Hello everyone. Not sure if this was ever asked before, so I’ll ask (sorry if it was asked a while ago).
I was setting up the layout for the operating session and was thinking of all the trains on the layout. Growing up on LI, I was always around or on the LIRR going to and from NYC. Made some friends that worked on the railroad as they were model railoaders back in the 70’s and always came to the hobby shop where I worked.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s and I have my train room and layout. When I was running DC, the original layout was always run with passenger trains into a large stub terminal. I had industries around with freight trains as well, but most of the time I ran the passenger trains. Then I met some train friends at the LHS where I now live in NJ. Went to a layout and saw lots of freight trains and discovered DCC. So now when we run trains, it’s 95% freight and an occassional passenger train will be taken out by one of my friends. It’s not for a lack of equipment, I think it’s just for the amount of space I have for the layout (20’x20’ HO scale)
So my question is: Do you run all freight, all passenger or a mix and what’s the ratio.
My layout era is early to mid 1950s so all most all of my locomotives are transition era, steam & diesel. I also have a few specialty locomotives, five Shays and a pair of Golden Spike locomotives.
I try to keep everything on my layout between 1950 and 1956. My layout isn’t very large, it does pretty much take up our entire two car garage being 14’ X 10’. Mostly mountains and yard with about 100’ of mainline.
I grew up in El Paso (desert) and moved to New Mexico (mountains) after I was married thus my mountainous Southern Pacific layout. I just love the SP Cab Forwards and AC-9s.
My ratio is about 50/50 freight/passenger with the occasional old timer just for kicks. I do like seeing a Shay with a dozen log cars and a bobber caboose on my trestle.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
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I have two complete passenger trains (three if you count the doodlebug, four if you also you count the mail express train), but I am not a fan.
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I prefer freight trains, and you can really see it in how I model. I have completed about 50-60 of the new freight car fleet. Not a single passenger car or locomotive is done. They are really on the back burner.
My layout is dressed out for the transitional era of the mid 1950s so I run mostly trains from that time period. I’d say I run both freight and passenger trains equally.
My favorite passenger train is the Santa Fe Super Chief and my favorite freight puller is the Nickel Plate Road Berkshire…
A full operating session runs 6 passenger trains, two thru freights, one off stage to local yard and return freight, two local freight, and one iron ore mine switching run which starts and ends off line.
Twelve trains, six of them passenger. Every passenger train does some switching, such as dropping/picking up sleeper, baggage, or milk filled reefer.
I run an interstate passenger train in both directions and three commuter trains which run back and forth three times each. I run three local freights to different areas, I run an east bound and a west bound mixed freight that originate in my yard, two east bound and one west bound intermodal train plus several through freights in each direction.
At this point in time, I do not have a functional layout. I will be diving into the world of ISL later this winter as graduate school winds down. The time period will be the later 1980s through the 1990s. I have minimal if any interest in passenger trains or early diesels. I have some interest in the “400” that ran through my hometown when my parents were kids, but will not be picking up any passanger trains anytime soon.
My interest is in locals and switching industries. After joining an operating group at a friend’s house, I have really started to dig into the switching operations and solving those puzzles. Since room is limited, I’ll be working on developing a switching layout with a few industries.
My HO scale pike is based on a coal branch in the late 1970’s to the early '80’s set in West-Central Colorado.
With a few exceptions all trains are coal drags made up of vintage 34-foot Tyco operating hoppers.
The motive power consists of five GP40’s; four MUed and three GP30’s; two MUed.
The exceptions are:
A freight train; lead by a GP38-2, which delivers supplies to support the mine. This includes boxcars carrying machine parts, larger loads of machinery on flatcars, tanker cars with fuel oil and a small fleet of covered operating hoppers carrying rock dust to line the mine tunnels.
An Olde Tyme excursion train; headed by a USRA 0-6-0 with a Vanderbuilt tender, two 34-foot passenger cars and a bobber caboose. A helper 0-6-0 side tank porter is employed on the 3% grade up to the historic spiral trestle.
A snowplow/M.O.W. train with plows on the head- and trailing-ends with an a F7-B with a steam generator car behind the lead plow. An RS-11 and BL-2 round out the motive power.
On rare occasions the D&RGW excursion train makes an appearance with an F7 A-B-B on the front and an F7 A pusher facing rearward. Because this train has two 85-foot passenger cars with an 85-foot dome car, it has to take it slow on the 15-inch radii curves.
Switching duties are handled by 70- and 44-ton units and an SW-1500 cow and calf MU.
A Doodle Bug is used to ferry workers to the upper unloading station/mine enterance.
The motive power is a mix of leased AT&SF, D&RGW and home R.R. BS&P (Buckskin & Platte).
These kind of questions come up every once in a while and they seem easy enough, but I’m never sure how to respond. The short answer is that I run both freight and passenger service, but I have no idea how to calculate percentages. Percent based on number of cars? Percent based on revenue miles? Percent based on actual hours in the harness? I dunno. I suppose it works out to about 80% freight and 20% passenger.
ACL, SCL, New Haven. Mix of freight and passenger trains. I am heavily biased towards passenger equipment but like to keep things balanced at approximately 50/50.
I’m fortunate in that, for some years in my childhood, I lived in an area of NYC in which I saw a HUGE amount of prototype trains in action with the majority being passenger. After moving to the southeast, that ratio flip-flopped. Thanks to a good friend, I became a fan of the SCL RR and eventually early-Amtrak.
I like running passenger trains. They’re an important part of a model railroad operations diet if you like methods such as T&TO (timetable and train order). The passenger schedule serves as the backbone of what are primarily extra freight operatons.
Yet many ops seem to prefer way freights and by golly keep those pesky passengers off the line entirely so it won’t interrupt shuffling cars around the yard. That’s entertaining for those involved at a personal level, but it also takes away the pressure from a number of factors that contribute to the the feeling of actually being out on the railroad solving railroad problems.
But this is very much a matter of taste. Obviously, many prototypes don’t involve passenger ops and none of this applies in such cases. People do T&TO with scheduled freights that work very similar to how passerngers ops do on other protypes. I’m not dissing what others do, just saying all freight and no passengers is kind of boring and unprototypical for where my interests lie. I don’t need or want a lot of “proto-pressure” but none just doesn’t compute for me.
