I'm planning to...

It's on my to do list.Specifcally PRR in Baltimore Harbor. And I'll get to work on it eventually.

For references there are a couple of books about Railroads in Wartime, exact names escape me. There are a number Army training films on Youtube and other places showing the US Army "Railway Operating Battalions" whose personnel were comprised of experienced railroaders, followed US railroad practices and were in fact "sponsored" by different railroads. They also trained stateside not only at Camp Polk but also on US railroads and during a transit strike in Philadelphia in 1944 operated that cities mass transit systems. 

Another source is a series of photographs produced by the AAR for the Department of Education in the late 40's. You can find them on eBay for sale as "East West Railroad". The photos are of real member railroads but were edited to a fictitious name. They are signifigant to us since a lot of the photographs are of war material movements, 16" naval guns, tanks under tarps etc. 

Tichy and others make "War-Emergency" rolling stock. Models of AAR designs that used less steel than pre-war designs. 

A good vignette to include in, particularly mid-west towns is a USO, Red Cross or Salvation Army "Canteen" providing coffee and donuts to troops passing through on troop trains. 

Well that's all I have for the moment, but I'm sure others will be along and I'll think of more. Oh one more thing, if you are considering modular, consider building to a standard such as Free-mo or NMRA so that if/when you move you can not only take your modules with you but maybe display certain aspects of your layout at public shows with others.

Matt

The Iron Horse At War

The Iron Horse At War by James Valle with photos by Jack Delano.

Awesome 1943 photos from Chicago to L.A.
Your local city or university library should have it (I saw it in UC Berkeley's library).

Otherwise a simple google image search of "railroad 1943" turns up a kabillion photos.

Book and WebSite

Steve,

In WWII the coastal shipping was curtailed because of U-Boats, Long trains of just tank cars were very common, because of the coastal danger.

The use of rail to move complete Army and Marine units could involve multiply passenger trains. Special troop Pullmans and kitchens were built and used mixed in these trains. Older passenger cars were often revived and used to move troops.

The shortage of equipment was often eased by rebuilding older freight, passenger, and steam engines. The use of new equipment was a factor to help with the shortage. As Matt pointed out, the newer equipment was usually a combination of metal frames and wood sides.

The use of older engines meant that anything that could be fixed was used. The leasing and selling of motive power from one company to another was common. I have seen a picture, from this period, of a Texas & Pacific 2-10-2 in a Pennsylvania Round house.

Long trains of military vehicles and plane parts were a common site during this period. A train of nothing but Sherman tanks would be impressive in any scale.

I have found this book useful: America's Fighting Railroads: A World War II Pictorial History by  Don DeNevi

Some good WWII Pictures here: http://www.shorpy.com/Large_Format_Kodachromes

Regards, John **********************************************

Chamberlain seemed such a nice old gentleman that I thought I would give him my autograph.<> Adolf Hitler

Big guns...

One thing that really suggests "wartime!" is some very, very big guns.  American Model Builders makes a kit with a 16" gun barrel being transported.  http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm

They could be seen almost anywhere along the trans-continental routes, or along either coast.  Even places without a yard building or repairing capital ships might see some of these.  Portsmouth, NH, for example, had a 2 gun battery to protect the city, harbor, and the shipyard, which built submarines.

Of course, you'll also need 3! flatcars to go with it--2 carrying the load, plus an idler.  We all know battleship guns are BIG--but unless you've been fortunate enough to see one for real, it's hard to imagine just how big.  This kit puts them in perspective...

WW2

there would be minimal changes between WW2 operations and other

Yeah in a lot of photos the only thing that gives away the ww2 era is the blackout visors on the loco headlights....DaveB

Signs & Operating Procedures

Are your biggest differences. Being mid-western by the end of the war it was realized that Nazi bombers would not reach the heartland and black out regulations weren't necessary such as they were along both coasts (and gulf) for the duration. A coastal line had much stricter blackout regulations the whole time. 

Signs about war bonds, signs for joining Civil Defense, scrap drives etc etc. Those will really set the scene. 

Matt

Minimal changes...

There would, in some places, be very few changes--but if the idea is to suggest wartime, then something war related would be a good load now and then.  Of course, billboards like "Buy Bonds" and "Loose Lips Sink Ships" are good indicators.

The 16" gun flats indeed would be rare--but ships would have the guns replaced several times over the course of the war.  I just think they're neat--and that really gets a second look.  I want to show what sort of size we're looking at for the guns--and it's the only way I'll be able to model a battleship on my layout.  Consists with tanks and half-tracks would be more common--especially near a port or factory.  Departing from a factory, the consist would likely be all one type of vehicle, and all brand new.  (Tanks are expensive for the modeler, though...)

There's other ways to show wartime, though--late war, fewer cars in parking lots for the number of people there, for example.

but ships would have the guns replaced several times?"

 How often would they leave the theater of war and return to be re-fitted?  I'm thinking they probably ran them till they dropped so maybe never came home? Any war historians know the numbers? .....DaveB

Ships and guns

The main guns on a battleship needed a full shipyard to be replaced, and they were usually good for only a few hundred shots before the barrel wear became excessive and badly hurt performance. The guns would be replaced in a shipyard, and sent to the east coast to be re-lined, while freshly re-lined guns would be mounted.  These guns would not be something you see lots of moving, but a ship might get its guns relined more than once over  the course of the war.  You would also see them move in bunches, quite possibly, as all 8 or 9 16" guns (or as many as 12 14" or 12" guns) on one ship would be swapped out at once.  I don't know if you'd see a whole trainload of guns, or if they'd move in ones and twos.

I'll see if I can find any references to how often it had to happen.

Small Seaports

Steve,

I found this 1943 map of a CB&I facility in Beaumont, Texas,  I think CB&I made LSTs here during WW II.  It could easily be a generic seaport.  Even in a simplified form, it would make for some interesting switching.

The USGS Historical Topo maps can be found at 

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/topomaps

Cely

Topomaps

Thanks!! I've been using aerial photographs and Sanborn maps but these are helpful in my project as well.

Matt

Big guns

The appearance of the 16" gun barrels would depend on where your railroad is located. The Naval Ordnance Plant at Pocatello, Idaho, did construction and refurbishment from 1943 through the end of the Korean War, so the barrels would have travelled from Seattle (Bremerton) or San Francisco (Mare Island) by rail.  There was a similar facility east of the Mississippi.

http://sfcompanion.blogspot.com/2013/07/first-structures-completed-at-naval.html

Big Gun Replacement

The BB35 the USS Texas was used extensively as landing bombardment support in both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Records show that her guns were replaced only once during the war years. in the early years there were coastal guns mounted on rail cars that were moved up and down the coasts.

The movement of oil, troops and military vehicles was common and could be used as unit trains passing over many rail lines of this period. Many small manufacturing companies were converted to war production during the war. IBM was building M1 carbines for the army. Some critical commodities and minerals that were transported were guarded by the military. Examples of these types of shipments could be used to show a war environment.

Regards, John ****************************

There are no extraordinary men..just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.<> Adm William Halsey

You could also model an ammo manufacturer.

All you would need is some guards, a guard shack, a siding going off behind the trees, and some U.S. Gov't warning signs at the gate.  Maybe you could say your ammo plant build the ordinance for the 16 inch guns.

Here is one that is often in the local news if not the national news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Army_Ammunition_Plant

Den

Thanks for all the ideas.

Thanks for all the ideas. What really draws me to the WW II era first is the fact that I love steam and if there was any doubt in my mind it was gone after watching the Nickel Plate 765 run a couple weeks ago. The other thing is, like was said, the diversity of loads in that time period. I have always liked iron ore trains but not enough to model an ore railroad. I could see a Midwest railroad of that time period hauling ore that lake boats couldn't keep up with.

I'm thinking of a railroad something along the lines of the Wheeling and Lake Erie. I have two layout sections started based on a yard and interchange in Bluffton Indiana. The interchange there is interesting if you want to check it out on Google Earth. Good point about 1944 being a time when railroads were starting to ramp down, maybe 42 or 43 instead? I will defiantly check out the books mentioned. I also need a reference for appropriate roiling stock for the era. A lot of planning but for me that is half the fun.

By the way, when I was in an small town doing an inspection today I took some pic's of an old diesel with Getysburg markings. It was sitting on a siding for a grain elevator. If I can figure out how to post pictures on this site I'll post a couple pic's.

Steve

All you would need is some

And here's the ammo...

http://shpws.me/oAY5

It's available in N scale too...

http://shpws.me/oAPA

picture

Going to try to post a picture of a loco I spotted this week while working. Anyone know what model it is.

Steve

you got me interested

I'm a WWII buff and also a Civil War buff.  If that is a reference to Gettysburg, PA than wow-

That I believe is a EMD GP9

It's a GP9

For more info check out the pictures at 

http://rrpicturearchives.net/locopicture.aspx?id=54894

Regards,

Dave

yeah

The Gettysburg and Northern.

Another GP

Back to the war...

Rather than modeling a 16 inch gun load, a far more common sight would have been tanks, half tracks and 2 1/2 ton trucks on flat cars. These would be relatively easy to model.

WW2 represented an industrial mobilization the likes of which we will never see again.  The railroads put every piece of rolling stock available to work.  Much of this equipment was well past its service life, but a lot of it was still around as a result of not being replaced during the Depression.  Besides the war emergency cars noted earlier, you'll have a lot of wooden box cars from the 20's still operating, and everything will have a shabby appearance.

If you model passenger operations, a substantial number of men at a depot would be in uniform.  City scenes will be predominately women and older men. You won't have many young men around  They were off in the military.

It wouldn't be far out of line

to have aviation related industrial needs hauled by the railroad (aluminum, wheels/tires, etc.) during that time.  Many of the automotive plants of the era were converted to aircraft production during the war.