Every model railroader attempts to properly set the stage of his or her layout so that the time period modeled is at least somewhat apparent to the viewer.  Typically, we do this through the vehicles we use, the trains we run and the billboards we erect in our miniature cities.  I’ve even read an article in a popular railroading magazine that suggests literally dating your signage by using billboards such as “I Like Ike in ’52″ or “New for ’47 Plymouth”.

While I agree that properly dating your layout with these methods is important, I think it’s equally important to introduce more subtle ways to convey time.  I especially look for aspects of previous eras that are very realistic but seldom used by model railroaders.  It’s small, subtle details that bring a layout to life and separate good layouts from great ones.

So I’ve decided to explore the scenic elements that typically take a back seat for model railroaders.  In this case — telephone numbers.

Looking around in the world today, telephone numbers are all around us.  They’re displayed on trucks, cars, signs and buildings and they’ve become second nature. Perhaps they’ve become so common that model railroaders overlook them entirely.

Interestingly enough, in all of the thousands of photographs I’ve collected of the 1940s and 1950s, a surprising few actually have phone numbers predominately displayed. Because of that, I’m not at all suggesting that you go overboard and add visible phone numbers on every street corner.  Again, it’s about subtly.

One or two phone numbers properly placed on your layout where they’ll get a hint of attention without stealing the scene would be ideal. The few instances I’ve seen in vintage photos were either painted (white text on a black background) directly on the side of a low-rise or on a sign (black text on a white background) affixed to a building or below a billboard.

But the most important part of using phone numbers to convey time on your layout isn’t the use of the phone numbers themselves.  It’s the proper use of telephone exchange names.

Today, we’re used to dialing a seven-digit number for local calls (555-1212).  But during the fifty-year period from around 1910 to 1960, “2-5″ numbers were used.  That is two letters to represent the exchange followed by five digits. Commonly, the letters were spoken as part of a word, with each city or town given its own exchange name. Exchange names were actually shared by multiple towns across the country, but unless the caller specified, the operator made the connection to the local exchange.

The most famous use of a “2-5″ number and exchange name in popular culture is in the Glenn Miller hit, “PE-sylvannia 6-5000″. As as interesting side note, the PE-sylvania exchange name was used in New York City and Cleveland, Ohio.  It was discontinued in Cleveland in around 1930.

In the town I grew up in, Hammonton, NJ, the exchange name was “LO-gan”, so all five digit numbers were preceded by “LO-gan” when connecting your call. The name or letters were not actually dialed in most cases, but spoken as the full name to an operator.  Based on the name, she would know specifically which line to plug into.

In vintage signage, you will often see the first two letters (“LO” in my LO-gan example) and the digits printed very large with the remainder of the word “-gan” printed very small between the “O” and the first digit.  Sometimes, only the first two letters of the exchange name were used on signs, such as “LO 1-1234″. In all cases I’ve seen, there was always a hyphen used after the first number.

Because of the countless exchange names, shared exchanges and variations, I won’t go into tremendous detail here. Hopefully I’ve given your a brand new idea and given you enough information that you can now do additional research on your own.

You may research the exchange name appropriate for the area or city you are modeling, or to just get name ideas for those of you freelancing a city, by visiting  The Telephone EXchange Name Project and searching through their extensive EXchange Name Database.