Victorville Operations and More Track Plan Sections

This time I'd like to give you an overview of the typical postwar operations in Victorville that I hope to be replicating during each operating session, and then I'll show a little more progress on drawing the full-size track plan sections.

Let's get started with the operations:

Through trains, both passenger and freight, would come through town eastbound or westbound from staging.  Those with steam locos would stop for water, and a few freights would take the eastward or westward siding to let a following passenger train go by.  Only low-class passenger trains might stop at the depot. 

Westbound freights and heavy passenger trains would stop to add a helper for the 1.6% grade up Cajon Pass.  But if a freight had diesel road engines (the usual case in these years), the train didn’t need to stop for water and could proceed through town, with the helper following it to West Victorville (in staging) and coupling to the rear there, where the visibility between the front and the rear was better for the crew.  (This would negate the need to couple the helper to the train in most cases on the visible part of the layout.)

One local freight from the Santa Fe (the Oro Grande Turn, or before 1951, the First District Local) and one from the UP (the Leon Turn) would each come east from San Bernardino six days a week to serve the two cement plants, one in Victorville and one in the next town east, Oro Grande (in staging).  Both trains served both cement plants, regardless of the train names. 

They would bring mostly empties and return west with mostly loads of cement.  Some blocks of cars could be dropped and picked up in Victorville or at its cement plant (at Leon), and the rest at the Riverside Cement plant in Oro Grande (which would be in staging).  But they did not actually switch these industries, which was the job of the Victorville local switcher. 

Steam locos on these local freights would take water in Victorville and turn on the wye there for the return trip.  They would often add a helper to take the heavy cement loads west up the Cajon Pass grade.

The local switcher stationed in Victorville would spend each day taking blocks of cars left by the local freights and setting them out at individual spurs in Victorville and at the two cement plants.  It would also pick up other cars from the spurs and position them on storage tracks at Victorville, Leon, and Oro Grande, where the local trains could pick them up as they passed through town. 

At the end of the day, the switcher would return to its engine track by the boiler house inside the wye and be serviced there.  In steam years (1951 and before), the Santa Fe and UP took turns each month providing the local steam switcher (normally a light 2-8-2).  After that, the Santa Fe used its own H16-44 or GP7.  During busy cement times (like the building of the LA freeways), there could be two local switchers, one to serve Leon and the other to serve Oro Grande.

Helpers that went RR west from Victorville with a train would cut off in staging (as if at Summit), wait on a return loop track there (as if wyeing at Summit), and later run light back east into Victorville.  If the helper was a steam loco, it would take water and turn on the wye in Victorville.  In either case, it would park on one of the helper waiting tracks beside the wye for its next assignment (one track for Santa Fe helpers and the other for UP helpers).

Locos of the Mojave Northern would push empty rock cars from the cement plant at Leon up to a quarry in staging and bring back loaded limestone rock cars to be pushed up the cement plant’s trestle to be unloaded. 

An Air Force switcher would come down from the base to pick up loads left by the Victorville switcher and haul them up to the base (in staging).  Later it would bring the empties down from the base and leave them for the local switcher to take into Victorville.  Dangerous loads like airplane fuel and bombs were taken to the base by the Victorville local switcher itself (the military wanted a “real railroad” to do that job).

I think that up to four operators could be kept busy with these operations: one for through trains and their helpers, one for local freights, one for the local switcher, and one for the two branch lines (the Mojave Northern and the Air Force).

Now let's look at some recent progress in drawing more layout sections full size.

Here's a view of the wye area, with some props added, as usual:

In this view we are looking from the 6th Street grade crossing (in the foreground) toward the wye at the upper left.  Along the right side of the tracks are some props representing the section houses, water tanks, bunkhouse, and propane dealer.  To the right of them, on pop-up hatches, are a few of the buildings of the barrio.  Route 66 is the steel ruler crossing the wye.  Inside the wye are the boiler house, elevated fuel tank, and sand house.  The tracks begin turning to the right as we leave this scene.

In this next scene we are looking back toward the wye from the curves leaving town:

The wye is in the right distance.  The steel ruler crossing the wye is again Route 66 (called D Street in town), and on this side of it is the Union Oil dealer with its tanks.  To the left of the wye are eight tracks, all curving toward us.  From right to left, they are: the Santa Fe helper waiting track, the UP helper waiting track, the westward passing siding, the westward mainline, the eastward mainline, the eastward passing siding, the east storage track, and the outfit spur (where the local work train would be parked).

Here is our final scene this time, the large Southwestern Portland Cement Plant:

In the foreground are the same curves leaving Victorville (two mainlines and two sidings). The white bowls are the slurry mixing tanks.  The two tracks to the left of there are the hopper unloading track and the elevated trestle for unloading side-dump limestone cars.  The blue bin is the storage building for limestone, the white tower is the rock crusher, and the shops and engine house are behind those.  To the left of there are several rows of many different cement plant buildings, including some from the Walthers "Valley Cement" kit.

There are only two more sections left to complete the full-size drawings of the layout, and I'm working on them now.  Next week the basement will finally be cleared of all of the handyman's tools and be ready for a new carpet section, carpet cleaning, and then benchwork!

Victorville Maps and Full-Size Track Plan Sections

This time I'm going to start by presenting some maps of Victorville, to show you the area I'm trying to recreate in HO scale (compressed, of course).  Then I'll illustrate the full-size sectional track plans I'm creating, before the benchwork can begin.

Victorville is a small town in Southern California, halfway between San Bernardino to the south (railroad west) and Barstow to the north (railroad east).  The Santa Fe mainline from San Bernardino to Barstow was known as the First District of the Los Angeles Division. 

The part from San Bernardino to Victorville has a steep 2.2% grade up to Summit, then an easier 1.6% grade down to Victorville.  This section is known as Cajon Pass (Cajon is pronounced ka-HONE).  Then it's relatively flat from Victorville to Barstow on the Mojave Desert.  Here's a Santa Fe map of the stations along the way:

Now let's zoom into Victorville itself and look at its 1956 USGS map:

In the lower right of the map, the Santa Fe double-track mainline from Cajon Pass enters the town by following the Mojave River between the steep, rocky cliffs of the Upper Narrows.  Then they run straight through town, from southeast to northwest, but in railroad directions the tracks are going east (opposite of compass directions here).

There are some side tracks and industry spurs as the tracks run though town.  Toward the upper left (before the curve) you may spot the wye where the steam locos were turned before helping another westbound train up to Summit.  The bright red roadway in downtown is Route 66, which made a 90 degree turn near the depot.  The Mojave River is across the tracks from the downtown area.

There are freeway exit ramps at the upper left, as the I-15 freeway was being built toward Barstow at that time.  (I will ignore that as not belonging in my time period.)

The tracks make an easy turn to the right as they head railroad east toward the town's cement plant, the Southwestern Portland Cement plant (SWPC) at the siding formerly called Leon, as seen in this next map:

The cement plant is (and was) very large, with quite a few railroad spurs into it.  The branch line leaving to the upper right was the Mojave Northern railroad, owned and operated by the plant to bring limestone in from quarries in the hills nearby.

The final scene that I want to model is called the Lower Narrows, as seen on this map of the area that's railroad east of the cement plant:

At the bottom you see a large electrical substation (the Victorville Switching Station).  At this point a branch line up to George Air Force Base curves off to the left.  The mainlines cross the Mojave River on a pair of through truss bridges built at different times (the single track here was double-tracked in 1924).  The mainlines follow some impressive, rocky cliffs here on their way to the next station, Oro Grande, where a second large cement plant was located (but that would be in staging on my layout).

Finally, here is a Santa Fe track diagram of Victorville from 1951:

Here railroad west is to the left and east is to the right.  The Upper Narrows area is at the left edge, where we see the Mojave River close to the tracks.  The highway bridge over the river there is the notable Rainbow Bridge, going to Apple Valley.  You can find the depot noted above the tracks, then the wye for turning helpers to the right of that.  There are eastward and westward passing sidings on each side of the two mainlines running toward the right.  The tracks into the cement plant are below the mainlines at the right edge.

So, this was a quick tour of maps of the areas I'm planning to model, from the Upper Narrows at one end of Victorville to the Lower Narrows at the other end.

As for current progress on my layout, I've been gradually drawing my track plan full size on large sheets of paper, cut from a big roll I found stored in my garage.  I divided my track plan into 14 large sections, with each section fitting within a 4x8' sheet of plywood.  Each section will form a template for cutting the plywood and then for marking where each track should go on the tabletops.

I roll out the paper over large sheets of cardboard on my basement floor, draw the boundary lines for the next section in pencil, and then cut it out carefully.  I take scale measurements from my 1/16 scale track plan, then mark the track locations and curve center points on the large sheet of paper (or on the cardboard, if the center is off the paper).. 

I use a homemade trammel with holes in it for various radii to draw all the curves.  Here's a photo of me working on two adjacent sections of the staging yard, using my trammel:

The next photo shows some progress, as I've drawn the tracks for the three sections that form a big loop in staging for the trains to return to Victorville:

Note that I make photocopies of all the turnouts and tape them into the exact locations where they belong.  Behind me I've used some white templates for 36" radius curves to show where the mainlines curve around, and on the left side I've placed two flextracks to show the mainlines there.

When I'm working on the sections that will have scenery (not in staging), I add simple props to the scenes to get a feel for what they might look like someday.  Here's the full-size scene where the double-track mainline leaves Victorville and curves under a girder bridge (some old VHS tapes) and past the Rainbow Bridge (scale plans for it are taped to the white board there) and into the Upper Narrows (the yellow cushions are the cliffs):

In the photo above, the blue towel represents the river, the board standing on the left represents the backdrop, and the boxed kit in the lower right represents the Victorville Lime Rock plant beside a spur track.

Here's one final photo from yesterday, showing a lot of props and temporary flextracks in the heart of Victorville, where most of the industry spurs are:

The yellow cushions near the lower right represent the depot.  The brown board at the bottom represents the 6th Street grade crossing.  The purple foamboards show where the curving backdrop will go.  A number of industries are along the right edge, and the Texas Quarries granite mill is across the tracks from them.

Of the 14 total sections, nine have been drawn now, with five more to go.  I try to finish one section every two days, but the complex ones take more time.  It's exciting to begin to see the full-size layout slowly taking shape on these large sheets of paper!