softail86mark How about a military base? Could be offline, but maybe the front gate where the tracks go in. New Mexico you say? Nevada? Skunk Works or Roswell? Many combinations come to mind...
How about a military base? Could be offline, but maybe the front gate where the tracks go in. New Mexico you say? Nevada? Skunk Works or Roswell? Many combinations come to mind...
Tracklayer
New Mexico has a number of present and past military bases, either in the heart of nowhere or adjacent to places too big to be called small towns. (Roswell was a college town long before the Army Air Corps established their training field in 1941. It went to Walker AFB, then was closed and repurposed as a civilian facility in 1963. As for the UFO, there's a storefront 'museum' in downtown Roswell...) The military bases in Nevada were (and three still are) adjacent to larger 'towns' (Wendover, Reno, Las Vegas) or out in the wilds with no rail service at all ("Area 51") The odd man out is Creech AFB, home of the drones, but it shares Indian Springs with a state prison. The rails vanished in 1918 when the USRA killed the Las Vegas and Tonopah, long before the founding of Indian Springs Auxiliary Air Field.
The Skonk Works is in Palmdale, CA - rather large for a small town.
The BNSF route onto Edwards AFB is adjacent to the North Gate. The only sign of civilization within a five mile radius is the remains of the restaurant/bar once run by Pancho Barnes - nothing but some badly crumbled rock walls. [Edit: Just checked the satellite view of the area. Pancho's may have succumbed to the recent road building that improved Route 58 to a freeway. BNSF is apparently using the track on Edwards to store unused open-tops, so I doubt that the base has rail service.]
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If it wasn't mentioned small towns often had a small machine/fabrication shop, usually a "mom and pop" or a partnership between two or more talented men of the trades. Customers serviced often included local farmers, truck and mechanic shops, and construction companies.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Mr. B mentioned Woolworths. But if you're out West, rather than a fully-stocked department store, it tended to be more mail order like Sears, Western Auto, and my CRS is blanking on several other outfits. They'd have fast selling items in stock, but the rest you ordered in with their assistance. Very pre-internet, even pre-telephone in a lot of places in the 50s still. Just requires a storefront and maybe a small garage if the owner was ambitious.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Ok, here is a small town with no bar. :-)
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =