In order to deepen the knowledge of the time epoche, let's gather, which is important when you want to avoid anachronism. The reader should find information whether a 8-corner stop sign is correct, a white strip on the road in the time. How are the buildings which locomotives and cars are new, which out of date, but still seen the vehicles of the roads, how traffic signs look? Appearance of the persons (mini skirt, buggy) next fast food places, billboards and what else important to recognize this layout's era. Wolfgang
I'm stuck in the 1960's. It's the best time of my life. I recall the cars, the trucks. The billboards at roadside. Especially the Burma Shave slogans. The many and varied gas stations, with all their advertising. Their buildings of cinder block, stucco, etc. The drive in restaurants. The vibrancy of "downtown" areas. The colorful paint schemes on freight cars, and passenger trains. The open stations/agencies lineside, and the people who worked for the railroads. It's hard to completely describe. Guess you just had to be there.... Boxcab E50
Ken: Those "Burma Shave" signs were plastered all over the countryside in the early 1950's as well. And Route 66 was in it's heyday. Then came the interstate highway system. Stay cool and run steam....
Was in elementary school in the 60s. But: Station Wagons - SUVs - Not Regional logos: 7/11s but only in certain areas of the US Starbucks - Not Wolworths - No Walmarts Grossmans in the North East / Boston area - no Home Depots Actual passenger stations for commuters - not wind / rain / snow swept platforms. Er: when they had commuter rail.
Very short lived phenomenon of 1960s- ENCO gas stations. Up through the 50s they were Humble in Texas, Esso other places. Changed name to Enco in 1960s "America's Energy Company!" but I understand they later discovered that in Japanese, "Enco" means "stalled car." To avoid language problems, they came with made-up name that didn't man anything in ANY language-- EXXON.
Late 60s- token passenger trains of one or two cars after the US Postal Service terminated its mail contract with the railroads.
lots of older buildings (turn of the century to depression-built) constructed from mostly brick. 1st generation diesels (GP30's, GP9's, F7's, U23B's, FA's, RS-11's) Most freight cars had friction bearing/journal box trucks (bettendorf, etc...) The newest freight cars had roller bearings.....some older boxcars had catwalks removed....most "newer" ones were built without. Unrefined trackwork....39' rails (non welded).....filthy, beat up, yet colorful freightcars. Ballast was dark/muddy, didn't find fresh ballast as much as seen now.
In the 50's and 60's there were lots of short sidings serving single small businesses, especially in rural and farming areas. Local feed & grain stores received one or two boxcars a month on dedicated sidings placed next to a store/warehouse building. Local coal yards had elevated sidings built above multiple coal bins where coal was dumped through the rails. Small operations even dumped the coal directly into the delivery trucks. Most communities had a team track near downtown where "less-than-carload" (LCL) freight was unloaded onto a platform and then into flatbed trucks or wagons. Rail Post Office (RPO) cars would provide mail service to rural communities on the fly by grabbing outgoing mailbags from mail cranes and kicking incoming mailbags out of the RPO car doors as they went by at 60+ mph. There are still short sidings for loading pulpwood cars located in clearings next to paper company forest land throughout the southeastern US. The best way to visualize how railroads operated 50 (or more) years ago in rural America is to look at local small business truck operations today, then mentally replace access roads and trucks with sidings and railcars. Furthermore, rail service was more simple and convenient back then, businesses only did what needed to be done. There were no government regulators looking over their shoulders.
