UP's 1949-1952 Los Angeles Limited Train & Locating Tracks in the Left End of the A Yard

This time we'll cover the Union Pacific's Los Angeles Limited passenger train in Victorville from l949 into 1952, and then we'll look at four weeks of work on locating flextracks to form the rest of the 10-track A Yard, where the tracks continue around the big curve at the end of the peninsula and then fill most of the other side of the peninsula.

For this third report on the LA Limited passenger train, I'll be using information kindly supplied again by UP researcher Jeff Koeller, as follows:

[To be added later.]

Thanks to Jeff Koeller for all of the above text, photos with captions, and consist table. 

 

Here are some notes on modeling this train in HO:

 

[To be added later.] 

 

I always like to look up what the train times through Victorville were.  

 

 [To be added later.] 

 

As for layout progress since last time, on April 12 I wrote this first bi-weekly report:

Last time I wasn't happy with the arrangement of turnouts at the left end of the ten A Yard staging tracks, so I pulled out the temporary track pins and tried a different arrangement, as seen here:

 

On the right in this view, we now have three turnouts along Track A1 instead of the four we had last time, but I still wasn't happy that Tracks A1 through A4 end so soon.  I wanted them to extend as far as possible before ending in turnouts.  So here was my next try:

 

This looked much better, with Tracks A1 and A2 not coming together until the curve in the foreground, and Tracks A3-A4-A5 extending well around the curve.  During this time, I had received 20 more flextracks to use in this yard, plus six #6 left-hand Atlas turnouts from eBay.  A little later I sent for another 20 flextracks from eBay, seeing that I would need more, and with any extras available for the future helix tracks.

Meanwhile, I had met with Bill Messecar and Don Hubbard for lunch on April 1, where Don gave me his completed model of the Standard Oil dealer lot in Victorville.  Back at my layout, I set his previously-completed model of the warehouse-office on his lot, and Craig Wisch's garage model beside the lot.  Here's a photo looking toward the row of three horizontal oil tanks Don built (ignore the staging tracks under the models):

 

And here's a view looking from the other direction, toward the truck garage built by Craig:

 

Many thanks to Don and to Craig for these beautiful models!

Meanwhile, Bill Messecar has been working almost every day on scratch-building me a model of the Victorville stock pen, using the Santa Fe structure standards and this plan drawing in the Victorville Building Records:

 

I've been phoning Don Sheets to discuss this and other Victorville structures.  He's now 97 years old but still recalls almost every detail from 70 to 80 years ago!  He said he never saw this stock pen used, but the one by the ranch at Frost was used to ship cattle out, so that's how I will be using this pen too.

The two low, wide Union Oil tanks that Craig Wisch recently built for me from cardstock arrived here safely, so I set up a complete scene on top of my staging tracks, with the two wide tanks at the left, the four tall tanks in the middle, and the two shorter tanks on the right, with the large warehouse-office building in the foreground.  All of these cardstock models came from Craig Wisch:

 

The curving track on the right represents one leg of the wye, and the spur track hidden behind the tanks is the Union Oil spur.  I still need to add some catwalks to the tall tanks and some ladders to all of them.  Here's a circa-1945 aerial view of this same scene:

 

I've been inviting Craig to try building a Shell Oil dealer model or any building within the large cement plant, but no luck so far.

Meanwhile, I worked some more on pinning down the ten tracks of the A Yard and the half-dozen tracks of the stub-ended D Yard, which is for parking diesel sets.  Here's a new view from yesterday, looking from the yard tracks toward the throats at the left ends of the tracks:

 

And here's an opposite view, looking from the throats out to the many yard tracks:

 

As you can see, the turnouts are just sitting loose on top of the tracks, as I continue to try to optimize the track lengths and curve radii.  I will keep trying different arrangements until I'm happy with the result, and then I'll cut and fit all the tracks and turnouts together.  The tracks no longer match the way I had drawn them on my pencil track plan long ago.

Please get in touch if you can help me in any way, in person or by building HO models remotely.

 

My next biweekly report was written on April 26:

 

I've been working on my staging yard tracks for at least an hour almost every day for the last two weeks.  Last time I had pinned them all down into some initial locations, but I went back to the 10-track curve that comes around the end of the peninsula and spaced them out equally to make nicer-looking curves: 

 

The white poster-board shape in the upper right has a 36" radius on its outer edge (to match the inner mainline track there), and Tracks A1 to A6 all have radii of 36" or more, while Tracks A7 to A10 have sharper radii, not suited to the biggest steam locos.

Moving the curves meant also moving all the straight tracks connected to them, so I unpinned and moved all of them as needed to meet the curves.  Then I used rail joiners to connect the flextrack sections of Tracks A6 to A10, which had not yet been connected.

A local friend, Jon McWirter, whom I had met at the local Santa Fe Mini-Meets, contacted me and offered to build the Victorville Switching Station for the future Lower Narrows scene on my layout.  Craig Wisch had already built the beautiful control house, so it was the massive electrical parts that were still needed.  Luckily, Jon is a professional working on converting nuclear energy to electrical energy, so he knows about such things.

Before his arrival on Monday, April 20, I cleared off the part of the lower deck that is directly under where the switching station scene will go.  I decided that we could use a little more space there, so I marked my track plan in red ink to show where the aisle could be a little less wide on the upper level there:

 

Note that the branch line to George AFB will form the rear boundary of the available space.

Then I cut out two sections of poster board to fill that area, so Jon would have a template of the space he has to work with.  Here's a view of the poster board template to the left of the control house (along with a pile of four plastic kits for substations, if Jon can use any of them):

 

 

And here's a view of the template to the right of the control house:

 

When Jon got here at 5 p.m. that day, I gave him a tour of the layout, and then, before I took him out to dinner, I had him pose with the connected poster boards, showing the space he has to work within (those empty slots can also be filled in):

 

Later I sent him many views of the prototype switching station area, such as this one:

Jon has been searching for kits that might provide the gantry towers that he needs, and here is the kit he initially chose but then canceled, from Cosmic in Japan:

 

The control house part of the kit would not be needed, of course.  So, I'm thrilled to have a new volunteer to help me with one of my many Victorville structures!

Speaking of helpers, Bill Messecar has been working almost every day on scratch-building the Victorville stock pen and is nearly finished, except for the dirt and some cattle.  I located an aerial photo from c.1945 showing the stock pen in the left part of this photo, with Standard Oil near the right edge, and Texas Quarries along the river at the bottom:

 

There appears to be a boxcar parked in front of the leftmost pen (not where the loading ramp is, on the right end), probably waiting to be spotted at the Lime Rock plant, off to the left of this view.

Meanwhile, Craig Wisch in Victorville is taking a break from my projects and working on his own S-scale model of the Stewart Hotel, which was across D Street from the depot (and so, not on my layout).

Back on the layout, after connecting all the flextrack sections in the body of the A Yard (but not yet gluing any of them down), I worked on bringing some the those tracks together at the throat at the left end.  First I cut and fit the ends of Tracks A1 and A2 into a turnout, and then I cut and fit Track A3 into a turnout that joins A3 with A1-A2.  There was a lot of trial and error in cutting the tracks with a Dremel tool to get the exact lengths needed.

My next step was to cut and fit Tracks A6 and A7 into a turnout.  But then I decided I should rearrange the other throat turnouts so that A1 to A5 form one electrical block, while A6 to A10 form a second block, as they do at the opposite ends of these staging tracks.  So I loosely laid out some new turnout locations in the throat.  And I found that I can probably fit seven stub tracks (instead of four) into the adjacent D Yard, for storing more diesel sets in blocks.

Here's a current view of the A and D Yard tracks and turnouts, loosely laid in their possible locations:

 

And here's one last view, from farther left, showing how the turnouts in the throat may be arranged:

 

There is still a ton of work to do on cutting and fitting all these tracks and turnouts together.  And I need to order more powered switch machines for the many turnouts.  I haven't tested whether the older switch machines actually work, so I'm worried about that.  And then all these tracks need to be glued down, one track at a time.

If you can help, in person or remotely, please let me know.

 

UP's 1947-1948 Los Angeles Limited Train & Laying More Tracks in the A and B Staging Yards

 

This time we'll cover the Union Pacific's Los Angeles Limited passenger train in Victorville from late 1946 through 1947 and 1948, and then we'll look at five more weeks of work on gluing down flextracks to form the 10-track A Yard and the adjacent 7-track B yard in staging. where the A Yard tracks enter the big curve at the end.

For this second report on the LA Limited passenger train, I'll be using information kindly supplied again by UP researcher Jeff Koeller, as follows:

Los Angeles Limited 1946-1948

New Operations Begin After the LA Limited and Transcon Are Consolidated on November 10, 1946

 

In response to the immediate rush of post-war passenger traffic, Union Pacific (UP), along with other railroads, initiated new train services that eventually became superfluous once the volume of passengers began to return to more normal operations. 

The Transcon (Nos. 3 and 4) was inaugurated on June 2, 1946, to handle coaches and Coast-to-Coast sleeping cars running between Chicago and Los Angeles. Operating on a schedule similar to the LA Limited’s new post-war times of 49 hours, 15 minutes westbound, and 48 hours, 35 minutes eastbound, the Transcon was only 5 minutes slower westbound and 20 minutes slower eastbound. 

However, Union Pacific decided to consolidate the two trains as a cost-cutting measure, thus ending Transcon service after five and a half months (not as a result of the Transcon derailment west of Oro Grande on Santa Fe’s Cajon Pass line on September 26, 1946). 

In a notice published in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, October 16, 1946, UP passenger traffic manager W.T. Price announced that the Los Angeles Limited and the Transcon would be consolidated, effective Sunday, November 10, 1946. New public and employee time tables were issued reflecting the changes.

 

 

LA Limited E7s at Summit with Steam Helper 3544 on 12-15-46

 

After cutting off the eastbound LA Limited, UP 3544, a 2-8-8-0 type, has backed onto the helper engine track at Summit on December 15, 1946. Meanwhile, two trainmen work to close the lead unit’s pilot coupler doors over the retractable coupler. The road engines are EMD E7s 931A, 963B and 930A. 

 

Although the two UP-C&NW jointly-owned cab units were ordered in March 1945 for planned City of Portland daily service, the units were delivered in August 1946 without train name lettering since the expanded schedule could not be implemented for several months. Instead, the units operated system wide, primarily on the Cities streamliners, but here they are in charge of today’s LA Limited. Don Duke photo.

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The Los Angeles Limited (Nos. 1 and 2) was now Union Pacific’s primary non-Streamliner train between Chicago and Los Angeles, handling all three of the Coast-to-Coast sleepers previously carried by the Transcon: two cars to New York City (one via the New York Central and one via the Pennsylvania Railroad), as well as a single car to Washington via the PRR. These heavyweight sleepers were painted either Pullman Green or Pennsy Tuscan Red, all of which were lettered for owner Pullman. 

At the same time, the three Chicago-Los Angeles 48-seat lightweight coaches, formerly handled by the Transcon, were cut back to a single Two-Tone Gray coach, reflecting a reduction in passenger traffic. 

The LA Limited continued to handle three Chicago-Los Angeles sleeping cars: lightweight 2-4-4 and 6-6-4 sleepers, plus a heavyweight 12 section-1 drawing room sleeper in Pullman Green, as well as the Minneapolis-St. Paul to Los Angeles 6-6-4 sleeper via the C&NW between the Twin Cities and Omaha. All these lightweight sleepers were painted in Pullman’s post-war 2-stripe Two-Tone Gray scheme. 

 

 

LA Limited with COLA 924A ABB at San Bernardino 2-15-47

 

The eastbound LA Limited is about ready to depart San Bernardino on February 15, 1947, with UP 4-10-2 5099 helping a 3-unit set of E-units displaced from the City of Los Angeles by new E7s. The diesels include E6s 924A and 926B, both of which were later transferred to the City of San Francisco for daily service. Although the COLA train name is prominent on the carbody sides, the lettering will soon be painted out, leaving just a blank red name board, which was more useful in the general diesel pool. Jack Whitmeyer photo.

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LA Limited with COLA 922B at San Bernardino 2-15-47

 

COLA E2 922B is the trailing unit in this “going away” view of the eastbound LA Limited leaving San Bernardino on February 15, 1947. Note the Southern Pacific sublettering on the RPO-baggage express car, apparently borrowed from the San Francisco Overland. Jack Whitmeyer photo.

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In addition, the LA Limited continued to transport the St. Louis to Los Angeles lightweight 48-seat coach and a lightweight 6-6-4 sleeper between Cheyenne and Los Angeles, both in Two-Tone Gray. After the Utahn was inaugurated on May 14, 1947, these cars were handled by Nos. 3 and 4 west of Cheyenne. The LA Limited also carried several Chicago to Portland cars that were transferred to the Portland Rose at Cheyenne (a lightweight 48-seat coach and two lightweight sleepers in Two-Tone Gray). 

Also continuing in LA Limited service were the heavyweight 13 section dormitory cars, which were former 12 section-1 drawing room sleepers converted to Tourist Car sleepers in 1940 and renumbered in November 1941 into the 5000-series. For LA Limited service in 1946 cars 5009, 5023, 5024, 5025, 5034, and 5035 were painted Two-Tone Gray with PULLMAN on the letterboard (car numbers from a UP interdepartmental letter dated March 19, 1946). 

These heavyweight 13 section dorm cars were located at the head-end of the train and are an excellent spotting feature for identifying the Los Angeles Limited in late-1940s photographs: if the dormitory car is not there, the train is not the LA Limited. 

 

Operating ahead of the dormitory car, a baggage car or an RPO-baggage car shows up in the LA Limited consists; however, their use is not well-documented beyond what can be seen in photographs. They are usually UP Harriman-roof cars, but C&NW clerestory-roof baggage cars have also been noted. Depending on the day and location, sometimes no head-end car is present.   

Lastly, the LA Limited normally had heavyweight dining and club-lounge cars, but a second heavyweight diner regularly operated, which ran as a coffee shop diner for coach passengers. These cars could be painted Dark Olive Green or Two-Tone Gray.

 

Los Angeles Limited Consist:

 

Motive Power in The Late 1940s

 

The first road diesel set to operate regularly on the LA Limited was a three-unit, 6,000 hp set of Fairbanks-Morse diesels built at General Electric’s plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, in December 1945. The units were ordered in August 1945 and assigned numbers 50-M-1A, 50-M-3B and 50-M-2A. After testing they were purchased by UP in May 1946.  

According to the book by Kratville and Ranks, Motive Power of The Union Pacific, on page 226, the Fairbanks-Morse diesels arrived on the property on December 28, 1945 and the first test in road service was on a westbound freight of 62 loads and six empties totaling 3,100 tons out of Council Bluffs on December 30, 1945. The units had a 68:19 gear ratio for 75 mph operation. 

 

The text says that, “After many test freight runs, the units were shopped and re-geared to 63:24 ratio [102 mph] for passenger service. The conversion and the application of Automatic Train Control to the units for passenger operation was [completed] at Los Angeles on May 5, 1946… The units were assigned to the City of Los Angeles from May 5 through June 2 of 1946 and then they were put on the Los Angeles Limited and later into regular pool service, mainly on the Los Angeles Division.”  

 

 

LA Limited WB UP FM 982A ABA at near Summit on 4-4-47

 

Fairbanks-Morse “Erie-Built” diesels 982A, 983B and 981A are heading uphill with the westbound LA Limited about 1/4 mile below Summit, Calif., on April 4, 1947. Renumbered from 50-M-2A, 50-M-3B and 50-M-1A in August 1946, the units were equipped with dynamic brakes, which will be helpful going down the westward slope of Cajon Pass. 

 

The consist has a UP 69’ Harriman baggage-RPO, a Pullman 13 section dorm car, a UP 5331-series coach, a UP 5300-series coach, and a UP heavyweight coffee shop diner, all in Two-Tone Gray, followed by four heavyweight cars most likely including the three Coast-to-Coast sleepers. Chard Walker photo. 

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In August 1946 new jointly-owned and UP-owned Electro-Motive Division E7 diesels were delivered, which released several of the older model E2 and E6 engines from UP-C&NW City of Los Angeles service for operating on the LA Limited. Also, UP-owned E6s and E7s occasionally appeared, but only those units that show up in photographs can be reliably known to have operated on the LA Limited, as these units also ran on the City of St. Louis and the City of Denver. 

 

LA Limited Down-on View at San Bernardino

 

This down-on photo of the eastbound LA Limited at San Bernardino was taken from the Mt. Vernon overhead viaduct and shows the train coming off “the short way” from Rana, which allowed passenger trains to by-pass the congestion of Yard B. UP-C&NW E2 921A (renumbered from LA-1 in 8-46) heads up an E2B-E6B lashup, followed by a Pullman 13 section dorm car and a pair of UP 5300-series lightweight coaches, all in Two-Tone Gray livery. After stopping at the depot, a steam helper will be coupled on for the climb up to Cajon Pass. 

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LA Limited on Santa Ana River bridge 6-1-47

 

This often-published photo of the eastbound LA Limited on the Santa Ana River bridge on June 1, 1947, is useful for studying the motive power and train consist. The diesels are UP-C&NW jointly-owned E2 921A, E2 923B, and E6 926B, all of which have had their City of Los Angeles train name lettering painted out for general pool service. 

 

The consist includes a Pullman 13 section dormitory, two UP lightweight coaches (a 5331-series and a 5300-series), followed by two UP heavyweight dining cars, the first of which is running with its kitchen to the rear as a Coffee Shop diner for coach passengers. Next is a heavyweight club-lounge car with a roof-top radio antenna, then four heavyweight sleepers and three lightweight sleepers bringing up the hind end. All of the cars, except for the heavyweight sleepers, are painted in the Two-Tone Gray scheme. Don Duke photo.

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Due to poor water conditions and the added cost of water treatment facilities in desert areas, UP intended to dieselize the Los Angeles & Salt Lake route in the mid-to-late 1940s by purchasing a number of passenger and freight diesels from various manufacturers, although it wasn’t possible to completely eliminate steam power for passenger road engine service on the LA&SL until July 1948.

East of Salt Lake City the LA Limited was generally powered by steam locomotives such as oil-fired 4-8-4s in Two-Tone Gray with “elephant ear” smoke lifters, while on the Chicago & North Western between Omaha and Chicago the train could be handled by E7 diesels or steam locomotives, such as their streamlined 4-6-4 Hudsons. 

 

LA Limited with FEF 821 at Ogden on 9-3-47

 

Steam power still reigned east of Salt Lake City on the LA Limited, as evidenced by UP 4-8-4 821 shown arriving at Ogden, Utah, with westbound No. 1 on September 3, 1947. 

 

A major change in operating procedure occurred coinciding with the inauguration of City of San Francisco daily service on September 1, 1947. Beginning on that date the LA Limited and the City of Los Angeles were routed through Ogden via the south wye, thus by-passing their regular stop at Union Station. This was implemented, much to the consternation of local citizens and the Chamber of Commerce, to save time by having to pull the trains backwards into or out of the station. 

 

In this view, the LA Limited is coming under the Bamberger Railroad overhead bridge on left-hand-running Track 2, and will presently cross over Tracks 3 and 4 (to the right of the train) and proceed to the south wye to continue its trip to Salt Lake City. Emil Albrecht photo. 

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More EMD products came to the LA&SL in October 1947 in the form of 15 passenger F3s delivered in five ABB sets, numbers 964A-968A and 969B-978B. These were renumbered to 900-904 and 900B & C to 905B & C in April-May 1948. Then in May-June 1948 twelve additional F3s were delivered in three ABBA sets, numbers 905-910 and 905B & C, 907B & C, 909B & C. 

 

 

LA Limited with F3 964A above Sullivan’s Curve in 1947

 

This view shows UP’s first passenger equipped F3 diesel set, engines 964A, 969B and 970B, heading uphill above Sullivan’s Curve with the eastbound LA Limited shortly after their delivery in October 1947. Although running unassisted in this scene, this 4,500 hp diesel set would’ve been somewhat underpowered for the climb up the west slope of Cajon Pass. UP supplemented their original five 3-unit F3 sets with three 6,000 hp sets of F3s in mid-1948, after which whenever F3s operated over Cajon Pass they would appear in the ABBA configuration. Donald Duke photo.

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LA Limited WB with F3 968A at Frost

 

Shown here at Frost after leaving Victorville, the westbound LA Limited is ascending the grade toward the flyover near Thorn where westward trains begin left-hand-running operation over Cajon Pass. In charge today are F3s 968A, 971B and 977B that were delivered in October 1947 as part of an order for five passenger service 3-unit sets. This LA Limited consist includes a 13 section dormitory car, still lettered OVERLAND, after it was displaced from San Francisco Overland service by an SP baggage-dormitory car converted from a former U.S. Army hospital car in 1947. Donald Duke photo. 

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LA Limited with UP E6 957A at Summit in 1947

 

This photo shows the westbound LA Limited at Summit in 1947, powered by a lashup of UP E6s with 957A on the point. The train has slowed to allow the sacked mail to be tossed up into the Dark Olive Green baggage-RPO car by the agent on the ground. The second car is a 13 section dorm followed by two UP 5300-series lightweight coaches and a heavyweight Coffee Shop diner, all in Two-Tone Gray. Next are a couple of Pullman Green heavyweight sleepers. The switch in the foreground is where the wye track begins. Malcolm Gaddis photo. 

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In September 1947 American Locomotive Company (ALCo) delivered two ABA sets of their PA and PB model passenger diesels. These six units, numbers 994A-997A, 998B and 999B, were renumbered in March 1948 to 600-603, 600B and 602B. Then in January 1949 eight additional ALCo units were delivered, numbers 604, 604B, 605, 605B, 606, 606B, 607 and 607B. 

 

 

LA Limited with ALCo PA 996A above Sullivan’s Curve on 11-28-47 

 

A matched set of two-month-old ALCo road diesels 996A, 998B, 994A glisten in the afternoon sunlight as they power the eastbound LA Limited unassisted uphill above Sullivan’s Curve on November 28, 1947. 

 

This 3-unit diesel was one of two sets of ABA road engines built by American Locomotive Company in September 1947. In the background, just to the left of the diesel’s pilot, part of the westward track can be seen. The consist includes a heavyweight Pullman dorm car, two lightweight UP 5300-series coaches, a UP heavyweight coffee shop diner, and three lightweight sleepers, all in Two-Tone Gray paint. Don Duke photo.

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In November 1947 four Fairbanks-Morse Erie-built diesels were delivered with a new style carbody featuring large windshields. Numbered 984A, 985A, 986B and 987B, they were renumbered in March 1948 to 702, 703, 702B and 703B. Then in March-April 1948 six additional F-M units arrived on the property, numbers 704-707, 704B and 706B. These units also had the large windshield carbody, but were equipped with ALCo PA-type trucks. 

 

 

 

FM Erie-built 984A at Atlantic City in 6-47

 

Fairbanks-Morse rolled out their latest road diesels, along with a 2,000 hp H20-44 demonstrator, for display at the June 1947 Railway Supply Manufacturers’ Association trade show in Atlantic City, N.J.  The pair of cab units shown here featured a new, large windshield carbody. 

 

Although they were painted and lettered for Union Pacific, units 984A and 985A also had F-M lettering, since they would be used as demonstrators on several Eastern railroads. Prior to delivery to the UP in November 1947, along with matching B-units 986B and 987B, the cab units were equipped with a Mars white and red combination signal light and a single lamp headlight mounted in the nose door. Louis A Marre collection. 

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In the next installment, we will look at how an influx of new passenger equipment delivered in 1949 for upgrading the “Cities” streamliners brought a number of changes to the Los Angeles Limited consists. 

 

Thanks to Jeff Koeller for all of the above text, photos with captions, and consist table. 

 

Here are some notes on modeling this train in HO, thanks to Robert Rogers' quick reply today:

 

HO models based on the May 28, 1948 LA Ltd consist WB at SLC:

 

HW mail-storage UP 2045 a 60' Harriman baggage car  Old MDC/Athearn TTG or PG

HW RPO-Baggage UP 2322 69' Harriman Golden Gate (decal for UP) Stand In, 

13 Sect Pullman 5005 in TTG,  Walthers 12-1 in TTG same car

LW Coach UP 5340 ('41 Challenger) TTG CYard and Brass Car sides all unpainted

LW Coach UP 5317 ('38 car)  TTG CYard & Brass car sides                        "

LW Coach UP 5326 "                  "                    "                                            "

HW Diner UP 3603  likely TTG. Walthers does all the HW cars in UP TTG

HW 12-1 Pullman Kinnikinnik (decal on UP Microscale sheet) Walthers PG

LW 6-6-4 American Skies Walthers Pullman Pool Scheme (TTG)

LW 6-6-4 American Clipper (CNW assigned car)  "

LW 4-4-2 Imperial Cape  Walthers Pullman Pool Scheme (TTG)

HW Diner UP 3620  Walthers TTG

HW Lounge UP 1525  CYard makes this car, unpainted

HW 12-1 McClellan (plan 3410, PRR car, likely Tuscan, Branch Line did this car in Tuscan Pullman

HW 6-6 Poplar Point (PRR Plan 4060) Soho undec decals for 'Glen, Hill, Lake & Point'

HW 12-1 Red Cannon Plan 3410  Walthers Pullman Green (PG)

HW 8-1-3 Watching Tower Plan 4090D  Stand In Walthers 8-1-2 PG

HW 6-6 Poplar Center (Plan 4084C NYC)  Oriental Ltd. 'GN Sleeper'

Sums to 18 cars, need a helper!   

Thanks, Robert!

 

I always like to look up what the train times through Victorville were.  In the LA Division timetables of June 2 and Sep. 29, 1946, as reported last time, the LA Limited was listed as Train 201 westbound and Train 202 eastbound.  Train 201 passed through Victorville without stopping at 11:08 a.m., and Train 202 passed through at 2:39 pm, so these were not nighttime trains that I can omit.

 

These times changed a little with the Nov. 10, 1946, timetable to 11:57 a.m. westbound and 1:17 p.m. eastbound.  They changed again on June 8, 1947, to 8:32 a.m. and 2:47 p.m.  On Aug. 31, 1947, and on Dec. 14, 1947, they were 7:49 a.m. and 3:17 p.m.  Then they were stable on Feb. 29, 1948, and Mar. 21, 1948, and Nov. 28, 1948, with the westbound train (#201) coming through at 7:07 a.m. and the eastbound train (# 202) at 3:17 p.m.

 

As for layout progress since last time, on March 8 I wrote this first bi-weekly report:   

 

Two weeks ago I had finished gluing down Tracks A1-A10 and B1-B7 in the straight part of the A and B Yards on the staging deck.  My next step was to start laying down the A Yard curves where the 10-track yard has to curve around at the end of the big peninsula.  Using my pencil track plan for the curves, I tried to find where the center point of the curves was, and I used some old poster-board temples of various curves to locate them, as seen here: 

 

Using the poster-board template for a 36" radius curve, I began to locate each of the 10 tracks as it starts to curve around: 

 

But there were a couple of problems with this: Track A1 (the outer-most one) should not follow inside the curve of the mainline, or it will have a radius less than 36", and each curve inside there will be even tighter.  Secondly, you can see that the inside curves are colliding with the outside curves, because the center point is not quite correct compared to the track plan.

The solution was to move the center point farther in toward the center by an inch and then to re-position all 10 track curves, as seen here from the opposite end, so they are centered on the focal point and do not follow the mainlines:

 

In the above photos, the white poster-board curve has an outside radius of 36" and an inside radius of 33 3/4" (for the standard 2 1/4" track separations that I'm using).  So Track A7 has a 36" radius, while Tracks A8, A9, and A10 each has a smaller radius, and Tracks A1 though A6 all have a radius wider than 36".

Note that I'm only working on the first half of the large curve, as the second half will have a different center point and will require me to move my dozens of Victorville model buildings out of the way over there.

My next step was to start locating, outlining in pencil, gluing, and pinning each of the A Yard curves, starting with Track A1, as seen here after it had been glued and pinned in place (near the mainlines):

 

Then came the water bottle weights while the glue (caulk) dried overnight.  Then came Track A2 just inside A1, and here I am spreading the caulk for Track A3:

 

In a later shot, the water bottles are resting on Track A3 while the caulk dries, as seen from the other end: 

 

I will continue gluing down the A yard curves, one track at a time, for the first half of the big curve.

In other news, three helpers have been working on Victorville models for me (many thanks!).  I recently visited Bill Messecar and picked up a beautiful model of the Sand House with Sand Bin that he had completed.  At home, I set it on a sheet of cardboard on my bed for a few photos:  Here we see the Sand House and Bin beside the spur track where the sand will be delivered in a gon and shoveled into the bin:

And here's the other side of the Sand House and Bin:

 

There were three buildings in a row inside the Victorville wye, and Bill has now completed all three of them!  I set them up as they will appear on the layout, with the Sand House and Bin, then the Elevated Fuel Oil Tank, and then the Boiler House:  Here we see them all along the local switcher spur track:

 

And then from the opposite side, where the mainlines and helper loco tracks were located:

 

Many thanks to Bill Messecar for his beautiful work on scratch-building these three buildings!

My friend Don Hubbard has recovered from some health problems and is back at work on the Standard Oil scene.  Here's a photo he sent me today, showing the three horizontal tanks (note all the pipes he added along the bottom edge of the tanks) and some fuel unloading and loading structures:

 

The piece of paper represents the Standard Oil warehouse, which he built and gave to me last year, but the warehouse belongs in the bottom corner of this view, and the truck fueling station belongs up where the truck is.  I'll place them in their correct locations later.

I recently sent to Craig Wisch part of a 1948 photo I discovered, which happens to include the Union Oil tanks in one corner of the photo:

 

I noted that there were two wide tanks to the right of the four tall tanks, and my track plan left room for those two tanks.  Craig seems to be interested in modeling the two wide tanks, as he sent me this photo, showing a concept for how he might model them:

 

By the way, I did receive the four tall tanks that he rebuilt for me, and I plan to add the catwalk and ladder from the Walthers "Trackside Oil Dealer" kit, but I haven't found time yet.

I'm excited about all the progress that is happening now.  If you can help, please contact me.

 

Then a week later, on March 15, I sent out another progress report:

 

I normally write a layout progress report every two weeks, but I worked on the staging tracks more than usual this past week, so I'll do a report after just one week this time.

A week ago I had glued down Track A3 where it entered the big curve at the end of the peninsula.  My next step was to glue down two flextracks for the Track A4 curve and then the Track A5 curve, one in the morning and then one in the evening, after the first one had dried.  The next day I did the same process for Tracks A6 and A7.  Track A7 followed a 36" radius curve, which is the minimum for the mainlines, so the tracks outside of that have wider curves, while the tracks inside will have sharper curves.

The next day I glued down Track A8, and the next day I did Tracks A9 and A10.  I placed a poster-board template over Tracks A7 through A10 to show how the radius decreases from the 36" of A7, as seen here:

 

Then I did a side project to clear off the other half of the peninsula, which has been covered with models of Victorville buildings and piles of turnouts and wires and tools.  I decided to set all the building models on top of the staging tracks in the adjacent room, sort of in the relative positions they will have on the upper deck someday.  I shot a photo of the buildings that will be at the left side of Victorville, including the Lower Narrows: 

 

Moving to the right, here are buildings that will be near the depot, in the center of town:

 

And the right of there, I placed the building models that will be at the right end of the scene: 

 

Note the Walthers turntable, which I'll install there in the final phase of the lower-deck track laying.

When all the buildings and turnouts and things had been moved off the other side of the main staging peninsula, I shot a photo of it, with some new work on the B Yard stub-ended tracks also going on in the foreground:

 

Each B Yard track had to have an extension track cut and attached to it, to lengthen it as far as possible without interfering with trains on the Track A10 curve.  Most of the B Yard tracks also had to be partly loosened and re-glued to be straighter and to maintain the 2 1/4" spacing.

Then I finished adding the B Yard track extensions and gluing them all down, as seen here on the right side:

 

Note that I was also starting to lay out some flextracks to see where they will fit when I start work on the other half of the A Yard curves and straight tracks, as well as the adjacent stub-ended D Yard tracks.  Here's another view of the A and D Yard tracks just loosely placed where they may go (the D Yard will be stub-ended on the right): 

 

So, I'm excited to be half-way done with all these staging tracks and anxious to connect them all together, starting next week.

 

Then on March 29, I sent out this progress report:

 

When I reported two weeks ago, I had glued down the 10 A Yard staging tracks where they start to round the big curve at the end of the peninsula. Since then, I've been working almost every evening on how those tracks should be extended around the second half of the curve.

I cut out a large piece of butcher paper and traced where the outer rail of each track was located in the first half of the curve, then moved the paper to locate where the curves could be extended:

 

Then I removed the butcher paper and extended the 10 tracks around the curve, widening the radii where possible.  I pinned down possible locations for each of the tracks in the second half of the curve, as seen here: 

 

I also shot the yard from the throat end, showing how Tracks A1-A5 might come together in a series of four left-hand turnouts beside the mainlines:

 

But I'm not entirely happy with this arrangement, because Tracks A1-A5 come to an end sooner than I hoped for, so I'll be trying different track arrangements to try to lengthen those tracks.

Also, I'm using up all my flextracks, so I sent for another 20 of them, which should arrive soon.  And I've also used up my left-hand #6 Atlas turnouts, so I need to find another batch of used ones on eBay.

The rest of my news this time will be about Victorville structure models being built by friends.  Don Hubbard has completed the last parts of his Standard Oil lot (including the three horizontal tanks and a truck fueling station), so I'll meet with him this week to receive them.  

And Bill Messecar has agreed to build me a Santa Fe-style stock pen to go along the tracks between Standard Oil and the Lime Rock plant.  Here's a Chard Walker photo showing the stock pen in white paint in the distance:

 

And here's a circa-WW2 photo from up on the Upper Narrows, showing the stock pen in the foreground, with the Standard Oil buildings behind it:

I set up all my building models from the Depot on the left to the Lime Rock plant on the right exactly where they will be when they are on the upper deck.  My track plan showed space for a pen that was 8" wide by 6" deep, but I found that the pen could be 8" deep, as Bill hoped for.  Here's photo showing an 8x8" piece of white paper where the pen will go:

 

In the view above, the Standard Oil lot is in the foreground (waiting for the tanks and other parts from Don Hubbard) and the paper for the stock pen lot is behind there.  Here's a view of the stock pen area from above the Lime Rock Plant model, with the spur track on the right:

 

Many thanks to Bill for undertaking a model of the stock pen for me!

My friend Craig Wisch in Victorville is mailing me the two wide tanks that were at the back of the Union Oil lot.  He shot this photo before sending them:

 

They look wonderful!  Then Craig chose another project to work on for me -- a cardstock model of the Packing House that was the central building between the cement plant silos along the tracks, as seen here: 

 

That building is still there, but the view of the lower floor is usually blocked behind freight cars parked there for loading.  Here's an old c.1950 color slide image I sent him to show some of the details: 

 

Craig found a cardstock model kit that he can use for this building, making it 12" wide (6 bays instead of 7) and four stories tall, to match the prototype.  This was exciting, until he took a closer look at the kit and decided not to try this building after all.

Normally I would also write a blog entry now (March 29), but I'm moving it back a week, to offset it from the bi-weekly reports again.  For now, I'll get back to work on locating those 10 tracks of the A yard.

Please let me know if you can help in any way, by building models remotely or by helping to lay and wire tracks in person.

 

John