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 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.

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 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.

To be continued ...

UP's 1947-1950 City of LA in Victorville, & More Help with Layout Buildings

In a previous entry we covered the Union Pacific's 1946-1947 City of Los Angeles train, so this time we'll visit the UP's 1947-1950 version of the train, when it began running daily with four trainsets instead of two.  Then we'll cover some help from others in making buildings for my layout. 

First, here's a color photo of UP's new E7s arriving in Chicago with the City of Los Angeles train and with blank red banners in 1947 (just after the train began daily service):

Here are some City of LA (COLA) notes from last time:

Since Sep. 29, 1946 Union Pacific's postwar City of Los Angeles train had been running three times a week, using just two trainsets (the "7th Train" and the "9th Train").

On May 14, 1947, the UP's City of LA train began running daily for the first time, as it now had four trainsets to use instead of just two, and the number of sleeping cars was reduced to five per train.  The two new trainsets were called the "16th Train" and the "17th Train."

Here is Jeff Koeller's table of cars for each of the four trainsets during this late May, 1947, time period:

But it only stayed this way for five weeks, and then the consists began to slowly change over time.  There were some major changes in 1949 and 1950, when brand new cars were produced and added.  We will have to omit all the complexities of these changes for now.  In a later blog entry we'll come back to the consists in March, 1950, when a 5th trainset was added.

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

The locomotives pulling the train changed quite a bit during this 1947-1950 time period, as we shall see.  Below are some notes on this from Jeff Koeller:

After the E7s were delivered in August 1946, the E2s were more or less relegated to the Los Angeles Limited, because the COLA got all the newest and most powerful locomotives.  

The use of COLA-lettered power units on the LA Limited eventually led to the elimination of the train name lettering in the red “name banners” on the locomotive sides, leaving just a blank, red banner. This was done at least by spring 1947. Note that E7s 930A and 931A never did have train names in their red name banners, as they were intended for City of Portland service, but were delivered about six months prior to the start of COP daily service.

By the time daily service began, the COLA train name had been dropped from the car letterboards, and only the sleeping cars retained their car names. The names for non-sleeping cars were dropped and just the car numbers were used (applied over the trucks). For example, Sun Valley became LA-901.  The non-sleeping cars also received the “Streamliner” logo in the center of the car side.

The sleeping cars simply had the word PULLMAN in 8-inch letters on the letterboard in a rather tightly-spaced arrangement. Individually owned non-sleeping cars had railroad ownership lettering in the letterboards, but all jointly-owned cars had 5-inch UNION PACIFIC at the left end of the letterboard, with 5-inch CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN lettering at the right end of the letterboard (same arrangement on both sides of the cars). 

Here is much more information from Jeff Koeller:

Four Consist Rotation

The two 15-car consists for the COLA trainsets remained essentially the same from May 1946 up to the inauguration of daily service on May 14, 1947. At that time, the amount of cars in the 7th and 9th Trains was reduced, and two new consists, the 16th and 17th Trains, were created. At this time, the number of sleeping cars was reduced to five cars per consist, and with the reduction to 12 and 13-car trains, each consist could now be handled by a 4,000 horsepower (HP) set of EMD E-units. Of course, these trains still required helper engines on Cajon Pass and Sherman Hill. 

Any two-unit combination from the COLA power pool was utilized, including engines from the jointly-owned COLA E6 ABB set and the E7 ABB set, along with UP-owned E3s. Also used as needed were UP-owned E6s and E7s from a general “Cities” power pool that also covered the requirements of the daily City of Portland and City of St. Louis trains. At this time, the jointly-owned E2 ABB engines ran mostly on the COStL (and occasionally on the City of Denver) due to their 1,800 HP limitation.

Changes

When the City of San Francisco became a daily service on September 1, 1947, two jointly-owned COLA units, E6 924A and E6 926B, were assigned to that train to help offset the motive power needs of the four COSF consists. Although these engines had previously lost their COLA train name lettering, the red train name “banners” were also removed for this assignment. 

After the delivery of Fairbanks-Morse Erie-built 2,000 HP passenger diesels in November 1947, a single F-M unit regularly operated behind an EMD cab unit in one of the COLA consists. Cab unit 702 was used briefly, but normally there would be an F-M booster unit trailing an EMD E-unit. The use of F-M cab units leading the COLA is rare, although one photo has been found depicting F-M AA units powering a COLA trainset on Sherman Hill. The limited use of F-M cab units may have something to do with a lack of appropriate cab signals on the C&NW east of Omaha. 

In early 1948, UP tried using F3 ABB units on the COLA, but the use of these 4,500 HP engine sets (built in September 1947) was short-lived, as UP reverted back to 2-unit 4,000 HP combinations.

End of Joint Ownership

It should be noted that concurrent with the termination of joint ownership of “Cities” engines and passenger cars in December 1948, C&NW-owned diesels generally powered the COLA on their own rails between Chicago and Omaha, and the use of C&NW units on the COLA west of Omaha ended. 

However, motive power equilization had UP-owned E-units continuing to operate over the North Western into Chicago, with C&NW engines operating exclusively on the City of San Francisco into Ogden, Utah. This arrangement lasted into 1953, although starting in January of that year, C&NW and UP also shared power assignments on the City of Denver trains into Denver.

More Changes

Beginning in late1948, the COLA engine sets were supplemented with the addition of a single 1,500 HP F3 (usually a B-unit) taken from the groups of F3s built in 1947 and mid-1948. The COLA would soldier on with these 5,500 HP engine sets until the delivery of new 2,250 HP E8 units in mid-1950. 

Below are some excellent photos showing these motive power arrangements, with captions below them, kindly sent to me by Jeff Koeller.

Pictured in the Upper Narrows with State Highway 18’s “Rainbow" bridge prominent at right, UP-C&NW jointly-owned engines E7 931A and E6 925B lead the westbound COLA 9th Train, heading generally southward, out of Victorville in the early morning sunlight on July 12, 1947. 

According to AT&SF employee time table No. 130, effective June 8, 1947, train No. 103 was scheduled through Victorville at 6:03 am. Previously, the COLA operated over the Santa Fe as train Nos. 203 and 204, but on May 14, 1947, the Utahn was inaugurated as Nos. 3 and 4 on the Union Pacific, and the Utahn was subsequently given the COLA’s former train numbers on the Santa Fe. Thus, the COLA became Nos. 103 and 104 on the Santa Fe at that time. Photo by Chard Walker.

On January 12, 1948, UP F3s 968A, 977B and 971B are shown heading train No. 104, the eastbound COLA, into Ames, Iowa.  After receiving five ABB sets of EMD F3 passenger units in September-October 1947, the UP assigned the units to various trains to determine what would be the best use of these 4,500 HP engine sets. This test was short-lived on the COLA as UP rather quickly reverted to using two-unit 4,000 HP engine combinations. Don Christensen photograph from Grand Ave tower.

Here is No. 104, the eastbound COLA, coming into Ames, Iowa, on February 5, 1948, powered by UP E3 951A and F-M Erie-built 987B. Although no train number is shown in the engine’s indicator box, to the far left, just behind the baggage-express car, can be seen part of articulated coach LA-401, making this the 7th COLA. 

After UP’s Fairbanks-Morse engines 984A, 985A, 986B and 987B were delivered in November 1947, one of these 2,000 HP units was regularly paired with an EMD cab unit in a COLA consist. This was normally a booster unit as shown here. Don Christensen photo.

Train No. 104, the eastbound COLA 7th Train, is shown on the C&NW just west of Geneva, Illinois, on March 24, 1948. Jointly-owned E7 988J (formerly 927A) leads F-M cab unit 702 (ex 984A). Both engines were recently renumbered in March 1948. The use of an Erie-built cab unit was somewhat rare, as the F-M boosters were more common. C&NW photo.

Action at Los Angeles in late 1948 shows one of SP’s triple-unit diners at left, part of the Noon Daylight consist being backed into the station on Track 4, alongside COLA power units UP-C&NW E7 988J, UP E3 992B and a UP F3 A-unit. After bringing No. 103 into Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, this 5,500 HP engine lashup is shown pulling out of LAUPT on Track 5 and heading toward UP’s East Yard for servicing (the engine crew is now operating from the former trailing unit). 

UP normally operated ABB engine sets, which required the locomotives to back across the Los Angeles River bridge (in the far right background), then reverse direction and proceed around the connecting track to Pasadena Junction to get onto UP’s East Bank Line with the cab unit now in front. Harold E. Williams photo. 

UP engines E3 991, F3 903B and E6 992 with COLA No. 104 are about to cross First Street South as the train comes into the Salt Lake City passenger station in early 1949. Starting in late 1948, UP began to add a single 1,500 HP F3 unit to the COLA consists to create 5,500 HP motive power sets. Note that the leading unit has received carbody vents along the center side panels for better engine room ventilation (the cooling system air intake grills at the top of the locomotive were part of a separate, sealed system). The trailing E6 has yet to be modified. Louis A. Marre collection.

COLA train No. 104 is shown leaving LAUPT in early 1949, headed up by UP E7 999 (ex 960A), 990B (ex 990BJ, ex 929B) and F3 900C. That’s Terminal Tower looming above the train with Signal Bridge No. 1 overhead. Following the baggage express car are C&NW articulated coaches 3408/3409, recently renumbered from LA-401/LA-402, but with the joint UP-C&NW lettering still intact. The cars will soon be lettered simply CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN. Robert O. Hale photo, M.D. McCarter collection.  

This completes our coverage of the 1947-1950 COLA trains.  Here are now are some layout progress reports covering the two weeks up to Sep. 15.

I sent no progress report on Sep. 1, as I'd been too tired, apparently battling Long COVID.  I was a little better the next week, but my wife and I were gone to Victoria, BC, for our wedding anniversary (as usual).

Before we left, I received in the mail the latest masterpiece by Craig Wisch -- his cardstock model of the old Santa Fe Hotel that was across the tracks from the depot in Victorville.  I posed it on my layout beside the other two most recent models he has sent me -- Peterson Feed and Hayward Lumber:

Meanwhile, Craig had begun work on modeling the La Paloma Cafe, which stood just to the right of the Santa Fe Hotel.  Here's a blurry old photo of the Cafe, reflected in a puddle:

This is the only image we have that indicates that it had a rooftop that sloped down toward the rear (same as the hotel), as implied by the step-down side wall seen on the left.

My trip to Victoria that week produced quite a few model railroad images that I shot when we toured the Miniature World attraction, which is on the north side of the Empress Hotel.  They have a large HO model railroad that runs through various scenes depicting the railroad history of Canada.  Here's one scene with a pond behind the train:

Here's a scene with a logging operation:

Here's a city scene with some railroad spurs:

In a separate large display, they have circus and carnival scenes, as seen here in the background:

I have an interest in circus and carnival trains, and they have a scene with a circus train being unloaded at the far end of the town:

All of the detailed modeling in this Miniature World museum is amazing to see!  You can see some of their other exhibits at their website:

 https://miniatureworld.com/exhibits/

I wrote on Sep. 15:  I'm apparently still battling Long COVID -- the kind that makes you sleepy and tired all day long.  So I have no layout progress to report on again, but I'll share some photos anyway.

Craig Wisch has been working on a cardstock model of the La Paloma Cafe that stood just to the right of the Santa Fe Hotel, across the tracks from the Victorville depot.  Here's one of the few photos we have of the cafe, but this one was shot after it closed for business:

Here's a progress photo that Craig sent me, showing the front and right sides of his model under construction:

We have no photos showing where the windows and doors were on the sides or rear, so he gets to make his best guess on those.  Here's his progress photo of the front and left sides, where the walls have not yet been cut down to size:

Many thanks to Craig for all his work on this latest model.

A distant friend heard that I'm building a model railroad, and he asked to see some photos, so I went downstairs and shot a few new ones and sent them to him.  Here's one showing the return loop tracks in the staging room:

Here's one showing the tracks as they exit the staging room and curve past C Tower:

Here's a photo showing some tools arranged on the right and some models of the bunkhouse and section houses on the left, in the main layout room:

On the opposite side of the layout, here are some models of Victorville buildings arranged beside the mainline tracks, with some of my bookcases full of train books in the background:

That's all for now.  I hope I get my strength back before long!  I'm behind on posting these blog entries, so I need to catch up.

Santa Fe's 1948-1950 Super Chief in Victorville, & A Visit to Layouts in Minneapolis

We'll continue this time with the March 1948-January 1951 Super Chief as it passed through Victorville, and then I'll cover the three layouts I toured while visiting my siblings in Minneapolis, MN.

You may recall that when we studied the 1946-47 (and early 1948) 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 locos that pulled the Super Chief in those years, but they will often be pulling other trains.

For example, here we see F3 set #26 with the eastbound Grand Canyon at Sullivan's Curve in July, 1950, thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

The scheduled times for the westbound Super Chief (Train 17) to pass through Victorville (it did not stop there) were 5:40 a.m. in mid-1948 and 5:42 a.m. through Jan. 1951.  The eastbound Super Chief (Train 18) came through at 10:50 p.m. in mid- 1948 and 10:55 p.m. through Jan. 1951.

With my layout operating plan of not running any nighttime operations, this means that I don't need to model this train, which is fortunate, as some of the cars can only be modeled in HO with expensive and rare brass models, as seen in this consist I presented as part of my 2019 Super Chief clinic (an update of my 2006 clinic after more HO models were made):

Here's a summary of this consist::

Now let's look at all the types of locos that pulled the Super Chief from March, 1948, through January, 1951, based on the loco assignment records posted by Loren Joplin at santafe.gmbus.com.  The photos below will show the various types of locos, but not when pulling the Super Chief.

As of March, 1948, the power pool for the Super Chief still included FTs #158-168, PA-1s #51-58, Erie-Built #90, and F3s #16-21, as we saw in previous report on the Super Chief up to March, 1948.

In March, 1948, they added new F3s #22-25 to the pool, and then in May-June, 1948, they added F3s #26-29, and in Sep. 1948 they added F3 set #30.

So now in June, 1948, they could drop all the older power from the Super Chief pool.  Gone were the FTs #158-168, PA-1s #51-58, and Erie-Built #90, so that only the F3s remained to pull the train.

Jack Whitmeyer shot F3 set #29 with the eastbound Grand Canyon at the Victorville depot (with pump houses on the left) in July of 1948:

Here is set #24 coming through Victorville with the eastbound Chief in the late 1940s, as shot by Richard Steinheimer.  Chard Walker is waving at the fireman:

The final batch of passenger F3 ABBA sets, #31-36, arrived in Oct-Nov of 1948 and Jan. of 1949.  These were "Phase 4" F3s, with horizontal grilles along the upper carbody sides, instead of chicken wire.

Here is F3 set #33 at Sullivan's Curve, thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

Santa Fe got their first passenger F7s, #37-41 (ABBA sets), in Sep. 1949, and they joined the F3s in the Super Chief's power pool.

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

This completes our coverage of the March 1948-January 1951 Super Chief.  We'll continue with this train another time.

It's been three weeks since I've written a blog entry, because my wife and I were gone to Minneapolis (my home town) to visit my siblings, as we do once a year.  While there, we both came down with bad colds (probably COVID), and we're still recovering.

While I was still healthy, I visited one small layout and two large ones, so I will share some of the photos I shot there.

But first, here's a report on more layout help from my volunteers.  My friend Jim Coady made some minor revisions to his drawings for the Rosso Cafe (adjacent to the Rosso Texaco station) in the Lower Narrows.  In particular, he added the sign board on the front that said "Rosso's Coffee Shop," and he revised the rear side per Jack Dykstra's memory to have one door and three windows, as seen here:

Bill Messecar plans to scratch-build this cafe after he finishes another structure project for the Boeing club.

My friend Craig Wisch in Victorville made a lot of progress on his cardstock model of the Santa Fe Hotel that was across the tracks from the depot in Victorville.  I was blown away when I saw his photos of his virtually-complete model.  Here are the front and right sides:

What a beautiful model this is!  Surprisingly, he then had a renewed interest in building the Rainbow Bridge in cardstock, so I was keeping my fingers crossed for that next project.

And now, back to the Minneapolis area, where I visited the small HO layout of my brother-in-law Scott Wardrope, who was the Chief Mechanical Officer in the St. Paul roundhouse of the Minnesota Commercial Railway.  He models a free-lanced electric interurban railroad, the Tidewater Terminal, that includes railroad car floats, and all the power comes from the overhead wires..  Here he poses beside his car float docks:

Here's a side view of his car float docks:

Here is his town of Tidewater, with the depot in the left distance:

Around the corner to the left of Tidewater is his engine terminal and car barn:

You can see where his mainline goes through the wall and into a staging yard in a closet on the left.

Now here's the first of the two large layouts I visited -- the HO Santa Fe layout of my old friend John Hotvet, who  is a Master Model Railroader and has been building his large attic-size layout in Minneapolis for decades.  He's a close friend of Scott Wardrope, and it was Scott who drove me to visit John.

I discovered that there's an online video tour of John's layout, showing his California Zephyr detouring though his many Colorado-based scenes:

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

I asked John to pose beside his large staging yard, as seen here:

Here's the unfinished engine terminal you can see at the far left of his staging yard:

John's most famous scene contains his very long steel trestle.  This scene of his California Zephyr on the trestle comes from the video I mentioned above:

Here we see his early Super Chief by his Climax depot:

Here's a busy switching area on his layout:

Here's one of the small towns along his mainline:

Here's one more small-town scene, the town of Rivera:

It's always a joy to visit John Hotvet, which I get to do every few years.  Be sure to watch the video to enjoy more of his scenes.

Here's the third and final layout that Scott and I visited, the O scale layout of the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum, which is in St. Paul.  When I was a kid, I saw it at least once in the basement of the St. Paul Union Depot, before it was moved.  Now I like to go see it every time I'm in the Twin Cities.

I found this trackplan online:

https://www.tcmrm.org/exhibits/o-scale-exhibit/

Here's one of my favorite scenes, showing all the bridges across the Mississippi river in Minneapolis, including the famous Stone Arch Bridge in the background:

Here's their model of the former Great Northern Depot in Minneapolis:

Here's their town of Mattlin, below where trains leave the GN depot:

Here's a view of their Mississippi Street engine terminal, with the coaling tower in the center:

Here's a view of the same engine terminal from the opposite side, showing part of the roundhouse on the right:

They have a long, panoramic scene of the mainlines along the Mississippi River:

Here's a final view, showing that river panorama from the opposite direction:

I never get tired of watching their O-scale trains running through all these scenes!

Here's a TV news report about the layout and the club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cca6eHatCR0

This past week I still had no energy while I continued to recover from my bout with probable COVID.  But I had a lot of good correspondence with my helper in Victorville, Craig Wisch.

He reported that he has now finished his cardstock model of the old Santa Fe Hotel that was across the tracks from the depot.  Here's a view of the rear and left sides.  Note that the rear windows and the door don't have the 3-D details that the other walls have, as they will be out of sight:

Here's a new view showing the front and left sides, after he added a drain pipe to hide a joint between the walls:

He is now preparing to mail this beautiful model to me.  He took another look at maybe modeling the very large Rainbow Bridge in cardstock, but then he put this idea back on the shelf when he encountered some problems.

Instead, he is now interested in modeling the La Paloma Cafe, which was just to the right of the Santa Fe Hotel, as seen in this shot from the 1971 biker movie "The Hard Ride":

The cafe was not yet there during WW2, but it must have appeared soon after, as it shows up in the postwar photos.  Here's probably the best photo we have of the cafe:

It had a unique diagonal wall and door at the left front corner, as you may be able to see in these two photos.  An aerial photo from 1953 shows that it was a little narrower but a little deeper than the hotel next door.

Finally, this is not related to my layout, but Craig also completed his S-scale model of the newspaper office in Victorville by adding awnings to the front windows:

Many thanks to Craig Wisch for all his help during recent years!  

I hope to have the energy to get back to my layout wiring next week.  If you can help me, please let me know.