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.