Perhaps, but I really don't know. I didn't even know BNSF ran trains like this until last summer when the kids and I found ourselves chasing one across New Mexico and into Texas. I got a great video of it but I'm not sure how to post it here.
I run a varied operation. Passenger trains long and short haul and some commuter. Freight can be as simple as a short run from the mine to the port ore dump and loader for barge loading. Small containers are loaded at the port dock and delivered by truck or rail. A car float brings in cars from the mainland for delivery . My operation is on an island so passengers arrive by ferry and then transfer to trains. I have a mine that ships ore to the mainland by transferring to barges. A brewery that gets car loads of grains and that ships carloads of hops of beverages out. A cannery that ships car loads out in reefers. A power plant that gets fuel by tank cars that come in by car float. Livestock mainly sheep are shipped out by stockcar on the car float.. In short everything but coal and logging. And one short dedicated mail express train rounds it out.
Well, it looks like I am VERY late to this party..... I'm a huge passenger fan. Freights are nice to watch while waiting for the passenger train. They used to be fun to watch when I was a kid and there were many types of cars from many distant roads. Now, it seems like most are just endless strings of container cars, auto racks or an occasional unit train of coal.
I see container trains and coal drags, along with some mixed freights when driving between DFW and SLC. Been driving that stretch once or twice a year for over 30 years, to visit my wife's family. Container cars are the new box cars, except containers travel over oceans on ships too. And the first & last mile from/to the customer, by truck.
Oh yeah many of the cars use in their business train and employee specials are former ATSF cars. Of course the high level commuter cars are not. The old BN business cars were all smooth sided while the ATSF were all fluted sided. I heard that they did add fluting to the sides of some BN cars and painted everything silver so they would blend in but most are ATSF. Here is what the BN cars used to look like.
I guess I have always loved the beauty of classic passenger trains, so I do have some for my running when able. My layout is set up for short freight or passenger trains, so I run both.
They did, and most of the fluting was just bolted to the sides, the BN executive colors were so nice and elegant. I've heard it referred as similar to an US version of the Orient Express, not the American Orient
But to the original question of this old thread, I'm mostly freight, in my era and location, there's 2 Amtrak trains a day, one in each direction, and the rest is freight, with the occasional business/executive train
I am building my layout with freight as a primary operation (Warrior Mountain Fast Freight Line). I have planned industries to give purpose and operations to my layout. However, I also have two towns that are separated by 12 or so feet so I plan passenger service around the outer line connecting the towns. I also wanted an excuse to run the very cool 1800's passenger cars I have so my large city offers special excursion trips to places like my mountain top vineyard and other locations.
Both. The pike centers around a three way junction. Freight cars are interchanged there. Passenger service is mostly head end cars. Each train does carry a coach or combine to accommodate passengers but most of the revenue comes from mail and express. Baggage cars and express box cars are interchanged or dropped off/put into trains. One part of the pike does have businesses that use rail service.
Even in the Golden Era of passenger rail in the US, railroads have always had a higher freight-to-passenger train ratio, albeit in different amounts. Most modelers, regardless of era, model some semblance of reality, so there will always be more freight trains than passenger trains. Even if one is modeling commuter rail operations, which run several trains per day, the length of the commuter trains will always be shorter than that of a mainline freight train, so one will undoubtedly be more invested in having more freight rolling stock than passenger rolling stock. I keep all my N scale trains in 8 plastic storage drawers. One of them is dedicated to locomotives, seven are dedicated to freight rolling stock and one is dedicated to passenger rolling stock.
So do RDCs count as passenger trains in this thread? I have a couple of Kato RDCs in ATSF livery, and liked 'em a lot when I ran DC years ago. But they're geared pretty fast. I'm considering a small station for an RDC stop on my in-progress layout. Maybe the WS "The Depot" Built & Ready station. I'll need to convert my RDCs to DCC. Digitrax has a custom decoder for them, but I might try to install a small ESU or Zimo non-sound decoder in them. My TCS DCC system supports RailCom transponding, so I'm leaning heavily towards decoders which support that.
Very much a passenger train fan here. Hence N Scale allowing me to have proportionally far more generous curves than otherwise possible. Freight trains are set dressing for me. But I don't denigrate anyone else's choices or eras - this a great hobby enjoyed by many great people and I've been privileged to see great work on layouts that didn't even have a single passenger car!
Being that this hobby is based on reality, I have only seen passenger trains in one place. The National Train Museum in Green Bay, WI. To see one in use I had to go were I hate. Chicago or further south. But then half of my HO collection is older passenger cars. With steamers. But I don't have space for a big oval. The N is all newer freight. But then I can use loops, Y turn arounds and turntable. Oh well! To each there own!
