1950s Layouts

[jacon12]

What, in your opinion, would be the needed structures (not locos or cars) that would be desired or absolutely a must have on most any layout based on the years1950-55 (in the U.S.) that had early diesels and steam locomotives. For instance, a coaling station for the steamers.
Jarrell

[oleirish]

Jarrell

Coal mines,cattle ranches,lumber mills,coal towers,water tanks,round house,turn table,refinerys(OIL)just to name a few.I'am sure if you can think of it,what was around when you were a kid??
JIM

[orsonroy]

Small town depots.
Mid-sized town freight houses.
Water tank at every (or every other) town.
Section houses every five miles.
Phone booths at every passing siding and named station.
Coal docks every 50-75 miles.
Small town carlot industries.

[jacon12]

QUOTE: Originally posted by oleirish

Jarrell

Coal mines,cattle ranches,lumber mills,coal towers,water tanks,round house,turn table,refinerys(OIL)just to name a few.I'am sure if you can think of it,what was around when you were a kid??
JIM

Oh! Stuff like when I was a kid!
The Wright brothers buzzed my house.
and a little earlier than that, the Civil War was still going on... I think. [:D]
How about things to service diesels?
Jarrell

[jacon12]

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy

Small town depots.
Mid-sized town freight houses.
Water tank at every (or every other) town.
Section houses every five miles.
Phone booths at every passing siding and named station.
Coal docks every 50-75 miles.
Small town carlot industries.

Ok Ray, I'll bite. What is a section house? Thanks for the other ideas.
Jarrell

[Anonymous]

A section house is a small, usually rectangular building where the railroad maintenance crews stored their tools, etc. Sometimes it was just a converted old caboose or boxcar put on a foundation. Some also had speeder sheds where they stored the small speeders the crew used to travel the track.

[leighant]

May I qualify Jarrel's question a little?

"What, in your opinion, would be the needed structures (not locos or cars) that would be desired or absolutely a must have on most any layout based on the years1950-55 (in the U.S.) that had early diesels and steam locomotives. "

Do you mean in general and absolute terms, what structures would be needed?

Or do you mean what structures are needed THAT ARE NOT NOW GENERALLY AVAILABLE?

[MisterBeasley]

I think it's important to set the era with other little things. The cars and trucks are important, and the 50's were full of "unsightly" billboards that today would be considered historical treasures. Eastern and TWA were big airlines back then. I'm plannning to put posters for 60's rock groups on my 60's layout, along with movie signs at the theater, and maybe a Republican campaign poster covered with Stop the War grafitti. (Oh, wait a minute. Wasn't that something we left behind in the 60's?) Look at my subway walls and you'll see a poster for the first Simon and Garfunkle album, where they sang, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls."

[Anonymous]

Bachmann Came Out With an old freight station a couple of years back. Freight Depot Is what it's called...I think.

[dehusman]

A section house is where a section gang worked out of. the railroad was divided into "sections" and a gang of men, a foreman and 3 or 4 men for example, was assigned to maintain that section of track. They traveled up and down that section everyday, hand tamping and replacing ties and rails, tightening bolts, driving down spikes and other routine maintenance.
So a section house was the small structure that they worked out of, stored their small supplies, and stored their hand or motor car.

Dave H.

[dehusman]

"Essential" structures depends on the area and theme of the layout.
For steam era probably the only essential structure is a water tower and maybe telephone boxes at sidings (assuming you don't have an industrial layout with no sidings).
You only need a coaling tower if you have engine servicing facilities.
Virtually every other structure would be optional. There are "typical" structures. Small mom and pop stores. Small post office. Team track/loading dock. Section houses. Chrome diner. Small, relatively plain depots with a freight/baggage section. Baggage carts. Stations should have a train order signal in front of them.

Dave H.

[Blind Bruce]

Jarrell, No one has mentioned the structure that I most remember. The gatemans shanty. That is where the person that raised and lowered the gate at a road crossing, would reside. Most were elevated for line of sight to an approaching train. The man would then either control the gate remotely or come down the ladder and do it at the gate. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul and Pacific electric RR was done the latter. The North Shore line as it was called went right past my grandmas house and I had to cross their tracks each day on the way to school in Waukegan, Ilinois.
BB

[Anonymous]

Pick up MRR's 1950's special issue. I got mine at Walden Books Earlier this week. Answers your question and then some.

[davekelly]

Passenger stations - with passengers!

[tstage]

Jarrell,

-Diesel fueling facility
-Sand tower (both steam & diesel type)
-Coailing tower, coaling conveyor or steam loader for loading coal
-Water tower/column (water needed for diesels, too)
-Engine house
-turntable (or wye) for turning locomotives
-Inspection pit
-Washing facility (for passenger services)
-Brick buildings
-Freight house/depot/distribution center
-MOW shed
-Signals
-Track bumpers

There's a few off the top of my head. I'll have to think about it some more...

Tom

Back later - Jarrell, MR has a good reference called The Model Railroaders' Guide To Locomotive Servicing Terminals by Marty McGrurk. It covers both the history and function of the steam and diesels servicing terminals. I highly recommend it.

[Anonymous]

back in the fiftys my grand father was the section forman for the cb&q on the iv&n branch line the house he lived in was called the section house while acrose the tracks was the tool shed and motor car(speeder) shed kwher all the tools and motor car were kept len

[Anonymous]

interlocking towers,at crossings, junctions,even large yard throats and multiple track lines with crossovers

[tstage]

Mike,

Good heads up on the Interlocking tower. [tup] I have TWO of 'em on my layout and I can't believe I forgot to include one on the list. [D)]

Tom

[leighant]

I don't think I remembered to mention QUONSET HUTS. A "signature" 50s building.

Quonset hut. historical note: First built for Navy in 1941
at Quonset Pt., Rhode Island. according to World Book, 1958 edition, p.Q-6718

Thousands made for armed forces to set up where needed around the world in WW2. at least two standard sizes.

My uncle in Colorado had one in 1955 converted to a hanger for his airplane. (Which was also converted from "?something?" Didn't hurt him seriously when it crashed...)

Corpus Christi, Texas had a Spanish-language movie theater in a quoset building with a false front so it didn't look so much like a quonset hut.

I have a photo of dirty kids playing around a village of quonset huts...probably a makeshift workers' village at a government construction site around 1950.

Quonset-roofed industrial bldg RMC Dec80 p.91

Tru Scale model, history RMC Apr93 p.117

multiple quonsets forming warehouse in Topeka, photo Santa Fe Trackside w/ Bill Gibson p.86

Rix makes a model from their grain-bin parts.
I believe government plans are available from Library of Congress on the web at www.loc.gov (if that is not the site, it can prob be googled easily....)

I am not aware of any used directly by railroad, but often on farms, industrial parks, etc.

[leighant]

1950s signs of the times....
Drive In Theater....
Suburbia.... tract houses under construction
Television-- antennas on houses (NO satellite dishes!!!!)
Television-- appliance stores advertising television as novel thing
Television-- corner tavern with sign, TV as a special feature
Air conditioning
The supermarket (as opposed to the Mom and Pop storefront on the downtown square)
and Shopping Carts
Trash burning barrels in backyards (before air quality rules)
The Malt Shop
The 45 rpm record store (a sign with a phonograph record with big hole would identify the specialty)

[Anonymous]

With the movie theater (walk in or drive in) you can set the era by selecting what movie is on the marquee. On my theater, the movie is "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. That would set the date to sometime in 1952 or early 1953. You could have a gas station with a full service crew working on a 1950's car. Since I was not around then, I am not positive, but I believe many homes were heated with coal, so there should be some sort of storage facility for it. You could build woodsheds for the homes that were heated with wood, too. Either of those would depend upon climate and region. If in a region where coal was used for heating, you could also have a coal dealer on your layout.

[jacon12]

When I was a small kid around 1950, I remember sitting beside the railroad track and watching a group of black men, all with long metal poles. And they would come to a section of track, line up on one side.. place the ends of the poles under the track and while one sang out a song, the others would at first tap the metal poles against the rail in rythm to the song and then really put their back into it, all at one time, to shove the rail into place.
Were these crews given any special name at that time (such as Gandy Dancers), or were they just known as railroad maintanece crews?
I always wanted to model them.
JaRRell

[MisterBeasley]

How about a sign in front of a gas station showing Hi-Test for 19 cents a gallon?

[leighant]

Remember when there were "SERVICE" stations rather than just convenience stores where you could "buy grub and get gas".


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Both the (uniformed!) gas pump attendant AND the grease monkey came out to help when a tu-tone Chevy Bel-Aire convertible with three young women and the chaperon aunt stopped to ask for directions. But the boss came out to tell them to get back to work, HE would help the ladies.

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Back in those days, you bought cold drinks from a drink box that had bottles sitting in chilled water. You maneuvered one bottle into the delivery space, put in a nickle and it unlocked the thing so you could take out only one bottle by hand. I thought a Doctor Pepper machine would have more East Texas flavor in the 1950s than Coca Cola.

By the back corner of the lot are the old cut-out Flying Red Horse signs that have been replaced by the new enameled sign.

[Anonymous]

Nice!