Inside Victorville's Cement Plant, and Preparing for Laying Some Tracks

Last time we saw the front side of Victorville's cement plant, so this time we'll go inside the plant.  Then I'll report on preparations for laying the first staging tracks on my layout.

We saw that the Southwestern Portland Cement Plant near Victorville was already huge by the 1940s, and here's a wonderful aerial view looking into the plant in about 1940:

Near the right edge you can see the Route 66 highway and the mainline tracks of the Santa Fe.  Just to their left is the front row of cement silos and the bagging building.  To the left of that are the original silos and the warehouse.  Then comes the long clinker pit and then five kilns in a row.  Behind the kilns are the mixing building and the office building.  To the left of the kilns are the shops and then the curving ramp up to the rock dumper and crusher.  The open storage pile of limestone rocks is beyond there.

Here's a 1956 USGS map of the plant (the aerial photo above was shot from above the oil tanks shown on this map):

The long building to the left of the words "Cement Plant" is the covered storage for the crushed limestone rocks, which were still out in the open in the old aerial photo.

The sidings here were named Leon by the Santa Fe until 1945, but the railroaders continued to call this location Leon until much later.  The rail lines curving off to the upper right were part of the Mojave Northern Railroad, which was the cement plant's own railroad for bringing limestone from quarries to the plant.  We'll visit that railroad's part of the plant next time.

Here's a smoky aerial view of plant from 1953:

I'll repeat here my track plan for modeling the plant, for comparison:

Here's an inside view of the plant from the back side, circa 1940:

The tall silos in the left rear are the ones we've seen from the highway in previous views.  The shorter silos in front of them are the original ones.  The large building in the foreground holds the offices, and to the left is the electrical substation for the plant.  Beyond the rooftop of the office building we can see the long traveling crane structure over the clinker pit.

Here's a view showing part of the large limestone storage building on the right:
 

And here's one more view, showing the area where the oil storage tanks were located (oil was the fuel that was burned in the kilns at that time):

 

It will be quite a project to model all of this, even with the help of the Walthers cement plant kit.

Turning now to progress on my layout, it's been slow due to all the Christmas preparations and events.  Mostly I've been drawing the staging loop track lines in pencil on the plywood tabletops, in preparation for laying some roadbed and then track. 

I made a large template out of poster board sections for a 36" radius curve that covers more than 180 degrees, and I placed it in the correct location on Section 10 for drawing that curve, as seen here:

 

I'm using shorter poster board templates to draw the curves that fall outside and inside of the 36" radius curve.  I'm using 2.25" as my track spacing on the curves and also on the straightaways.

I drew all the straight track lines on Section 9 and marked the exact locations for each turnout, as seen here (with lots of flextracks added for clarity):

For staging, I'm using Atlas code 100 tracks and turnouts, and I'm using Atlas powered switch machines beside the turnouts (as seen here), because looks are not as important in staging.

I began splitting Midwest cork roadbed sections and laying them along the track centerlines in preparation for gluing them in place next week:

I'll cut the cork to shape under the turnouts, and I'll make cork pads to support the switch machines at track level.

I think everything is about ready for installing roadbed and track next!

Victorville's Cement Plant, and Finishing the Staging Loop Benchwork

We're going to leave downtown Victorville behind now and begin a tour of its nearby cement plant.  We'll also look at the final steps in finishing the benchwork for the lower deck staging loop.

A short distance timetable east of Victorville is its very large cement plant, which was named Southwestern Portland Cement (SWPC) until recent decades.  We're going to look at the front of the plant as seen from the highway this time.

Here's an early 1950s view of a westbound Santa Fe freight passing the plant:

Note the sign board on the right, the tall cement storage silos, the bagging building with all the windows, and two lower silos beyond that.

Here's a great view of the entire track side of the plant as it was before expansion in the 1950s:

From right to left, we see the row of large silos with a "headhouse" along the tops of them, then the bagging building, then a lower warehouse partly behind the bagging building (the two lower silos had not been added there yet), and then a long traveling crane structure over the clinker pit.

Clinkers are the marble-size balls that are produced by a cement plant's kilns, and at this plant they were stored outdoors in a very long clinker pit.  

Most clinkers were ground into cement powder to be shipped out in covered hoppers or in cloth bags in boxcars, but some clinkers could be shipped in or out of the plant as is, depending on demand at other cement plants.

There was a spur track over the clinker pit, where open-top cars could be loaded with clinkers, or where they could unload clinkers, using a bucket device on the traveling crane.

Here's a late-1950s view of the plant from the highway (Route 66), when more silos had been added at the far end:

From this view we can also see the original cement silos that were hidden behind the newer silos, and we can see some of the buildings inside the plant. 

Here's one last view of the plant in the late 1950s, looking from the other direction:

The newer silos fill the left half of the photo, with the clinker pit behind them.  The older half of the plant fills the right half of the photo, and that's the part I plan to model.  Note the highway (Route 66) in the foreground and the Santa Fe mainline tracks beside the silos.

Here's the part of my track plan that shows most of the cement plant trackage, which is somewhat compressed from all the tracks that were actually in the plant:

The big four-track curve on the right comes in from the Victorville scene on the other side of the backdrop.  Right beside the mainlines at the bottom of the plan we can see the silos, the packing house, and the two lower silos, and behind that row we can see the original silos, the warehouse, and the clinker pit with its spur track on a ramp.  We'll visit the interior of the plant next time.

Because this scene is so deep, I plan to add a raised platform around the post, so that operators and see and reach into the scene as needed.

Turning now to progress on the layout benchwork, after the notches for the legs had been cut in the plywood tabletops, I removed the plywood to work on the frames one more time.  I bought a belt sander and sanded down any joists that were not perfectly even with the adjacent joists, so the plywood sheets could lie flat on top.  The belt sander worked great, and I posed for this photo:

 

Then I put the tabletops back onto the frames, aligned them as well as I could, clamped them down, and drew pencil lines above the centerlines of all the girders and joists underneath, so I'd know where the screws could go.

I decided to use just screws and no glue to attach the tabletops, and I decided to mark spots for the screws that were about 12" apart (an arbitrary distance, with no guidance found in any books). 

At each screw location I drilled a pilot hole, countersunk it, and drove in a screw to hold the plywood down to the frame.  Section 9 needed 33 screws, Section 11 got 19 screws, Section 10A got 10 screws, and finally (today) Section 10 got 25 screws.  Here's a view of the results, shot from above near Section 11 (look for the screw locations):

So the benchwork for the lower deck staging loop is finally done, and next week I can begin marking the locations for the roadbed and track!

 

Victorville's Downtown, and Adding Tabletops to Staging Loop Sections

This time we'll do a tour of Victorville's downtown area in the Route 66 glory days, and then we'll look at some progress in adding plywood tabletops to the lower deck staging loop sections.

Resuming our tour of the Victorville scenes on my future layout, I want to visit some scenes that don't quite fit into my layout, even though I spent years studying them in great detail.  I'm referring to downtown Victorville in the glory years of Route 66, when all the travelers to and from Cajon Pass stopped in town for food, gas, motels, and sometimes car repairs.

Route 66 descended Cajon Pass eastward and entered town on 7th Street.  But 7th Street ended down at D Street, so Route 66 made a left turn onto D Street and ran eastward toward Barstow and the Mojave Desert.  There was a busy block on 7th from C Street down to D Street, and then two busy blocks along D Street, between 7th and 5th.

Here's a color postcard view looking down 7th Street in the mid-1950s:

The Santa Fe tracks are straight ahead, with some lumber loads on the lumber spur there, so the highway will turn left when it gets down to D Street.

Here's an earlier view, a little farther down 7th Street, at the C Street corner:
 

Again, the Santa Fe tracks are straight ahead, this time with cement hoppers visible there.  On the right, we can now see the famous Green Spot Cafe at the corner of 7th and C.  This was a favorite stop for locals and tourists alike until it burned down in 1953.

Let's take a closer look at it:

Note the big sign to the related Green Spot Motel, which was a half-block off to the right on C Street.  Here's a photo of the famous old motel (which is still there):

 

Now we'll go another block down to the corner of 7th and D Street, where we can turn left and see the Stewart Hotel and other buildings along D Street (Route 66):

This was the main shopping district in Victorville, with the Stewart Hotel at this end of the block and the Smith Hotel at the far end.  Here's an earlier view of this block:

The Santa Fe depot was across the street, behind the trees along the right edge, which are in Forrest Park.  Sadly, all of the buildings in this block are gone now.

Moving down D Street to the block between 6th and 5th, this was more of a relaxation block, with a movie theater, various cafes including the famous Red Rooster in the middle of the block, and the Barrel House liquor store at the far end (at 5th and D):

The Red Rooster Cafe is the building with the light blue upper story, and that building is now the California Route 66 Museum.  The other buildings are now gone, except for the Barrel House liquor store at the far end of the block.

This concludes our tour of what is now "Old Town" in Victorville.  These blocks would be off the front edge of my layout, but if I were to model them in a 2nd lifetime, they could go on a removable module that would attach to the front of the layout like this:

As for progress on building my layout, I spent parts of the week of Nov. 16 drawing a trackplan for the lower deck staging loop in 1/16 scale, as seen here:

This plan also includes the helix approach track, which comes in from the right edge and curves to the top of the drawing as it begins its climb up the helix.  It begins as a single track, then splits into two at the top, and later splits into three, then four tracks to form a four-track rectangular helix curving above this area.

Another feature of this area is a cassette loading track, for moving trains and locos on and off the layout using a 36"-long cassette, which would dock in the lower left corner of this drawing (at the dotted line), and its track then curves around the outside of the staging loop until it joins the mainline at the straight section.

I also made a scale drawing of the middle layers of the four-track helix:

The two darker tracks are the main tracks (uphill on the outside, for the easiest grade, and downhill next to that).  The two inner tracks could be used to store and stage extra trains, as needed.  The helix climbs 4" on each of its four turns, from 32" at the lower deck to 48" high on the upper deck.

The reason for making these two new drawings was to check whether these tracks might collide with the legs coming up through the lower deck.  I did find a couple of conflicts and have detached the offending legs, which will be moved to new locations later.

Then it was time to mark the leg locations on the plywood tabletops for each section, so that rectangular notches could be cut along the edges to allow the legs to pass through.   I figured out that I could avoid cutting some notches by moving the legs from inside the frame to outside the frame when they are in the pop-up area inside the staging loop, so I did that.

Today the weather here was dry and sunny for a change, so I was able to set up my sawhorses on the back patio, carry each large, heavy plywood section outside, and use my saber saw to cut the leg notches in the plywood (I cut oversize notches to allow for adjustments).  Then I carried them back inside and laid them in place on top of the lower deck frameworks for Sections 9, 10, and 11, as seen here:

In the distance, there is no tabletop on the small Section 10A, as a new piece of plywood needs to be cut to fit in there exactly.  The two 2x4 legs in the foreground are not attached to the frame, as they were in the way of the future tracks and will be moved to the adjacent Section 8 when the time comes.

I'm working towards getting some roadbed and tracks laid and wired on just these few sections, so I can learn how to do that and then run a few locos and cars back and forth on the staging loop tracks.

Victorville's Wye, and Adding Legs to Benchwork Sections

We will visit the wye area in Victorville this time, and then we'll see the progress on adding legs to my layout's benchwork sections.

We've been moving from RR west to RR east along the tracks in Victorville, and our stop this time is at far east end of the station area, where the steam helper locos were turned on the wye and waited for their next assignments.

Here's a great photo from about 1946, taken by Fletcher Swan, looking RR east into the helper waiting area at the base of the wye:

In this photo, the west leg of the wye is curving off to the left, and the westward passing siding on the right is occupied by a freight pulled by Santa Fe FTs.  Just to the left of the FTs, a Union Pacific 2-8-8-0 is waiting on the UP helper track, and to the left of that a Santa Fe 2-10-2 is waiting on the Santa Fe helper track.

The steam loco on the far left is a UP 2-8-2, which is the local switcher for Victorville this month (on alternate months it was a Santa Fe steam loco), and it is parked on the local switcher spur between jobs.  Just to its right is the "boiler house," which was the Hesperia depot until it was moved here in 1942.  

Behind the roof of the boiler house, you can see the elevated fuel oil tank for fueling the local switcher.  In the distance to the right of the boiler house are the vertical tanks of the Union Oil dealer, which we will visit below later.

Here's a helpful map of this area from the Santa Fe's Fuel Servicing Records:

The boiler house is the rectangle at the left (with a Boiler Rm), then comes the elevated fuel oil tank, and then a sand house with its sand bin.  The curving spur track above these is the local switcher track, with its own oil column, and another oil column is between the two helper waiting tracks at the bottom.

Here's a good view from the other side of the local switcher track:

The local switcher was a Santa Fe 2-8-2 that month, and the boiler house is on the right, with its tall smokestack behind the loco, the fuel oil tank is above the loco's cab, and the sand house and its sand bin are behind the loco's tender.  This makes a nice, compact engine servicing area for a layout.

Here's an aerial view of the entire wye area from about 1945:

You can see the two legs of the wye sweeping towards the lower left, and the buildings inside the wye are at the right, with the boiler house being the most prominent on the far right.  The highway crossing the wye tracks is Route 66 (D Street), with the 66 Trailer Court in the lower left corner, and the Union Oil dealer above there.

Here's the part of my track plan that models this area:

The tail of the wye is at the bottom on a fold-down section, as it's not needed for operations after steam helpers were eliminated by 1952.  On the left of the wye is part of the trailer park and the D Street grade crossing, and above that is the Union Oil dealer and its spur track.  In the center of the wye is the local switcher spur beside the boiler house, fuel oil tank, and sand house.  The two helper waiting tracks are above the boiler house.

Here's a rare view of Union Oil from trackside, circa 1940, before more storage tanks were added:

And here is Wayne Lawson's N-scale model of the wye area:

The wye tail is on the foreground extension, with the D Street grade crossings.  The boiler house is inside the wye, but he doesn't have room for the local switcher spur.  Union Oil is on the left.

Turning now to my layout progress, the goal was to get the frameworks for Sections 9, 10, 10A, and 11 (which form the staging loop) up onto legs.  I studied the frameworks on the floor and marked with paper rectangles where I wanted the main 2x4 legs and the intermediate 2x2 legs to go, trying to avoid the legs getting in the way of where I estimated the lower deck staging tracks will go.

My chosen leg length was 46.5", to allow for a footpad on the bottom and the upper deck thickness on the top.  The deck tops should be 32" and 48" from the floor.  I used the miter saw to cut five 2x4 legs and four 2x2 legs to length.  Then I screwed a small plywood block to the side of each leg to support the lower deck frames at the correct height.   I also drilled a pilot hole and then a 5/16" hole in the bottom of each leg, pounded in a metal footpad base, and screwed in an adjustable footpad.

When my son was visiting, he held Section 11 in mid-air while I clamped all of its legs into place, and I posed with the result, as seen here:

Then I used a level to make each leg vertical, and I drilled and screwed two screws through the frame and into each leg. 

I figured out how to assemble the other sections without a helper, by standing each  section on its edge, clamping on the lower legs, then standing it on its other edge, clamping on the other legs, and then lifting it up to stand it on its legs.

After all the sections were standing on their attached legs, I moved them into their final positions in the staging room, bolted them together, and used a long level to level the frameworks by turning the adjustable footpads under each leg.

Here's a view of the result, as seen from the Section 10A side:

 And one more view, as seen from the Section 11 side:

 

It's pretty exciting for me to see some of the benchwork finally taking shape!  I bought some 1x2s to use as diagonal leg braces later as needed, although the benchwork is fairly stable already.

The next assembly step is to cut notches into the edges of the lower deck plywood tops to allow the legs to pass through, but before I do that, I need to go "back to the drawing board" and draw final track plans for the staging loop and for the helix, so that I'm sure the legs won't get in the way of those tracks.  Stay tuned.

Victorville's Barrio, and Assembling More Layout Sections

It's now time to visit the E Street barrio in Victorville, and then I'll report on the assembly of Sections 10 and 10A in staging.

My original layout plan had nothing but riverside trees and bushes beyond E Street on the far side of the tracks, but then I realized that there was an entire neighborhood over there, called the barrio.  I have some space to model that row of old buildings, so that's the new plan.

There were three significant establishments along that part of E Street: a church in a Spanish-style meeting hall near 3rd and E, a second-hand furniture store at 4th and E, and a propane dealer on the near side of E, between 3rd and 4th.  The rest of the buildings were small homes, many of which are still there.

We can only get peeks at those signature buildings in the backgrounds of various old photos.  Here's a Chard Walker photo from 1950, when a double-ended UP gas turbine was testing on Cajon Pass:

 

 

To the right of the loco, you can see a few propane tanks (a larger one behind some smaller ones) at the propane dealer (Southwest Gas), and beyond that you can see the scalloped facade of the old church (Emmanuel Temple CME).

Here's an earlier 1946 photo by Fletcher Swan showing a different view:

The Santa Fe's El Capitan was eastbound through town behind an E6 pair, and to the left you can see the three small propane tanks of Southwest Gas (the larger tank was not yet there), and behind the tanks is the facade of the second-hand store, named Carr's Furniture during most of my time period.

Since the Southwest Gas propane dealer was on Santa Fe property next to a spur track, I assume that it received its propane from tank cars that were set out there, so that's another industry that I can switch. 

We can also zoom in on a c.1945 aerial photo for a view of these barrio buildings:

Near the left edge you see the scalloped facade of the church, and near the right edge you see the facade of the second-hand furniture store.  Just below the facade of the church, but across the street, a row of shade trees partially hide the propane dealer, but a couple of its tanks are visible.  The other buildings on the far side of E Street are small homes.

Here's part of a 1938 aerial photo, showing the three small tanks and the office of the propane dealer beside the tracks, before they planted shade trees on both sides:

The propane tanks and office are at the right, the church is the large building at the bottom, and the second-hand store is in the upper left.

When I began to research the barrio, I got in contact with old-timer Felix Diaz, who had written the book "Footprints from the Barrio."  I found that he and his friends had also drawn a large map showing all the buildings in the barrio and who had lived in them.  Here's a very small section of that map, showing just the part that's included in my layout plans:

In the lower right, the depot is building 160, the Santa Fe Hotel (up above) is 150, La Paloma cafe is 151, the water tanks are 159, the section houses are 157, 158, and 161, the long bunkhouse is 155-156, the propane dealer is 153, the second-hand store is 136, and the church is near 129 (near the upper left).

Here is the part of my track plan for modeling the barrio:

You see E Street running through the middle, with the church between 3rd and 4th, the propane dealer across from the church, and the store at 4th and E.  The track closest to the propane dealer was also the outfit spur, where the section gang's work train was parked, and the next track in was East Storage, a double-ended storage track.  E Street and the barrio are actually on a removable hatch cover, for emergency pop-up access to this area, which is distant from the aisle.

As for the small homes in the barrio, many are still there, and by using Google Street View, we can see a few typical homes:
 

In general, they have gently-sloped roofs, stucco exteriors, and light colors.

This concludes our barrio visit.  As for progress on building my benchwork, I assembled the small Section 10A on the floor, but then I realized that it would be easier to do the assembly work up on a work table, so I set up my two sawhorses with a 4x8' sheet of plywood as the table top and assembled the large Section 10 there:

 

Then I tried to clamp all four sections together on the floor, but I found that there were gaps around Section 10A, so I unscrewed parts of 10A, rearranged the boards, added a short filler, and reassembled them to fit perfectly between Sections 10 and 11.

I decided to add two more joists into Section 9, as they were spaced too far apart.  But the outrigger frames on each side of 9 were in the way of using the drills, so I had to unscrew them, add the joists, and then re-attach the outrigger frames.  Time and again, I've been thankful that my boards are not glued together.

The next step was to use a large 5/16" drill bit to drill bolt holes through all the mating surfaces, two holes per surface, and I bolted the sections together using 2"-long 1/4" hex bolts, washers, and nuts I had bought:

In this view, Section 9 is on the left, with its extra joists, Section 11 on the right is bolted to Section 9's triangular outrigger, Section 10 is in the distance, and Section 10A is in the right distance, all bolted to their neighbors.  The plywood tops are still loose on the bottom of the frames, but they will someday be screwed to the tops of the frames.

I think the next step is to turn each frame on its side while I attach its legs to it.  There is still a long way to go, but I'm anxious to stand these four sections up on legs and lay some staging tracks and wire them, so I can see some locos and short trains go back and forth on the tracks.

Victorville's Water Tanks and Section Houses, and Starting Framework Assembly

In this installment we'll visit the part of Victorville where the water tanks and section houses were located, and then we'll see the first results of assembling some open grid frameworks for some layout sections.

We've previously been visiting the RR west side of the 6th Street grade crossing in Victorville, but now we're crossing the street to see where all of the Santa Fe's section houses and their two tall steel water tanks were located.

Here's a great action view of the area, as shot by Chard Walker:

Just to the right of the Santa Fe 2-10-2 steam loco you can see a pump house with a tall wooden derrick above the roof.  Behind it are two black, steel water tanks (like the Santa Fe used everywhere), and in front of the water tanks is the section foreman's house.  There was another section house (not visible here) right in front of the water tanks.

In front of the section house and water tanks is a tall cantilever signal, and to the right of there is a wig-wag crossing signal for the 6th Street grade crossing.  In the foreground between the tracks are the depot platforms. 

Here's another view of this area, as shot by Jack Whitmeyer:

Here we have a UP 2-8-2 stopping for water at the water plug.  There were three of those pump houses with derricks, all in a row.  Two of them are easy to see to the left of the loco's tender, and the derrick of the nearest one can be seen above the loco's cab roof.  In the left distance is the long concrete bunkhouse for the section gang that was stationed here.

And here is one final view of this area, also shot by Jack Whitmeyer:
 

The loco is a UP FM H20-44, a helper for Cajon Pass.  To the right we can see the water plug, and two of the three pump houses, and both section houses.  The loco is blocking the view of the long bunkhouse, but a tool house is visible in the left distance.

Here is the part of my track plan where this scene is located:

Just below E Street (the main street through the barrio) you will see the pair of water tanks, the two section houses, the three small squares for the pump houses, and the long bunkhouse on the left.  Across the tracks from there, by the caboose track, are two carbodies, which we will visit next.

Here's a beautiful view of the 6th Street grade crossing area, with an eastbound UP passenger train approaching:

In the distance are the cliffs of the Upper Narrows.  To the left of the train, the white building is the open shed of the Texas Quarries granite mill.  To the right of the train is the depot.  On the far right, on this side of the grade crossing, are the two carbodies we came here to see.  The more distant one was an old wooden passenger car, and the nearer one was a wooden boxcar.  They were used by brakemen waiting for the next train to ride over Cajon Pass.

Here's a view of the passenger carbody, as shot by Nick Muff in 1960:

Here's an aerial view of this part of Victorville, cropped from a color postcard, and looking from the river side of town:

The two water tanks are visible on the right, and the red roof to the right of them is the bunkhouse.  The depot is on the far left (with the long red roof), by the grade crossing, and across the tracks from the depot is the old Santa Fe Hotel, which we visited last time.  It's not clear whether the two carbodies were still there by the time of this photo (but something is there).

Finally, here is Wayne Lawson's N-scale model of this scene:

The two yellow carbodies are in the right foreground, and the two water tanks are across the tracks (one of them has not been painted black yet).
 

Now let's look at some progress in building the frameworks for the lower deck in the staging room.  Last time I had cut all the boards for Sections 9, 10A, and 11, so the next thing I did was to cut all the 1x4 boards (using the miter saw) for Section 10, as seen here:

 

Then I started assembling the framework for Section 9.  My friend Ted had already built the main rectangle, using glue and two screws at each joint, but I decided to use no glue and three screws at each joint, after reading lots of online opinions about this.  I found it very useful to be able to take the screws out later whenever I needed to make changes.

The basic process was to clamp two boards together at the proper angle, then drill each hole, countersink it, and drill a screw into each one.  I used three power drills, each with a different bit (drill, countersink, and screwdriver), but I'll try to get a drill bit that has the countersink already built in, to save a step.

Here's a photo showing Section 9 standing on its side after completion:

 

Then I assembled Section 11, becoming more efficient as I went along.  Here is Section 11 when it was almost complete, with some clamps still attached to show how they worked:

Just behind the three drills is a joint using the adjustable angle clamp from Rockler, set at 79 degrees for this joint.  Behind it is a regular 90 degree clamp.  I had to build the square shape at the lower right in order to connect those boards, and I later glued a diagonal edge piece along there, just for looks.

I'll be assembling Sections 10 and 10A next, and then I'll decide how to proceed after that.