I will have a rural town on my layout and was thinking of putting a small passenger station there. Unfortunately there isn’t really enough room for a siding. Would it be prototypical to have the train load and unload passengers on the main line?
Thanks,
Scott
There’s a town not far from where I live that space for a station was at a premium, to the point that the actual station was built on a platform over a creek on the east side of the main. The passenger station seemed to not have its own track and appears to only have had access to the main. My assumption is that loading and offloading did not take long, and that there wasn’t much traffic on the line in the first place. The available space for another track was to the west, and given over to the freighthouse, where presumably cars sat for much longer.
It was not unusual for a passenger train to stop on the main in order to load or discharge passengers.It didn’t matter what size the town or city was…The Marion Union Station saw trains stop on the main,engines get service etc…The same held true for Crestline,Galion,Mansfield and thousands of other locations through out the country.
Did you know some railroads would hold other trains while a passenger train was stopped at a station even if there was double track?
Sure. Lots of stations didn’t have a siding.
You betcha!
You might have the room to do a “Johnstown, PA passenger” prototype service:
Amtrak on the former 4-track Pennsy mainline, now a NW 3-track mainline, picks up passengers on a platform in the middle of the mainline tracks. This approach served 17,000+ passengers in 2008, and just imagine what this platform handled during the 1930s-1950s PRR’s passenger heyday.
The mainline is elevated behind the Union Station with passengers walking through a glazed-tile tunnel under the mainline and up steps to the platform as is done at a big-city subway entrance.
I recently picked up Green Max Series #15 (subway platform structure) on eBay to exactly do this for the N Scale CR&T to interchange passengers with a circa 1956 Pennsy 2-track mainline. Another similar solution without an elevated mainline would be a steps-structure over the track(s).
Small station immediately along the main track? Situation normal. If there was a passing siding, it should be on the side opposite to the depot. If there is a track between the depot and the main track, it will almost surely be the house track, and although superficially resembling a passing siding, the house track definitely is not.
Mark
This combination depot served a small, agricultural-based town. The train is coming to a stop on the main track. The town had no passing siding. The track between the main track and the depot is the house track. The house track served the freight house attached to the depot (notice box car parked at freight platform). If the depot served passengers only, there wouldn’t have been a need for the house track.
One detail missing from the station scenes article in October’s MR was a dog. And if the article had included the steam era, milk cans could be added.
One prototype line that I rode many times had several stations that were nothing more than a platform and a shelter like the one at a bus stop alongside the single track. This wasn’t some, “Two trains on a busy day,” route - more like two heavy-rail EMU trains an hour in each direction.
One of John Armstrong’s layout articles had a photo of a station on the White Pass and Yukon. It consisted of a sign on a pole - period.
A station is a defined location listed in the employee timetable (and in public timetables if the line carries passengers.) Facilities can range from a signboard on a post to New York’s Grand Central - dozens of platform tracks on two levels and an integral balloon reversing loop.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Both the Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific had passenger stations right on their mainlines without separate sidings in my home town. Passenger trains only stopped for five or six minutes, primarily to load and unload Railway Express shipments, so blocking the main was no real problem.
The Illinois Central line was a double-track main between Saint Louis, Missouri and DuQuoin, Illinois, where it joined their north-south Chicago to New Orleans main.
The Missouri Pacific was single track between Mount Vernon and Chester, Illinois, serviced by a Doodlebug, and was very lightly traveled.
I know of a few places where the depot sat between the main track and siding. Even in those situations the passenger train would hold the main track to do it’s work unless otherwise restricted by time table or train order.
Jeff
Jeff
One station layout that was pretty common in the prototype, but not seen that often in model railroading, is the house track going behind the depot, while the depot faces the mainline.
Sure a case of life imitating art so to speak. You don’t have room for a siding but want a passenger station in that location. On a real railroad they had the need for passenger station but no room for a siding for one f many reasons. Maybe passenger service came along later as the town grew maybe just simple geography played a part in it. I just saw a video the other day about Cal train who had three different types of trains running. an express or baby bullet as they called it a train who only stopped at a few locations and one that stopped at every station. I don’t recall exactly what they were called etc. but they clearly showed modern commuter trains stopping to pick up passengers on the main line.
You don’t even need the town.
Enjoy
Paul
Sweet pic paul. Where is it and what railroad? Plus like everyone else has said no need for a siding or houe track. Stations can be on the mainline with no other trackage. Under TWC any station name on the track warrant that doesnt have a siding your authority ends at the station sign.
Maryland School station about 12 miles north of Baltimore on the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad.
Enjoy
Paul
Hello Scott
Ditto the East Broad Top at Orbisonia - not only a passenger station, but baggage, express,post office, dispatcher and EBT Head Office as well!
Through a great deal of reading and conversations with a lot of you nice folks I’ve come to the conclusion that from the perspective of a prototype builder (1:1 scale), anything and everything that makes sense is okay and prototypical. The questions you have to ask yourself, in the words of Linn Westcott are (paraphrased a bit, perhaps): “Does it ‘tell a story’ and does it make sense on this particular railroad? If you were the owner of this railroad, would you do it this way?”
All the best,
Bill Rice-Johnston
Thanks for the idea mark. DEFINITELY have to find a way to integrate this. Including the dog. Were the milk cans used past diesel era? Like late transition era? I mean don’t get me wrong, could easely paint up some model milk cans then weather them with a little rust maybe and set them there. I really like the “small town” look of Wathers Golden Valley depots and think a kitbash of the passenger depot and freight house as a single structure would look cool. Even better in something bigger than N, more room for detial, but N serves the best space effieceny for a layout. now hopefully when I can afford it my LHS will still have those really nice Model Power 2-6-0 and 2-8-2 still there. And that Walthers 0-8-0, rumor has it they aren’t making them anymore. I suppose kitbashing one from a decent 2-8-0 could work, but still… ooh ooh they also have that real nice Model Power Pacific I’ve been lusting after since I bought the '08 Walthers N&Z catalogue a year ago. I need to rob a bank or something [:O][:P]
On the SP, milk-can usage continued at least through the 1950s where the milk markets and passenger train schedules were conducive. For the station pictured, which was on the San Ramon branch, this traffic presumably ended before WWII with the demise of passenger service there, however. So, yes, milk cans and the early diesel era can work. But don’t rust up those cans. Would you like milk coming from rusted cans?
Mark
More cans along the main track across from the “depot.”
Amtrak station in Windsor CT is adjacent to the main line (the only line now that the passing track was removed to save costs). Ditto on the passenger platform in Windsor Locks. Local and CSX freight also uses the right of way.
