Santa Fe's 1954-1956 Super Chief in Victorville, & Some Slow Layout Progress

In a previous entry I covered the Santa Fe's Super Chief of 1951-1953, and this time we'll cover the next version of the train, during 1954-1956.  Then we'll look at some slow layout progress and continue a photo tour of Bill Messecar's excellent HO Santa Fe layout.

To be continued.

UP's 1950-1954 City of LA Train in Victorville & More Layout Wiring & More of Bill Messecar's Layout

In a previous entry we covered the Union Pacific's 1947-1950 City of Los Angeles train, so this time we'll visit the UP's 1950-1954 version of the train, when it had acquired lots of new passenger cars and its first E8 diesels  Then we'll cover some progress in wiring my layout, and some help with models of Victorville buildings, and more photos of Bill Messecar's HO layout.

The following information and photos come from UP researcher Jeff Koeller.

First, here's a color photo of UP's new E8s with the City of Los Angeles train:

This view, from the cover of Union Pacific’s 1951 Annual Report, depicts No. 104, the eastbound City of Los Angeles, on a nice winter day, powered by fairly new E8 929, a sister B-unit, and an E7 A-unit. The train has paused under Bridge Signal 9653 for this PR photo in the Upper Weber Canyon, near MP 965, about 3 miles east of Morgan, Utah. 

This was the preferred 6,500 horsepower combination of E-units for the COLA after the five AB sets of E8s were delivered in May through August 1950 (926-930, 926B-930B). Three E8s running together at this time would be quite rare, and even 2-unit lashups as shown here were not always possible because there were only 10 such units and they also ran on other Cities trains as well. Credit: UP Colorphoto. 

COLA Consists 1950-1954

Daily Service Consist Evolution

Discussions for inaugurating post-WWII daily service began in 1945 for the UP-C&NW City of Los Angeles and City of Portland trains, along with the UP-C&NW-SP City of San Francisco. By early 1946, the three operating partners had formulated plans to order enough new passenger equipment to create the desired five-consist rotation for each of the West Coast “Cities” trains. 

In February 1946, UP ordered 65 cars plus an additional 15 sleeping cars, and in March 1946, C&NW  ordered 16 cars along with 4 sleepers in May 1946, all from the American Car & Foundry Company. SP also ordered 9 cars from Pullman-Standard in June 1946 as their contribution to the COSF. 

In the flurry to upgrade existing passenger trains, as well as to inaugurate new train services to meet the post-war travel demand, a huge backlog of deliveries was created due to the major car builders being inundated with a large amount of car orders from the nation’s railroads. Great Northern, which had ordered equipment for their new lightweight Empire Builder in May 1944, received the first new post-war passenger cars in early 1947. 

The other railroads would have to wait while the car builders produced passenger cars as quickly as possible (along with a backlog of freight car orders). The UP Cities trains were no exception, and with delays expected to be more than two years, UP was compelled to inaugurate daily service with equipment from existing UP, C&NW and SP car pools. 

On May 14, 1947, COLA daily service was initiated with a four-consist rotation, which included reducing the 7th and 9th Trains to 13 cars each, and by creating two new consists, the 16th and 17th Trains. These trainsets were a stop-gap measure until new cars could be delivered to fully upgrade the four consists, as well as to create a 5th consist for better servicing availability. 

Meanwhile, in February 1948, UP also ordered 50 new sleeping cars from the Edward G. Budd company, as well as 50 new coaches from Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company. 

COLA Five-Consist Rotation Begins

After having to wait nearly three years, the new AC&F equipment began arriving in January 1949. The deliveries were spread throughout the year with the last of the orders completed in October. In addition, the Budd-built Pacific-class sleeping car deliveries started in December 1949 and continued into mid-1950. 

Finally, there was enough new passenger equipment to upgrade and expand COLA service (including the new 21st Train) to the five-consist rotation beginning on March 22, 1950. 

Previously, with only four consists, the COLA trains had to “double out” both terminals (this means that after the morning arrival, the trains had to be turned and serviced prior to their departure later that same day). With five consists, the COLA trains were now able to stay overnight at UP’s coach yard facility in East Los Angeles, although the trains still had to double out daily at Chicago. 

The five-consist rotation started with existing coach cars, but the consists were upgraded with the availability of 50 new Pullman-Standard 5400-series coaches delivered in June through October 1950. In May and June 1951, UP ordered an additional 42 cars, and C&NW ordered 6 more cars in August, all from AC&F for delivery in 1953. At this point, the COLA consists were relatively constant, but that was about to change with the first dome car deliveries coming in December 1954. 

COLA Motive Power 1950-1954

In 1947-1949, UP acquired passenger diesels from American Locomotive Company (14 units), GM’s Electro-Motive Division (27 F3 units) and Fairbanks-Morse (10 units). The majority of these engines were used to help dieselize secondary trains and typically did not run on the City of Los Angeles, whose consists were firmly in the hands of paired EMD E-units (with an F-M unit mixed in as needed). 

Around late 1948, the COLA 4,000 HP diesel sets were supplemented with a 1,500 HP F3 (usually a B-unit), but these 5,500 HP locomotives still required helpers to ascend the various mountain passes.

Meanwhile, EMD had been developing a new and improved passenger diesel, the model E8, which offered 2,250 HP, improved main generators and higher output traction motors, and, for the first time in E-unit production, dynamic braking. UP ordered five AB sets of E8s (4,500 HP) in January 1950, which were delivered in May through August. 

The preferred motive power arrangement for the COLA was two E8s along with an E7 or E6 for a 6,500 HP combination, although this wasn’t always possible, as the units also ran on other Cities trains as well. 

In June 1952, UP received a single E8, engine 925, which was built under EMD Repair Order 8012. C&NW E7 5007B had been wrecked while leading the COSF in the catastrophic rear end collision with the COLA at Wyuta, Wyoming, on November 12, 1951. It was subsequently purchased by UP and traded-in to EMD as salvage value towards a new locomotive. 

Concerning the potential for the wrecked E7 to be somehow “rebuilt,” it should be noted that the E8 was designed with the diesel engines facing each other, rather than being oriented in the same direction as with the earlier E-units, a major change that required a completely new chassis and carbody side truss construction. Also, the entire rooftop cooling system was redesigned for the E8 model. 

The E3, E6 and E7 main generators, traction motors and diesel engines were not usable in a 2,250 horsepower E8, so the trucks were the only major components that could’ve been salvaged for reuse, and these would’ve simply gone into EMD’s “unit exchange pool.” Except for various minor components that may have been salvaged, the 2,250 HP 925 was entirely new, although it did retain its original EMD builder’s number (1966) for tax purposes. 

In October 1952, UP ordered 22 additional E8s from EMD, with delivery coming in February through May 1953. Also, in February 1953, UP ordered 9 additional E8s that came in April and May. These 31 new engines increased the total amount of E8s on the railroad to 42, and provided UP the flexibility to reassign all their passenger F3s to freight service (they were renumbered and re-geared at this time). 

After more than five years experience with F3s in passenger service, UP decided that the E8 model best suited the operating department’s requirements for passenger service, including steam generators in every unit (compared to the F3s which only had boilers in their B-units). Now, except for an occasional E6 or E7 mixed in, the new standard for powering the Cities trains was a 6,750 HP three-unit set of E8s. 

Things began to change on the UP again in 1954 with the delivery of EMD’s new 2,400 HP E9 model and the first of the new amazing Astra-Dome passenger cars in December. These changes will be covered in the next installment. 

Here now are some photos showing the 1950-1954 motive power in action on the City of Los Angeles, with captions after each one.

This company PR photo depicts No. 104, the eastbound City of Los Angeles, approaching Mile Post 949 in Echo Canyon, about 3 miles east of Echo, Utah. The approximate date is 1951 and shows COLA motive power in transition; E7 989 (ex 989J, ex 907A) is leading E8 926B (delivered in May 1950), along with a passenger F3 B-unit for a 5,750 HP total, enough to allow the train to proceed unassisted up the hill. 

When the COLA became a daily service and only a 4,000 HP pair of E-units was in charge, the train required a helper engine (typically steam power) to ascend the 1.16 percent ruling grade from Ogden to Wahsatch (where the helper would be cut off). 

Note that the E7’s original slotted pilot has been replaced with an enclosed coupler pilot, which was probably better at dispersing snow in the winter months. The third car in this day’s train is one of UP’s stream-styled heavyweight coaches, especially unusual given that the new Pullman-Standard Leg Rest coaches had been on the property for about a year. UP Photo.

The company photographer has train No. 104, the eastbound COLA, stopped under cantilever signal 9662 for an official portrait in Upper Weber Canyon, near Mile Post 966, about 2 miles east of Morgan, Utah, circa 1951. Although the new E8s had been delivered about a year earlier, it was not always possible to have two of the units working together, as just a single E8 is included in today’s 6,250 HP line-up. 

The lead unit, E6 995 (ex 956A, ex 8-M-2) has been upgraded with several 1949-era modifications, including large train indicator boxes, nose door with lowered headlight, a Mars oscillating light in the upper location, filtered carbody vents for better engine room ventilation, a 1,400 gallon under-frame boiler water tank, and a recently-applied enclosed coupler pilot. 

In 1951-1952, UP equipped all of its E6 and E7 cab units with this type of pilot when their original retractable buffer-coupler-draft gear assemblies were replaced with fixed couplers, such as found on the E8 A-units. The second car in the consist is C&NW baggage-dorm 9303 (originally LA-101), identified by its higher roof profile and the double aluminum trim strips on the car side. UP Photo. 

Credit Dick Kindig for recording this excellent photo of No. 104, the eastbound City of Los Angeles, crossing the Devil’s Gate bridge over the Weber River and highway U.S. 30 South near Gateway, Utah, on October 12, 1953. The view nicely depicts the preferred 6,750 HP COLA motive power after UP took delivery of 31 new E8s in February through May 1953. 

The 12-car consist features a new AC&F 5631-5638 series baggage-express car, a 1949 bagg-dorm, a pair of Leg Rest coaches, the three standard mid-train cars (cafe-lounge, full diner, club-lounge), and five trailing sleepers including a Pennsy sleeper-obs-lounge car bringing up the hind end (Samuel Vaughn Merrick in UP colors). Richard. H. Kindig photo. 

This concludes Jeff Koeller's coverage of the 1950-1954 City of Los Angeles train, so many thanks to him for all of the great information and photos!

Checking the COLA schedules through Victorville in these years (these trains did not stop there), the westbound train passed through town at 6:03 am, and the eastbound train came through at 7:51 pm, but during the summer months of 1951 and 1952 (late April through late September), they came through at 5:03 am and 7:51 pm.

I can avoid modeling these trains (they require mostly brass passenger cars) by not operating during those early morning and late evening hours.

Here now are some layout progress reports covering the weeks ending on Oct. 20 and Oct. 27

As of Oct. 20 my resolution to work for an hour a day on my layout was still going well.  

I began working on all the blocks of the inner mainline, now that the outer mainline was running again.  The long block L2-A just needed to be connected to a new pair of terminal strips, and then I labeled and connected blocks L2-B, L2-C, and L2-D.  There were quite a few feeders that had not yet been connected to their bus wires, and in a couple of spots I needed to splice two sections of bus wires together to make them longer.  

Here's a photo of me, busy at work beside a crowded area of bus wires coming from all over:

My next week's job was to work on the final block of the inner mainline, block L2-E, which did not yet have any bus wires, as that's where I had left off when I set the wiring job aside quite a while ago.

My friend Craig Wisch in Victorville has begun building cardstock models of some typical, small Barrio houses, which were located along E Street, in the back part of my Victorville scene.  He sent me some photos of his first house model -- here are the front and right sides:

And here are the right side and the rear:

Thanks to Craig for all his help with so many models!

Speaking of help, Bill Messecar has begun scratchbuilding a styrene model of the Rosso Cafe, which stood beside the Texaco station (modeled already by Don Hubbard) in the Lower Narrows.  You may recall that my architect friend Jim Coady drew the plans for the cafe not long ago.

Now let's resume our tour of Bill Messecar's layout, based on the 3rd District of the Santa Fe in the greater LA area.  Last time we completed our tour of Riverside, and now we'll look at our Fast Mail train behind 4-8-4 #3759 as it leaves town heading west toward Corona, rounding a big curve:

From here the mainline runs behind (and is partly hidden by) a different foreground scene, which depicts the Elsinore Branch, which ran south from Corona.  Here we see the Pacific Clay Company at the town of Alberhill, at the south end of the branch line:

Here is the view as we move to the left and look back at Alberhill:

Moving to the left, at the north end of the Elsinore Branch we see the Owens-Illinois industry on the left at Weisel and the 3M company on the right at Porphery:

Here is a diagram of the towns and industries on Bill's compressed version of the Elsinore Branch:

Our next stop will be at Corona -- see below.

During the week of Oct. 27 I worked an hour every day again on adding the bus wires for block L2-E on the inner mainline, and then connecting all the feeder wires to it with suitcase connectors.  Then I connected block L2-E to terminal strips and tested a loco, which ran all the way around the inner mainline for the first time.

I got out a 2nd DC power pack I had acquired and connected it to the inner mainline terminals, and I connected the first power pack to the outer mainline terminals, so I'll be able to run a train on each mainline next week.  Exciting!

Here's a photo of the current mess of wires connecting to four terminal strips and then to the two power packs.  I should have screwed the terminal strips to a sheet of wood, but this is just a temporary set-up for testing:

Here's a drawing from Don Borden from about a year ago, showing how the mainline blocks will be connected to the four mainline control panels, when those panels are gradually added:

I've also been trading lots of emails with Craig Wisch in Victorville, regarding how much space I have to model the E Street Barrio and how many buildings are needed for that.  Here's a drawing I marked in red ink to give us some idea of the available space for houses, other than the church and the 2nd-hand store:

Craig has begun work on a 2nd Barrio house, based on a small house still standing on D Street:

Craig also sent me a good photo of himself with a couple of friends, and I cropped his photo from that larger photo:

Getting back to our photo tour of Bill Messecar's layout now, we are in the town of Corona this time.  As we enter the east end of town, we see the packing houses of Corona Lemon and Exchange Lemon:

Next we come to the engine servicing facility, as seen in many railfan photos:

In the foreground is the Corona Depot scene:

Here we see a westbound freight behind F-units leaving the west end of town, with Redwing Milling in the background:

The mainline then curves to the right and runs past the station of Atwood:

Here's the track diagram for Corona and its industries:

Our final stop will be at Placentia, next time.

I'm behind schedule on posting these blog entries, but I'll keep working to catch up.

Santa Fe's 1951-1953 Super Chief in Victorville, & Some Layout Wiring & Bill Messecar's Layout

In a previous entry I covered the Santa Fe's Super Chief of 1948-1950, and this time we'll cover the next, peak version of the train during 1951-1953.  Then we'll look at some progress on layout wiring, and we'll begin a photo tour of Bill Messecar's excellent HO Santa Fe layout.

You may recall that when we studied the 1948-1950 Super Chief, the first thing we noted was that it normally passed through Victorville after sunset (eastbound) and before sunrise (westbound), so any photos of it in Victorville would be very rare.  I will be showing photos of the 1951-53 Super Chief, but they will be in other locations, or the locos will be pulling some other train.

First, here's a classic photo of the 1951 Super Chief behind F7 set #304, with the new Pleasure Dome visible halfway back in the train:

The scheduled times for the westbound Super Chief (Train 17) to pass through Victorville (it did not stop there) were 5:42 a.m. during 1951-1953. The eastbound Super Chief (Train 18) came through at 10:55 p.m. in 1951, until Apr. 27, 1952, when it changed to 11:03 pm, but on Sep. 27, 1953, it changed back to 10:55 pm.

With my layout operating plan of not running any nighttime operations, this means that I don't really need to model this train, but since Walthers has made models of most of the train's cars, which I have collected, I'll have to run the westbound Super Chief a little later in the morning though Victorville (running behind schedule).

Here is the consist of the 1951-1953 Super Chief, which I presented as part of my 2019 Super Chief clinic (as an update of my 2006 clinic, after more HO models were made):

Here's a summary of this consist:

And here's a slide with some additional notes about the cars:

Now let's look at all the types of locos that pulled the Super Chief from February, 1951, through December, 1953, based on the loco assignment records posted by Loren Joplin at santafe.gmbus.com.  

At the beginning of this time period, the train was being pulled by F3 ABBA sets #16-36, and F7 ABBA sets #37-41, and F7 ABB sets #300-305.  In May, 1950, these were joined by F7 ABB sets #306-312, and in June, 1951, by F7 ABB sets #313-314.  In October, 1952, F7 ABBA sets #42-47 were added to the train's power pool.

Let's look at some photos of these locos.  Here is F3 set #33 at Sullivan's Curve, thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

Here we see new F7 ABBA set #38 at the San Bernardino depot, thanks again to Jack Whitmeyer:

And here is the new 1951 Super Chief at Summit behind F7 set #40, as shot by Robert Hale:

Here's a Santa Fe photo of the new Super Chief in Cajon Pass, behind F3 set #35:

This concludes our coverage of the 1951-1953 Super Chief and its locos.

As for layout progress, I need to catch up on the last four weeks, as I got way behind with this blog.

When I reported on Sep. 22, I still had no energy, due to what I think was Long COVD (I was tired all day long).

I did get to visit Bill Messecar on Saturday morning, Sep. 21, and his news was that he will be dismantling his layout next year when he and his wife move to a smaller home without such a large yard.  I think one of the model railroad magazines should come and photograph his layout for an article, but he doesn't seem to be interested in that.

But while I was there, I shot a couple dozen photos of his layout scenes, with nobody getting in the way.  I'll start sharing them with four photos at one end of his layout and gradually work my way around.

Along the right-hand wall as you enter the room is his last addition to the layout -- a passenger train yard loosely based on LA Union Passenger Terminal, but also serving as the San Bernardino depot tracks when trains arrive at the east end of their run from LA.  Here's a view looking into the depot tracks, with mail and express cars along the far track, lots of passengers waiting on the platforms, and doodlebug M.181 in the foreground:

Looking along the same wall in the opposite direction is the terminal for passenger power, along with a tower representing the West Yard Tower in San Bernardino, or Terminal Tower when we're in LA.

Just to the left of this scene, around the corner, is a commissary and yard office, with the San Bernardino precooler building in the background:

Finally, here is a good view of the complete precooler scene, where reefers were cooled and iced:

I'll continue with more scenes on Bill's layout in future weekly reports (see below)

I can share a couple of photos of the progress that Craig Wisch had made on his cardstock model of the La Paloma Cafe that was across the tracks from the depot.  It was nearly done, except for another box he wants to add to the rooftop.  Here are the front and left sides, as of Sep. 22:

And here are the right side and rear of the cafe (but we don't know what they really looked like):

Here's a close-up of an aerial photo from 1953 that has been a little help in sizing and modeling the hotel (on the left) and the cafe (on the right):

I had a helpful visit from Bill Messecar on Thursday morning, Sep. 26, to try to get me going on my layout again.  We both soldered some feeders that got skipped last time, and we inserted some loose ties under a few rail joiners.  I crawled into the pop-area of the main peninsula to solder some of the feeders at the ends of the C Yard tracks, as seen here:

Meanwhile, Craig Wisch in Victorville had made a few more improvements to his cardstock model of the La Paloma Cafe, as seen here on Sep. 29:

Here is his photo of the other side of the model:

He tells me these photos reveal some areas he wants to touch up, and then he will mail it to me, as usual.

I will continue sharing the photos I shot of Bill Messecar's layout when I visited him, so here are the next four photos, showing the rest of his San Bernardino B Yard, west of the precooler area.  Here's a view of the yard, showing the east end of the yard tracks and the ATSF work train he built from resin kits:

Here's the same yard, looking back from the west end (and by the way, all of his cars are accurate prototype models):

Here's his engine terminal, which happens to be at the west end of the B Yard (instead of in the A Yard), including a model of the sand tower and its loading ramp at the far left:

Finally, as the 3rd District mainline track curves out of the west end of the yard, it passes by a model of Colton Tower (on the left), plus a residential neighborhood:

As of Oct. 6, I felt that might be getting a little less sleepy (knock on wood), so Don Hubbard suggested that I make a resolution to work on my layout one hour a day, and I started on that right away.

With outer mainline block L1-A previously working, I got mainline block L1-B hooked up to terminal strips and then to a power pack, and then I got block L1-C hooked up and tested with an old loco.  As a quick solution to labeling the wires, I'm still just using making tape, with good intentions to replace them with labels from my new label-maker someday.

Here's the TV tray you've seen before, showing the new connections to the new terminal strips and a power pack:

Craig Wisch has not yet mailed me his completed model of the La Paloma Cafe (we've heard that the real cafe was a very rough place), as he's been working on a fantasy cafe model in S scale, using the parts from his initial attempt to build my HO model.  Here's a photo he sent me on Oct. 6, just for fun:

Let's return now to my recent photos of Bill Messecar's layout.  After the 3rd District mainline curves to the left past Colton Tower, it enters Riverside behind a large model of the National Orange packing house:

To the left of there (going westward), we see a bulk oil dealer and other buildings in the town:

Here's a view looking back at the Riverside Depot, with a gas station in the foreground:

To the left of there, here's one more Riverside scene, showing an ice plant:

By the way, I've begun discarding my older magazines, starting with my NMRA magazines from the 1970s and 1980s.  I'm a compulsive collector, but it's time to start letting go.  I look through each one, but I rarely save any of the pages.

During the week of Oct. 7, I worked on the wiring and labeling for the L1-D and L1-E outer mainline blocks and completed them.  These each took a couple of days, as not all the feeder wires had been connected to the bus wires, and L1-D was a long block that needed a lot of labels and connections.  L1-E's bus wires needed to pass under the layout to the far side to reach a pair of feeders there and then run back again to the terminal strips and power pack area.

Now all five blocks of the outer mainline are wired and labeled, and I was able to run the test loco all the way around the outer main.  Photos of wiring are not much to see, but here's a view showing all the bus wires arriving at the terminal strips and power pack:

Next week I'll start working on the inner mainline wiring, which may be a lot more work, as I've never had that mainline hooked up before.

I don't have any new photos from Craig Wisch this week.  But he's interested in modeling some typical Barrio houses, using off-the-shelf cardstock plans and modifying them as needed.  We'll continue discussing this next week.  

We also discussed modeling the two small monuments that were in Forrest Park by the depot, as seen in this photo from the Route 66 Museum in town, where they are preserved:

The small black grave marker on the left is for Brownie, a railroad dog, as seen on page 90 of Chard Walker's "Cajon" book.  We decided that I should make these models myself, if Craig can send me a photo like this, but shot in even lighting.

On Oct. 12 I had a great time at an operating session at Bill Messecar's layout.  I was paired with Cajon Pass modeler Jeff Schultz, and we had fun running the Fast Mail behind 4-8-4 #3759, and then the Riverside Turn behind a GP9.  I found this online clinic where Jeff had presented his Cajon  layout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juGms2NLWaE

Returning now to my photo tour of Bill Messecar's layout, here are a few more photos from the Riverside area.  First, here is our Fast Mail train behind  #3759 approaching the Riverside depot:

At the left end of town (the west end), here we see Bill's model of the Calhoun Bros. industry, along with a small bridge over the mainline at the left:

On a long spur farther around the curve there, we find his beautiful model of Jennings Lumber:

On the fascia below each town scene, he hangs a track diagram to help the train crews figure out where all the industries are located.  Here's the diagram for Riverside:

Next time we'll continue west along the towns of Bill's excellent layout.