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.