I'm helping a friend of mine design a layout, the focal point of which will be Union Station in Little Rock, Ark in the 1950's and '60's. He also wants to include some local freight service. In looking at Google Maps, there are a lot of possibilities.
We're working in N scale, and the alotted space is reasonable, perhaps slightly above average.
There's a great river crossing just east of the station, and several freight branches on the east and west sides of town. From the air, it looks like there's a fair amount of light industry, and some quarries or other extractive type industries. Working out the freight operations should be pretty straightforward.
I'm struggling to work out the passenger operations, though. The Western Maryland pretty much wrote off people moving by the 1950's, so I don't deal with that aspect on my layout. My thought for this Missouri Pacific themed layout is to provide a fair amount of staging, from which the train will emerge, cross the river to the station, then perhaps switch some express and baggage, maybe tack on a sleeper, then move on to leave the layout, returning to staging. We do want to provide for a continuous run option as well, so the varnish can flash by while we railfan.
To justify the size and scope of the station, we'd probably need to add some other passenger service, perhaps some commuter trains or locals in addition to the limited described above. I'd be interested in some insights about how a "Union Station" might function, and if more details about the MoPac ops at Little Rock are available, I'd be much obliged.
Thanks in advance.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
No trains would "flash by" N Little Rock. That is the major station between St Louis and Texarkana on the MoP. EVERY train would stop there. There would be no commuter operations. There would be connections to trains going towards New Orleans/Alexandria, LA via Monroe, there would be connections to trains going to Kansas City via Van Buren and trains going Little Rock to Memphis. It wouldn't be a "union" station since the only railroad using the station would be MoP. Most if not all the Little Rock Sub (St Louis to Texarkana) would be through trains. Only the connection line trains would terminate there.
There was a casket company just north of the depot. The quarries were on the MP Pine Bluff Sub, not the Little rock Sub, and were the ballast pits for the MoP. Across the river in N Little Lock was tie treatment plant and the largest yard and engine facilities on the MoP. There were several feed mills in the area.
The line past the depot was the most heavily traveled freight line on the MoP, 20-25 freights a day plus locals running to points south in Arkansas. Just past the N end of the depot was a sharp right hand curve along the riverfront which was the connection to the "Valley" or the Pine Bluff/Monroe line. Pulpwood trains would run from central Arkansas to Little Rock, turn the corner and go south to the paper mills at Pine Bluff.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
John Allen's "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" has some suggestions on setting up for passenger ops.
As I recall, there was a pretty good article in MR last year on the same subject. Does anyone remember the issue? I've got it at home, so I can look it up later if nobody has the answer in the meantime.
I've always been fascinated by all the interesting trackwork and signal bridges as you approach a passenger terminal. Lots of opportunity for crossovers and double-slips to provide access to all the platforms.
You N-scale guys have a real advantage when it comes to passenger service. Doing it right in HO just takes so dang much space!
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
That's great information, David. Thanks!
MisterBeasley wrote:As I recall, there was a pretty good article in MR last year on the same subject. Does anyone remember the issue? I've got it at home, so I can look it up later if nobody has the answer in the meantime.
September '07, p. 122.
MisterBeasley wrote: John Allen's "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" has some suggestions on setting up for passenger ops.You N-scale guys have a real advantage when it comes to passenger service. Doing it right in HO just takes so dang much space!
That's John Armstrong.
Mark
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
wm3798 wrote: To justify the size and scope of the station, we'd probably need to add some other passenger service, perhaps some commuter trains or locals in addition to the limited described above.
To justify the size and scope of the station, we'd probably need to add some other passenger service, perhaps some commuter trains or locals in addition to the limited described above.
Keep in mind the depot size would be based on the number of trains it would be serving when it was built, by the 1950's and '60's many stations were handling only a fraction of the trains they were designed to handle. A station that in 1910 saw 300 trains a day might by 1968 be serving 10-12 trains...or less.
Great Northern's depot in Minneapolis probably saw 100+ passenger trains a day when it opened in IIRC the 1920's, by the time it closed it was only served by two trains a day.
wjstix wrote: wm3798 wrote: To justify the size and scope of the station, we'd probably need to add some other passenger service, perhaps some commuter trains or locals in addition to the limited described above. Keep in mind the depot size would be based on the number of trains it would be serving when it was built, by the 1950's and '60's many stations were handling only a fraction of the trains they were designed to handle. A station that in 1910 saw 300 trains a day might by 1968 be serving 10-12 trains...or less. Great Northern's depot in Minneapolis probably saw 100+ passenger trains a day when it opened in IIRC the 1920's, by the time it closed it was only served by two trains a day.
Little Rocks Union Station was a rather large station, and handled Mopacs prime passenger movers in its' heyday. Gone now the passenger platforms which took pax from the station to the trains, but the building itself still stands.
Looking purely at operations, it isn't necessary to have anything but the passenger station and the adjacent main tracks to have a 'stage' for LOTS of activity. With the basic track plan an oval with double-ended staging in some concealed place (mine is directly UNDER the modeled station) you can generate enough traffic in both directions to give your tower operators apoplexy. Add in a couple of through freights each way on the adjacent freight main...
For additional interest/complexity, have an engine terminal and change locomotives. Pick up and drop baggage/mail storage cars (which may have to be shifted to the post office siding by the station switcher.) Swap cars between trains on crossing routes (sleepers. Coaches wouldn't switch when it was so easy to transfer their two-legged cargo.) Add or delete cars based on traffic needs. A large coach yard, and keeping track of which cars would be needed at the station when, can also be an operator's dream (or nightmare.) If you pick up or drop diners, there will be a commissary track where they can be restocked and prepared for the next run.
As for freight interest, was there a freight house near the passenger station. Team tracks? Small industries (warehouses and distribution termini?) As anyone who has ever tangled with a Timesaver will attest, a single runaround and several sidings that have to be switched in both directions can be an all-evening assignment.
All in all, there's plenty of operating interest to be had within walking distance of the station's ticket windows, as long as there is ample staging to represent the rest of the world.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Here is my preliminary plan of a similar situation (the redesign for my layout)..
http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/clinic4planning1.html