Galadon platemail is plenty enough to get your melee classes to level 51 solo. Augment with gear from the Bazaar (just north of eastern crossroads) and you're set. Good enough to kill mobs and bad enough most people won't loot any of it.

Ranger, assassin, or sword warrior will be your easiest options for solo leveling imo. Preferably with high dexterity and no metal vuln. So, arial or human with dex prime stat.

As for areas to use. Isildur and others have made guides available on the two wikis:

http://www.carrionfields.net/CFwiki/RankingGuide

And for rangers:

http://wiki.qhcf.net/index.php?title=RangerRanking

Some of the ranger areas are not in the right spot level wise, so try ones in the next level bracket up or down if you aren't doing well.

You'll need patience to level solo, but it's easier now than it has ever been thanks to experience bonuses when the who list is short.