Did all commuter trains in the 60's stop at all stations ?

Your timetable shows 2 different lines, that meet at Beverly. the trains stop at all stations.
Mattias

I don't know about more modern lines, but I know the Arkansas Valley Interurban (Wichita to Hutchinson, in Kansas, 1910s-1930s) did have "express" and "all-stops local" trains. The express trains only stopped at town and city stations, while the locals stopped at every station along the way (in the country, every mile or two, and more in the cities). I imagine other interurbans than ran in mixed urban-rural areas did this, so there would be a real-world parallel to what you're thinking about.

I couldn’t find a date the express/local split for passenger trains here in the states so I googled the question about the NYC subway system and got this:

“August 28, 1939
The initial headway for express service was between three and five minutes. 23rd Street–Ely Avenue station opened as an in-fill station on August 28, 1939. Upon its extension into Jamaica, the line drew Manhattan-bound passengers away from the nearby BMT Jamaica Line subway and the Long Island Rail Road.”

NYC may have come up with the idea for it’s important business travelers. I would get the idea caught on quickly. I certainly think your layout operations would be more interesting with both express and local trains. I cannot remember a time when express service was not an option but I was not looking at timetables in the 60’s!

As you should have gathered from previous posts, the short answer is yes they did and yes they do. The thing to remember is that in the 60s most commute trains were part of a larger system and whether express trains were run depended on traffic conditions for that line. Generally there is a need for passing sidings as the express trains would pass the locals and definitely the freight trains. So it’s a matter of whether you have the necessary sidings. If the sidings are at stations, the express would generally run on tracks fairest from the station

The express trains I’ve dealt with generally fill up at the origin and make only one or two stops to the final destination.

If you are still planning station announcements, you’ll probably want one “approaching train does not stop.”