I have been working on my small 50’s era PRR inspired desktop N scale layout and had a few ideas on adding a passenger depot. Being small, the layout is a simple loop with a coal spur (to break the loop up, the back side of the layout is a hill and the line runs through it into a tunnel on either end) I can easily run small 3-car pike size passenger trains that look fairly decent, of course a larger radius would look better, but this will work for now. If I were to add a small passenger depot front and center on the straightaway it would do a couple things I THINK would be unreal on the prototype.
1)The train would block an already installed rural two lane paved road when stopped at the depot.
2)The platform would have to be short…the train would need to pull forward for each car to offload.
Could these have been possible on a small branchline? I’m not trying to capture 4 track mainline ops, just get the flavor of the PRR. I didn’t plan on a depot in the beginning, so I don’t mind if it would be too much, I still have the coal load area for interest. Thanks! ----Rob
Don’t worry about blocking a rural 2 lane road! I live in very busy & built up north eastern NJ, and NJ Transit blocks 4 lane very busy county roads at rush hour all the time. Fairlawn, NJ in particular has such a spot & there is no platform - comuters just climb down to ground/sidewalk level - it does make some of us motorists[censored][banghead]
If this is just a way stop in the woods (no baggage or express handled,) the road would only be blocked for a minute or so - not an unusual situation in the days of local passenger operation.
Actually the train would only stop once, with the vestibules for two adjacent cars alongside the platform. A few minutes before the train’s arrival at Wonderful West Podunk, the conductor would have announced that all passengers de-training would have to move to the car ahead/behind to get off. Those that didn’t get the message would have to grab their goodies and scramble the length of a car or more to meet Grandma and Uncle Jeb on the (micro)platform.
Out at the farther end of some branchline, I’d expect to see a G5 4-6-0 on the point. Beautiful little locomotive!
Branchline Trains makes an N scale model of the Centre Hall, PA station.
The new Atlas N scale Maybrook Station looks like it could be painted up into a believable PRR station.
Lastly, here’s my N scale Atlas Passenger Station serving as the Lewisport, PA depot. Notice that traffic on the road next to the depot is blocked when there’s a passenger train stopped there. This reminds me of when longer (LIRR) passenger trains would block the main street through my town growing up.
1 - I wouldn’t worry about it, I took the Amtrak Empire Builder from Mpls/St.Paul to Chicago, in a couple of reasonably sized towns the train blocked at least one road while stopped.
2 - Used to be a common announcement from the conductor “Passengers will please leave by the front (or rear) of the train.” Happened a lot, passengers would have to go forward or back a couple cars to get out (or would have to get on and one end and work back/forwards to their car.
Not a problem. That sort of arrangement happened at probably a third to a half of all the rural depot sites in the Midwest. The trains were never there for long, so it didn’t cause too many problems, if any (things were slower paced back then, remember?)
No problem: eliminate the platform. Again, most of the rural depots in the Midwest had no more of a platform than the cinder base of the roadbed. And if you’re running a rural passenger train, chances are thet it’s main function was in carrying mail and LCL (express), NOT carrying passengers. For every named streamliner running in the 1940s and 1950s, there were five feeder trains toiling in anonymity, making FAR more money carrying “stuff” rather than people. These trains were generally three cars long (on a good day): one baggage car, one RPO/baggage, and one coach.
Oh: these passenger trains would stop with the most important cars nearest the depot: the mail cars. If the odd passenger or two had to disembark, all conductors had handy steps to throw down onto the cinders to help people get to ground level.
So don’t worry about your choices; you’ve stumbled into the typical without having realized it! And modeling the typical is what makes a layout believable.
In our town, served by both Amtrak and VIA, the depot (just a shelter nowadays) is only about 50’ from a main street, so blocking traffic is unavoidable. There’s a picture, in one of Ian Wilson’s books on the CNR in Southern Ontario in the 1950’s, that shows a boxcar being unloaded into a truck. The truck is backed-up to the open boxcar door while parked on a level crossing on the main drag of a small town. Your situation wouldn’t be at all out of the ordinary.
Rob, no problem with trains blocking hiway. Small farming town I grew up in was served by the Erie RR. The depot was really small, the platform was for freight, passengers embarked to the gravel covered ground and walked to and from the depot. If it was raining or snowing, ya got wet. I don’t even recall a waiting room, you just waited in the diner across the road for the train. Yup, now them were the days! Ken
Yes, it’s true that commuters board from the middle of the road which is blocked for traffic. This is done to prevent some? motorists from cutting around the gates infront of the train[:O] In Fairlawn and other towns many folks make their last drive this way[xx(] [angel][}:)] So don’t get frustrated by the train, just enjoy the opportunity to view local railroading! [:)]
I never really paid much attention to passenger trains until hearing from you all! Being 32, most of My train riding was usually done on Amtrak or Via in Canada (I’m originally from Detroit) so the days of good 'ol passenger service was long gone. I have a Lightweight PRR observation car and a baggage RPO (Both ConCor) from my collection as a teenager, would these do for branchline or should I also get a coach? I love the ideas you all gave for rural service, it looks like I won’t have to build Union Station!!! Whew. ----Rob
