Alley and street running?

@Dave Ripp. posted:

I'm adding a passing siding that will start in an alley behind businesses and the run about 1200 scale feet. I'm modeling 1960ish for reference. In Aurora Illinois the EJ&E up until 1976 or so crossed the Fox River and served a lot of businesses. Some street and mostly alley running but being born in 63 I can't remember how they kept cars from parking in the way. I don't remember painted lines, but I was more interested in the trains than the streets. Were people smarter back then to know not to park or would the alleys have been marked with yellow stripes.

Sound like a most interesting project Dave!  I've always been drawn to street/alley running but never have attempted to model this form.  

Just a thought in regard to keeping cars from parking in alley ... perhaps there were no parking signs??  Just a thought.   Best of luck with your project!  I hope you'll show us photos once you've completed the project

One a fan trip on the LIRR on little used branches, couldn't get to the end of the line because people had taken to parking on the tracks as there were no regular trains. U Tube has several videos of street and alley running, perhaps some ideas from them.

Street running is an interesting challenge to model.  Here is my Union Freight switching layout model, where I am still working on the pavement inside the tracks to not foul the train wheels.  The switches in particular are gonna be a challenge.  John Pryke has a great book on city modeling that shows street running in HO scale.

Great project Dave! I always wanted to capture the memories of riding in my Dad's  car on the cobblestone streets in the Bush Terminal area of Brooklyn NY. One of the memories was him dodging a steam engine coming down the street at us. The other memory is of freight trains running on the trolley tracks along McDonald Ave in Brooklyn. I should have left more room on the layout.

Dave:

There are photos in some of my PRR books showing street running operations along the Delaware River waterfront in Philadelphia. Trucks parked across the tracks seemed to be a fairly common thing.

Curt

From street running in Baltimore and in Philadelphia in the 1970s and 1980s: Each city had a bar whose patrons sometimes would park on the track, but a request to the bar tender would result in him making an announcement to the patrons and the cars would be quickly moved. The train crew might even get a little something to "settle the dust" and everybody would be happy.