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.
 

Victorville's Oldest Area and Cutting Boards for Benchwork

We'll continue our tour of Victorville by crossing the tracks to the oldest part of town, and then I'll report on some progress in cutting boards for the benchwork.

Victorville was originally built on the far side of the tracks, near the Mojave River, and later the town grew and moved across the tracks, leaving the oldest part of town to become the barrio.  The depot and most of the early buildings were across the tracks, and in the 1920s they picked the depot up and moved it straight across to the newer side of the tracks.

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

Near the 6th Street grade crossing is the depot, which was originally located in the empty area across the tracks.  Behind that empty area you will see the Hotel and the Cafe, which were named the Santa Fe Hotel and La Paloma Cafe.  The hotel goes back to pioneer days, but the cafe was a postwar addition to the barrio.

Here's a close-up of the hotel from a 1943 Jack Delano photo of the area:

And here's a blurry photo of La Paloma Cafe, which was just to the right of the hotel:

In the 1971 motorcycle movie "The Hard Ride" there is a scene in front of the hotel and the cafe:

To the left of the Hotel in my track plan, you will see an Office and an Old Jail.  The office is actually the old Sheriff's Office, a historic building which I've relocated from 7th Street to this barrio location, because it goes so well with the Old Jail, and because there is an HO Campbell kit for this building, which my friend Bill Messecar has kindly built for me.  Here's the prototype after it was later placed out in Apple Valley for use as a real estate office:

Behind the Sheriff's Office in my plan is the Old Jail, which is still standing there in its original location:

We will later visit other barrio buildings to the left of this area on my track plan. 

As for progress on my benchwork, it was slow at first after Ted had to stop visiting and helping me.  I watched some videos about operating my compound sliding miter saw, figured out all the controls, and then got to work cutting more girders and joists from 1x4 boards.  Here I am, about to make another miter saw cut through a board:

I've been laying out all the framework boards on top of the plywood and full-size paper plans for Sections 9, 11, and 10A, but I haven't connected them together yet.  Here's a recent view of the boards that have been cut so far, on the floor of the staging room:

On the left is Section 9, which Ted built, but I've added an extra girder on the left to support the overhang there, and I've added some pieces to support the triangular part of 9 in the right foreground.  On the right is Section 11, and behind that is Section 10A.  In the distance is Section 10, whose girders and joists will be cut next.

In the center of this staging loop area is a black V-shaped object, which is a Rockler Adjustable Clamp-It Assembly Square, a tool which just arrived and which will let me clamp together boards that meet at odd angles while I drill and screw them together.

So, when all the boards are cut for these sections, I will start work on assembling them into separate frames to support each section of plywood.  And these are only for the lower deck; someday this process will have to repeated for the upper deck!