King of the layout: freight or passenger trains?

[PennsyHoosier]

I especially love passenger trains. But you can't just run them. Moderation in all things--that's what my dad taught me.

[Roadtrp]

I have a mix of both on my layout. My first love will always be passenger trains. Train trips during my youth are the foundation of my love for railroading.

There is just something terribly romantic about passenger trains. All the people sharing that space for a while... different backgrounds... different destinations... different goals... but all friends for the duration of the trip.

One thing I really like about passenger travel today is most everyone on the train is there because they LOVE trains. They aren't the fastest way to get there. They usually aren't the cheapest way to get there. People take the train because that is the way they prefer to travel. I love being seated with and talking to other passengers in the dining car. I've yet to find anyone who isn't a BIG fan of railroads.

[ClinchValleySD40]

Freight only, no passenger.

[Nieuweboer]

I think it depends very much on the size of the layout. Passenger trains with full length cars on a small layout are unrealistic particularly when the train takes up the full length of one side of the layout. But.......even the smallest layout can accomodate a couple of old time coaches with a classic diesel or small steam loco and pretend to be the daily local or tourist train if you're modelling a recent era. Passenger trains add variety to every layout.

[jrbernier]

My layout was built for freight trains, but I do have a small 3 car local that is pulled by a 'torpedo' tube GP9. That said, a pair of road freights each way, a local for a branch line, and a yard job fill out the trains I run.

Jim Bernier

[Big_Boy_4005]

While I have always loved passenger trains, and even made one into the center piece of my railroad, freight is a lot more interesting. My railroad would be a very dull place, with only two passenger trains per day, one in each direction. Switching is where the action is.[swg]

[CP5415]

True Elliot, switching is where the action is.

BUT!

There's nothing finer
Than seein a Superliner
Rollin down the track
From Here & Back!

I just finished purchasing the 2 Walthers D&H coaches I needed for my Laurentian to go with my Walthers Budd Dome Coach & my Proto D&H PA.
YEY! One passenger train down, three more to go!!

Gordon

[PennsyHoosier]

I love switching and that is what I do most of the time. But I go to pieces over my passenger trains. I gaze at them lovingly almost as much as I do at my K4s. [:D]

[brokemoto]

I voted for passenger, but MAIL trains are king on my pike. My mail trains do carry coaches and sleepers, and one or two may have a club car.

[Anonymous]

Well, selling tickets for passenger train rides helps keep the museum alive, so they get priority. Having said that, we do try to timetable them to fit around any freights to industries on the line (usually a CSX loco, a couple of cars, and a caboose), so sometimes departures are delayed a few minutes to wait for a freight to clear. Lowest on the list are demonstration freights using the museum's small car fleet - we run these for photographers and also as part of our "Train crew experience" runs where people can learn to handle trains under supervision of our staff, so they're not a daily sight.

[Texas Zepher]

Your question is strangely worded. I didn't vote. The title doesn't match the question doesn't match the description.

The King of the layout is the passenger. The other trains had better get out of the way
or the crews get poor performance ratings.

I prefer to run most freight because that is prototypical.

The passenger train is the glamor girl that billboards the railroads image. All the people each with their own story to tell of where they are going and why.... That is what captures my fancy. To see what I mean look at an O. Winson Link photograph of a passenger train on the Abindon <sp?> Branch of the NW.

[AggroJones]

I cant even run full size passenger cars on my layout. Just don't have the clearances. Athearn 72' heavyweights will have to do.

[tstage]

From an operations stand point? Freight, hands down. There's more variations of cars, service, and inductries than passenger trains.

From an asthetic point of view? I guess you'd have to say passenger. They're sleeker and more refined looking than a series of box cars or hoppers.

With that said, I'm going to go play with my freight layout...[:)]

Tom

[Anonymous]

I model a suburban branchline. local frieght dailey, and a doodlebug shuttling back and forth all day. passenger trains rule, but the fun is in the local frieghts.

[jpwc50]

Passenger for me! Operationally, there's a lot of action in busy stations where trains were combined or split also, switching in & out headend ,mail storage cars, rpo's express reefers and before the practice of run-thru diners & lounges, these cars were also switched in & out of trains depending on the time of day. A busy passenger terminal would make for an interesting switching layout.