Victorville's Depot Area and Losing My Benchwork Helper

We'll continue our tour of Victorville by visiting the depot area, and then I'll report the news that Ted, my close friend and benchwork helper, will be moving out of state soon.

Victorville's depot area included two industries and the depot itself.  From left to right, as seen from Route 66 (D Street), there was the block-long depot with a park in front of it (Forrest Park), then Hayward Lumber (later Gibson Lumber), and then the Peterson Feed Store.

Here's a great action view of the depot area, as shot by Jack Whitmeyer from the 6th Street grade crossing, looking toward the Upper Narrows:

And here's an excellent view of the block-long depot, as seen in 1958 (from the Chard Walker collection):

Note the wig-wag crossing signal at the grade crossing, and the lower roof over the depot's restrooms area, which was added during WW2 and later removed.  The whole depot was shortened at the freight house end during the 1960s.

Like last time, here is part of a circa 1946 aerial photo of the area, shot from the opposite side of the tracks, with Peterson Feed at the left edge, then Hayward Lumber (the larger building), and then the long depot right beside the tracks, with the 6th Street grade crossing to the right of the depot (the only grade crossing in town):

Behind the depot you can see Forrest Park (with a white tennis court on its left edge), and behind there was the main shopping district of downtown Victorville (which I had once hoped to model, but it's now off the front edge of my layout).

Here is a similar view, taken from a 1950s color postcard (the depot had a red roof):

 

My friend and fellow Victorville modeler, Wayne Lawson, is building an excellent N-scale model of the depot area, as seen here:

The depot is on the left, behind the park, and then we see a mock-up of Hayward Lumber (with a prototype photo below it), and then comes the Peterson Feed Store (also with a photo below it).

Here is the part of my track plan that has the depot, the lumber yard, and the feed store (compressed a lot to fit in the space):

Note that there was a very short spur into the lumber yard, with a ramp for end unloading.  I don't think the feed store did business with the railroad.  The track closest to the depot was called the house track, and freight cars were spotted there for unloading into the depot's freight house section (as seen in the 1958 depot photo above).

Now it's time to cover the progress (or lack of it) on my layout.  I got word from my friend and benchwork helper, Ted Argo, that he and his wife were going to move out of state sooner rather than later.  So he will be busy getting his house ready to sell and dismantling his own layout, rather than helping me with mine in the near future.  

I have put out notices asking for new helpers with my benchwork, so we'll see what happens.  In the meantime, I'll see if I can assemble all the framework for Sections 9-10-11 for the staging room loop in the coming week.

I decided that I should get a dedicated stand for my miter saw, so I shopped around and bought and assembled one from Harbor Freight.  It's a Chicago Electric model, to match the brand of my miter saw.  I moved an old desk out of garage to make room for a work area there, so I can build my benchwork out of the weather.  Here I am with the new stand for the miter saw, in the new garage work area:

 

Planning ahead for when the lower deck is in place, I did some measurements for how much track will be needed for a double-track mainline loop around the lower deck, and I placed some orders during the Labor Day sales for 75 pieces of Atlas flextrack, 75 pieces of Midwest cork roadbed, and ten #8 Atlas turnouts and powered switch machines.  (Atlas code 100 track is good enough for the lower deck.)

More track and turnouts will be needed for the staging yards themselves, but I'll figure that out later, after I make precise drawings of the lower deck staging trackage.  Right now I only have a rough drawing from 2016.  There is so much to do!