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.