Passenger trains

[Anonymous]

[:)]I was thinkin of running passenger trains on my layout(1960-1979).I model an original railroad called the Illinois Pacific.The first train (anser 1/2)Runs jointly with the NYC who brings the train to indianappolis where the Illinois Pacific takes over. Then it stops in chicago,and the St.Louis!Then it goes all the way through the rockies and to colorado where the DRG&W takes over and then the DRG&W surenderres to the Espee who takes the remianing passengers to LA.[:D]

[Junctionfan]

How about the Trans Coastal Express.

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by EEDM

[:)]I was thinkin of running passenger trains on my layout(1960-1979).I model an original railroad called the Illinois Pacific.The first train (anser 1/2)Runs jointly with the NYC who brings the train to indianappolis where the Illinois Pacific takes over. Then it stops in chicago,and the St.Louis!Then it goes all the way through the rockies and to colorado where the DRG&W takes over and then the DRG&W surenderres to the Espee who takes the remianing passengers to LA.[:D]

Sounds like you're talking about six different trains here:

NYC train from "the East" to Indianapolis
Indy to Chicago
Chicago to St Louis
St Louis to "somewhere in Colorado"
CO to "the SP"
"the SP" to LA

Unfortunately, this passenger routing will die from faster competition. Trains to Indy were dominated by the NYC, so that routing is OK (the real routing was from Indy to the IC, who brought it onto Chicago). "the East" to Chicago via Indy will die from competition from the NYC, PRR, B&O, Erie, and DL&W/NKP competition, who each had faster transit times. Chicago to St Louis was dominated by the GM&O, and to a lesser extent the Rock Island. Chicago to LA was a UP/C&NW (and later UP/Milwaukee)-dominated route.

Your best bet, if you do have a freelanced transcon RR, is to actually offer each service as a seperate train. Through traffic between all stops will be smaller, but scheduling to accomodate local traffic will increase overall ridership. The big cities you've mentioned, especially Chicago and StL, were major passenger hubs, and there were virtually NO through trains going through them. Everything stopped and started at the Union Stations.

So that means you'll need at least six new train names, as well as rethinking your roster to include more passenger engines, coaches and baggage cars (Pullmans and sometimes diners were generally switched between trains, so you won't need as many of them)

[Anonymous]

Orsonroy, the UP didn't dominate the Chicago to LA route. The Chicago to LA route was actually dominated by the Santa Fe up til Amtrak.
Ch

[orsonroy]

Ah...I completely forgot about the Santa Fe! How the heck did I do that...?

[Anonymous]

For some people, easy to do, just like its easy for me to forget about the eastern roads
Ch

[Dbcxyz123]

[banghead]You for got N&W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![banghead]