a prototype makes!
The prototype I am modeling stopped at innumerable small stations - each with car-floor-level platforms as long as the longest train expected to stop there, if not longer.
Even for runs in the country, many multiple-unit trains had rapid transit type doors, all operated from the rear of the train (two big pushbuttons, or a single heavy-duty switch) by the rear-end guard.
When events like increasing traffic dictated lengthening trains, the platforms would be lengthened FIRST - often using a different form of construction. (Hey! One more detail to model!)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with long, high-level platforms)