highpeak

I've just spent the best part of an hour reading this thread, very interesting. According to Jack Bentley in the Foxline book "The Railway from Buxton to Bakewell, Matlock and Ambergate" as closure came near there was a proposal put forward by one of the quarries (presumably ICI) to retain a single track for two freight trains each way per day. So your idea isn't far-fetched at all. The quarries either side of Millers Dale closed quite a long time before the line closed. The works known as Millers Dale Lime Works closed before the war http://www.brocross.com/industrial%20history/derbyshire%20limekilns/millers%20dale%20limeworks.htm, the entry for East Buxton on that web site says 1944 for the date of closure, some good pictures of the kiln. The period between the end of WW2 and the 60s saw a lot of the smaller quarries in the Peak District close. They either ran out of stone that was exploitable (depending on the terms of their lease on the land) or were simply uneconomic to operate (certainly the case at East Buxton with it's small kiln that was loaded by hand). History can of course be rewritten under modeller's license, but I think your plan and operating scheme is fine as it is. The signature element of the location is those viaducts and your reproduction of them is excellent, anybody remotely familiar with the scene would know exactly where they were just by looking at them. Another Peak that seems to have survived into your period (just) and was at Buxton was 45 007 looking quite shabby here in the middle road a Buxton station: I spent many happy hours as kid train spotting at Millers Dale, I must say I prefer your history to the sad reality version!

CT got into emissions tests in a big way in the early 80s, but safety inspections were another matter. They applied to vehicles bought out of state and vehicles over 10 years old changing hands within the state. However, a number of motor vehicle offices had no facilities to conduct tests and did them in the parking lot. Pick a nice rainy day, toward the end of the day, and odds were good the inspector would look at your wreck through the window, if the lights, wipers and horn worked, you were good. Another aspect of American car culture in rural areas involves the reluctance of people to dispose of their vehicles. They tended to get parked in the yard because they were going to be repaired one day, and would then become storage units, acquiring a graceful patina of decay while portraying the family's automotive history. If you buy one of those job lots of cheap plastic models, you could always do this with them: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/957454

This might be getting into nit-picking territory but local variations also depended on the strength of dealership networks. I suppose you could try looking at dealerships for your location (edmunds.com has guides for that), though for historical data you would then have to look at websites to see if there was any clue as to how long the dealership had been in business. That fact is something long-lived dealerships tend to brag about a bit. The curbside classics site does have a section on European imports if you want to see what made it to these shores and how they fared, e.g., http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/turkey-week-kickoff-1968-1972-austin-america-yankee-doodle-disaster/ I remember seeing one of those at a British car show in the 80s, very tired looking, no idea whether it really had made it from CO to CT under its own power, but the car's plates suggested it hailed from far afield.

As Martyn points out, the assorment of cars in that mixture, while no doubt a very good value, isn't really very representative of what would be seen on American streets really at any point in time, some parts of, say, Southern CA excepted which would probably not have a railroad running through them. And the crux of the OP was to do with the mundane. I am going to assume the vehicles are intended for the layout Tree Point, which is a thread the OP has that shows good progress on a reasonable switching layout. I would suggest that you aren't likely to see that many automobiles in the space where rail and industrial plant join together, most plants would have employee parking, and obviously the parking lot would be on the road side of the plant, not the rail side. There is a road running across the rails as I recall, but in an industrial area I don't think you'd have a big backup of traffic at the crossings. And the other thing I'd point out is that your assessment of what is typical needs to take into account context, what's going on here. Grain elevator, corn syrup facility, these involve people who get their hands dirty to make a living. A lot of those folks like to drive pickup trucks to work, their wife will have the minivan or car. Heck, there was a time when I had a small pickup truck, and I'm an IT guy. Something about the utility of these vehicles appeals to a lot of guys. I'd guess you'll see more beat up pickups than nice cars in this location. Now if you want an example of something that is typical as can be, and doesn't seem to be available, I'll offer these: the pickup truck with a cap (a cover usually fibreglass over the bed) and a pickup truck that is used for snow plowing, either with the plow (sets your layout firmly in the colder part of the year and in the snow belt) or without the plow but with the hydraulic apparatus that isn't usually removed from the vehicle (snow belt location, but warmer season). And if your season is winter, a pickup truck especially a 2WD needs weight over the back axle to get any where, so a couple bags of sand would ride in the back if the owner wanted any sort of traction at all

For a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at the splendor that is/was Detroit iron, this site is worth a browse: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/ If you can't tell a Gremlin from a Pacer, you will be enlightened. Lots of pictures of cars in their prime and not-so-prime years.

The cars you mentioned did stem the Japanese invasion but weren't good enough to reverse the trend. Just as some consumers were loyal to Detroit's products, those who had bought Japanese developed their own loyalty and a K-car wasn't going to win them back. Then the Japanese opened US plants, US companies sent production outside the US and by 2005 the Big 3's share of the car market was just slightly ahead of the Japanese. It's worth noting that in the early years of the Japanese invasion penetration of the US market by imports was not uniform. I would imagine you would be less likely to see imports in the mid-west, at least in the earlier years of the OP's period. In other regions, Japanese cars would be more common, Subaru established a strong presence in New England fairly early on for example.

The Citation was GM's third attempt to compete with imports, the first two being the Corvair (produced when the Beetle started to appeal to Americans) and the Vega (a response to the inroads being made by Toyota and Datsun). All three were dreadful cars, regardless of whether they were front or rear wheel drive, and despite considerable investment failed to stem a precipitous loss of market share for cars (trucks were protected by tariffs and by the fact that nobody else really made pickup trucks that would appeal to US and Canadian consumers). In 1970 Japanese automobile sales in the US accounted for 3% of the market, by the end of the 80s it was up to 30%. The Citation's initial sales were pretty good, if they had sorted out production problems they could have sold a million in the first year (actual sales were 811,000), so I don't think US consumers were that confused. A good number of them wanted an efficient vehicle, but the Citation was so bad that as soon as word got out, sales plummeted. There's an amusing tale at http://http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/12/curbside-classic-1980-chevrolet-citation-gms-deadliest-sin-ever/ All of the big three lost car sales, largely because they just didn't build energy-efficient cars very well, and with the various energy crises of the period an increasing number of consumers wanted that type of vehicle. It took the mania for minivans and SUVs to recapture market share. Funnily enough in the late 80s I was given a Dodge Asspain with the slant 6, I quickly concluded that buying an Accord would pay for itself in fuel savings quite quickly! The Big 3 have improved their game, but I haven't bought any of their products for 20 years because they still don't make anything that suits my needs (small, manual gearbox, wagon, preferably diesel)

I suspect the Lifelike rendition of the Citation may be no better than the 1:1 model, the model wasn't in Lifelike's selection of cars in the 2008 Walthers catalog. UK residents will no doubt be surprised that the smallest engine was a 2.5L job, the Pontiac Iron Duke ("too much iron, not enough duke"), as others have noted, small is relative. GM in particular seemed not to quite get downsizing.

An outfit called Fresh Cherries makes some cars from the 70s and early 80s. Walthers seems to suggest they are not in stock, but they show up on eBay. Models included the AMC Gremlin, Pacer, Hornet, Ford Pinto, Escort, Tempo. If you google Fresh Cherries + one of those models you may find some. There's a green Pacer on Amazon for instance at http://http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Cherries-1978-Green-Pacer/dp/B004HLU73I Atlas also listed a 78 Fairmont, a 96 Taurus and an F150. Can't get much more mundane than those. Lifelike made a car rack loaded with Chevy Citations, I have no idea how good the car was, but the Citation was another dull as ditchwater car from the early 80s. You can pick them up pretty cheap on eBay. Classic Metal Works is mostly earlier vehicles but they do include a 78 Impala. Busch has some American cars in their lineup, including police cars that could be civilianised. For later periods, they include a Chrysler minivan. As Brian (BxMoore) noted, there are vehicles available, it just takes a bit of digging around.

Given that the incident you reference happened in 1999, and while not wishing to downplay the seriousness of it, I hardly think it supports a case that pipelines are frequent incinerators of downtowns. Of course, neither are railroads for that matter. The pipeline industry is trying to sell itself as a safer alternative to rail. There seems to have been a significant effort to keep the North Dakota spill quiet, and a lot of the stories pulled up by a google search seem to be focusing on that aspect of it rather than the environmental disaster it caused. A spill in Arkansas this year, while not as big as this one, was an environmental catastrophe but doesn't seem to have registered much in the public consciousness, though it did spawn local lawsuits. Of course, nobody wants a pipeline in their backyard, and while the pipeline owners may be able to win the politicians over, as Dave1905 points out, there will be significant local opposition.

They aren't perfect, but they have the considerable advantage that failures don't tend to incinerate places. A pipeline dumps 20,000 barrels (equivalent to just under 900,000 gallons of the stuff) all over a few acres of farmland, you don't hear much about it really. Not even any pictures of dead birds or animals to get it on the headline news, no sinking tanker, no freight cars, no fires. Works well for the pipelines really, out of sight, out of mind. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/17/tesoro-spill-northdakota-idUSL1N0I71QW20131017

I can just about remember the old Beatties on Corporation Street, I bought a Peco Wonderful Wagon kit from them on a family Christmas Shopping expedition. The modern incarnation of it was a poor substitute, though they did carry Model Railroader magazine which was my introduction to North American railroads back in 1975. I could never get my head around the Bradford Model Railway Centre being in Manchester, so the explanation is useful. It was a fairly decent shop as I recall.

Actually two balls raised allowed Maine Central trains to cross over the Boston and Maine track, one ball gave right of way to the B&M. There is a useful description of the location at [ulr]http://www.signalbox.org/overseas/usa/whitefield.htm[/url], although the notion that the interchange tracks were out of use by 1966 is incorrect. The Maine Central passenger trains between Portland ME and St Johnsbury VT called at the B&M depot in Whitefield. Maine Central abandoned their depot during the period of joint management of the two roads as an economy measure. Train 162 would head into the B&M depot and then reverse back out on to the MEC, coming back from St J in the afternoon train 163 would run over the diamond, then back down the B&M. A brake stand was set up in the rear vestibule of the coach (the train generally had a couple of cars for mail and baggage, a milk car on its run to Portland and a single coach was more than sufficient for the passenger traffic) to give the conductor control of the train in an emergency.

I went to my local hobby shop today (Hobby Gallery in Wolcott, CT) and was saddened to see a sign outside notifying customers that the shop will be closing 12/31/13. Steve is retiring though he will continue to do shows and some internet sales. Hobby Gallery carried a decent line of bits and pieces, a lot of Cal-Scale and other detail parts (though the pegboard was becoming a bit sparse of late as he ran the stocks down). He also had a lot of older products, plenty of Roundhouse and older Athearn acquired over the years as other stores went out of business. I needed an Athearn caboose for parts, he had one minus its trucks and couplers for $3. I will miss dropping in for drill bits, glue, styrene and so on, all of it no doubt available on line, but without the cheery conversation.

I was trying to point out that the signal is not connected in any way to any of the track components.

Another signalling arrangement for crossings was the ball signal. Ball signals protected the crossing of the Maine Central/Sandy River at Farmington, ME and MEC and Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington at Wiscasset, ME among plenty of Northern New England examples. This ball crossing at Whitefield NH is perhaps the most well-known and I think was the last one in use, keeping the MEC and the B&M out of each other's way: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=288071 No interlocking at all at this crossing, even in the days of passenger trains. MEC passenger trains had to call at the B&M depot as MEC closed their own depot. This involved a reversal in either direction, the coach had a brake stand rigged up in the vestibule for the conductor to assist in the operation.

Meanwhile, oil traffic by rail to St. John appears to have declined as Irving shifts to overseas crude due to price changes: http://http://www.pressherald.com/news/idle-tank-cars-signal-slowing-oil-by-rail-trend_2013-09-14.html This illustrates the problems facing railroads in investing in their infrastructure to deal with a traffic that can disappear at short notice.

Railway Age is reporting that arrests are anticipated: http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/freight/short-lines/arrests-anticipated-in-lac-megantics-wake.html

Chatter on railroad.net includes a couple of related items: the MM&A engines off the wreck train are in the NBSR shops in St. John so the TSB can continue their investigation, preserve evidence etc with the power out of the weather. A PAR watcher is seeing more traffic between Waterville and Portland and an uptick in drops at Danville Jct for the SLR. Speculation is that some of this is MM&A traffic being detoured.

Pan Am came away with nothing the last time Maine was looking for operators for the lines that MM&A sold off. Pan Am wasn't flavour of the month, and JD Irving got the nod. This is a bit different as at least for now MM&A is presumably looking for the highest bidder so the state may not end up doing anything more than keeping an eye on it. I can't see Pan Am being interested in anything beyond the Searsport branch and maybe Northern Maine Jct to Brownville, especially if they could go to Millinocket too. If they got that, I would expect the line to Mattawamkeag to go as they don't need two interchanges with NBSR/EMRY. I don't think the Moosehead Sub's chances are very good unless JD Irving gets involved and runs the whole line from St John through to Montreal. Irving Oil would like that as it would continue to give CN some competition out of St John. The other possibility is for an operation from Megantic west and abandonment east to Brownville Jct. Interesting, and in light of CTA's move, likely to happen sooner rather than later I would have thought.

Article in the Portland Press Herald did have a statement from Ed Burkhardt (on page 2 of the article) acknowledging that the decision would probably complicate the process of finding a buyer for the railroad: http://http://www.pressherald.com/news/Montreal-Maine--Atlantic-Railway-loses-Canadian-license-.html?pagenum=2

It isn't completely clear but since the main theme of the article is about the petition filed by the US company I would imagine "the company" in the statement about the insurance would refer to the US entity. Even if you assume both entities had equal coverage, the insurance cover still falls well short of the company's own estimate of the cost to settle the affair and likely also exceeds the value of the assets even before you begin to figure in the company's other liabilities. The debt to Uncle Sam is the amount outstanding on an FRA loan used for track rehab.

The Canadian part of MM&A has been granted bankruptcy protection by the Canadian court, the US company will have its petition considered in federal court in Bangor this afternoon. An interesting piece of information to emerge is the limit of their insurance protection ($25 million). http://http://www.pressherald.com/news/Montreal-Maine--Atlantic-Railway-granted-bankruptcy-protection.html

Maine DOT looking at contingency plans should MM&A go under: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/07/30/news/state/state-making-preparations-should-montreal-maine-and-atlantic-railway-fold Edit: correct problem with url

You're quite right, I should not apply tar to all, and it was just a rant. There is though something about Yale as an institution that grates on a lot of people in the New Haven area, they display a quite remarkable sense of entitlement in their dealings with the city of New Haven when it comes to getting planning permission, being able to buy and then close streets and so on. That often seems to be passed on to many of its graduates. But not all. Ed Burkhardt was completely unprepared for that trip to Lac-Megantic. He seemed to be trying hard to express sympathy but then a little lawyerly voice in his head told him to be careful, and the end-result was the second disaster to befall MM&A. I think you are quite right in the need for clear disaster planning.