40's - 50's Passenger Train?

[kentNtrain]

I'm a real novice to model trains and my layout is about 4 x 8 and my theme is "Mayfield", Yes, home of the Cleavers.  I want to integrate a 1940's to 1950's passenger train.  Any suggestions? 

Kent

[dtpowell]

Interesting question. The following came from www.leaveittobeaver.org

"Finally, closely inspecting the prop checks used in the 1997 Leave It To Beaver movie shows an Ohio address of "211 Pine Street, Mayfield, Ohio."

The web site states that there are many Mayfields around the country. So, it could be almost anywhere.

I'm from Ohio so the Cleveland area works fine for me. (Note: I live in the Greater Cincinnati area)

With all that said. I like the New York Central. Go with the Twentieth Century Limited.
Or, do whatever feels and looks good to you.

[in_eden]

Mayfield and Mayfield Heights, OH are eastern suburbs of Cleveland located along I 271 at and north of rt 322 (mayfield rd.).
There are no actual railroads running through either of the burbs, but they are closest to the New York Central's lakeshore route, and the Nickel Plate Road's Buffalo to Chicago main line.
The PRR's Pittsburgh - Cleveland line is a couple of miles south east.
The B&O came nowhere near there as it stayed south through Akron, only running a branch to Cleveland.
Your best bets for a Cleaver era passenger train-
NYC 20th Century Limited (E units pulling a streamlined consist)
PRR Broadway Limited (Kato makes a full consist... but get E8's not the GG1)
Nickel Plate Alco PA's and streamlined cars from Con-Cor(even though NKP ran steam well into the 50s using pullman green heavyweights and hudson's for passenger service- you'll never find the peices in N scale!)
Those would be the most prototypically correct for that town and time.

[Frank C]

You could get a few Walthers, Rapido, Intermountain, or Micro-trains cars, one or two of the new Bachmann GP-7's or Atlas units to pull it. While big trains went through these suburban town, they often didn't stop. This was the job for a local/secondary train.

Frank

[brokemoto]

If it is a suburb on a main line, the above suggestions are pretty good.

As some have stated, no main line of any road actually goes through it.

If you want to model 'what could have been', a possibility might be a secondary or a branch that served the town.  You could have passenger service that consists of one or two commuter round trips daily to Cleveland and cut the service back to one round trip daily Saturday, Sunday and Holidays.

If you choose the 1940s, a steam locomotive would be working the local passenger.  In the 1940s, the passenger diesels were working the main line intercity trains.  Appropriate power would be a pacific or ten wheeler.  You might get away with a mountain or hudson that had been bumped from mainline service by the diesels.  You could have one mikado, mogul or consolildated fitted with steam lines and signalling devices as backup when the passenger power is in the shop.

Heavyweight cars would be appropriate.  Two coaches and a baggage or combine would be an appropriate consist.   The baggage would be used to transport a few sacks of storage mail and express, as much of that was still moving on the rails, then.  You could add a HW RPO, or simply substitute the RPO for one of the coaches and have a consist of RPO, combine, coach.

The second weekday train could be a doodlebug with or without a trailer coach or trailer baggage, as you prefer.  The doodlebug would also be the weekend train, perhaps having the trailer car only on the weekdays.

If you choose the 1950s, once you get to the mid-1950s, you can substitute diesels for the steam.  Use GP-9s, GP-7s,
RS-3s or RS-2s.  There are torpedo boat versions of the GPs out there.  Some manufacturers also sell the ALCo s with passenger numbers, but without the passenger details.  You can buy some passenger details, and others are not difficult to fashion, but do check your prototype road to see what passenger equipment it  used on its ALCo s as there were variations.   The only variations on the EMDs were generally with or without torpedo tubes (actually, they are air reservoirs for the braking).  Some of the GPs did not leave LaGrange with torpedo tubes, but the purchasing roads added them later.

You can continue to use the doodlebug into the 1960s, but another option in the 1950s is the RDC, if your prototype road operated them.  The first RDC appeared in 1949.  NYCS tested them in Boston commuter service and placed an order after the first day.  Budd delivered most of them in the 1950s.

If you want only one passenger train, a doodlebug or RDC might be appropriate.

[ABC]

Like said previous if you are modeling Mayfield or Mayfield Heights (OH) then you would pretty much be making diorama with no trains or track. But, luckily you have creative license because it is your layout.

[David Leonard]

There's also a Mayfield (neighborhood name, not incorporated) in Middletown OH. It could be a suburban stop for Cincinnatti commuters. That would put both the B&O and NYC in play.

[ABC]

There's also a Mayfield (neighborhood name, not incorporated) in Middletown OH. It could be a suburban stop for Cincinnatti commuters. That would put both the B&O and NYC in play.

It states that the family lives in the city of Mayfield, so that would disqualify the Mayfield you speak of technically speaking, but ultimately he can model the Mayfield he wants.

[dtpowell]

The Mayfield near Cleveland, Ohio is about 23 miles from Cleveland Union Terminal. The closest Mainline Station the Cleavers wouuld have used. http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CUT The link will show you what railroads served in the 1950's/ 60's. I would stay away from the C&O Railroad even though it was headquartered at the Terminal Tower. It never ran to Cleveland. I think most folks in that era would have found a way to get to the main station or airport if a local rail station wasn't available. My family did and we had couple suburban stations availble near by until 1970's.

[ABC]

23 miles in N would take up almost 2 tenths of a mile on a layout. In one episode they travel to a train station to go to their Aunt Martha's, I do not recall if there was any mention as to how far away it was though...

[GlennW]

There is no reason why you can't move the Mayfield station to the NYC, NKP or PRR mainlines. It could stand in for a suburban station where LD trains would stop in stead of making the long trip downtown. You could decide if another town (Aurora) was at the start of the commuter district or if Mayfield (Naperville, La Grange) has an old station to sell tickets.

Commuter trains use F's or GP's with 2-3 heavyweight coaches & 1 combine for the mail & newspaper baggage. (The first train outbound delivers the AM paper. It needs to be OT for commuters to buy it at the station).
Some LD trains stop so that passengers don't have to make the long trek downtown. LD trains stop only to pickup/drop passengers for far away cities. The 20century Limited stops at the wrong time of day. Something called the Pacemaker stops during daylight hours. The train can be heavy with baggage, express & mail with a few coaches. You can have a mix of heavyweight & lightweight coaches, lounge cars, tavern cars, etc.

[jake_iv]

May I suggest that you look at "The Ma & Pa" by George W. Hilton; currently published by the Johns Hopkins University Press and google the Maryland and Pennsylvania RR for more info.  The Ma & Pa has been described as a "model railroad built on a scale of 12" to the foot..."

A similar line could be "imagineered" into your railroad's region and justified by a need to move farm products, small manufacturing output and people between the rural areas and the "Big City" beginning around the year 1900 and continuing through the Korean War.  This would allow you to incorporate both 50' and heavyweights on short trains hauled by a 2-8-0 or even a 4-6-2 or the new 4-6-0 or even an F unit or early GP that your road had picked up used.  The Verde Valley Tunnel and Smelter RR had a couple of 2-6-6-2 locos from Alco that they used to replace double-headed 0-6-0s.  Think about the typical Rock Island Rockets of 2 to 4 cars and an RPO or REA express car.  Up until about 1972 or 73 you could still find RI Rockets running the midwest with 2 or 3 passenger cars and a few freight cars.

Since your railroad would be "filling the gap" you could justify interchange with the bigger roads and possibly an interurban or another short line.