Revisiting Victorville's Lower Narrows, and Building Layout Sections 6 and 5

This time we will revisit the scenic Lower Narrows region, which is railroad east of the cement plant, and then we'll look at progress in putting layout Sections 6 and 5 up on legs.

Let's start off with a recent photo of UP's Big Boy steam loco going eastbound through the rocky scenery of the Lower Narrows of the Mojave River:

In contrast, here's a steam era photo of a UP 2-10-2 with a freight heading westbound through the double bridges over the Mojave River:
 

Here's a recent color photo of the double bridges (built in different years, as the railroad was later double-tracked):

Note the power lines coming over the area.  They lead to the nearby electrical switching station, as seen here beside Route 66:

 Here's the 1956 USGS map of this area:

Note the Substation building near the lower center of the map, and the double tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad crossing the river (on two bridges) near the BM 2692 mark, and the cliffs beside the tracks as they curve past the Lower Narrows label.  Note that the solid red highway going past the Substation is Route 66.

The curvy track separating from the mainlines behind the Substation and running to the left is the branch line to George Air Force Base, which we will revisit next time.  

In the notch between the George AFB track and Route 66 are two squares, which mark the location of Rosso's Texaco gas station and cafe, as seen here:

I plan to include all these things in my Lower Narrows scene, as shown in this track plan:

The double bridges over the Mojave River are in the center of this scene, with rocky cliffs behind the tracks hiding the Mojave Northern track as it sneaks through this area unseen.  The Electrical Switching Station is to the lower right of the bridges, and the Texaco gas and cafe buildings are near the left edge of the scene.

One famous building just railroad west of here that I'm not including is Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe, as it's on the wrong side of the highway (in the aisle), and sadly there's no room for it:

It's still there as a Route 66 landmark, and I enjoyed eating lunch there once and buying a souvenir shirt.  My substitute is Rosso's Texaco and cafe, which does fit nicely, and which my friend Jack Dykstra used to visit as a child.

Let's close our visit with one more look at those wonderful, rocky cliffs, as a Santa Fe freight heads westbound beside the river, toward the double bridges:

Turning now to progress on my layout, I'm in a routine in which I can get another lower deck layout section up onto legs each week.  

This involves planning where the legs should go, building the needed number of legs from 2x4s and 2x2s, marking where the notches for the legs should go along the edges of the plywood tabletop, cutting out the notches with a saber saw outdoors, clamping a few of the legs to the frame, standing the frame up on these legs, clamping on more legs, attaching the legs to the frame with screws, adjusting the footpads until the frame is level, placing the plywood tabletop onto the frame, with the legs fitting through the notches, and screwing down the plywood to the frame (using about two dozen screws, spaced about 12" apart).

Here's a photo of new Sections 6 and 6A after the plywood was added on top:

Here's a photo of me on my knees, screwing the legs into the frame of adjacent Section 5:

And here's a different view of Section 5, now with its plywood on top, as seen from the entrance to the daylight basement:

Meanwhile, my friends Bill Messecar and Don Hubbard have completed building my fleet of 14 Mojave Northern rock cars (thanks to rock bins created by Jim Coady), with six of the cars having limestone loads.  I posed them with a stand-in 0-6-0T steam loco on my first staging tracks on Section 9:

That's all the news for now.  Sections 4 and 3 are next.

Revisiting the Mojave Northern Railroad, and Building Layout Sections 8 and 7

Last time we revisited Victorville's cement plant, and this time we'll revisit its private railroad, the Mojave Northern.   Then we'll look at some benchwork progress on building Sections 8 and 7.

The purpose of the Mojave Northern was to carry limestone rocks from distant quarries to the Southwestern Portland Cement plant for processing.  At the cement plant, side-dump rock cars were pushed up a trestle, and the rock cars were unloaded there.  Here's an aerial view of that part of the cement plant:

At the bottom of this photo is the three-stall engine house, and along the left edge you can see the trestle where the rock cars were pushed for unloading.  A string of rock cars is waiting at the far end of the trestle to be unloaded.

Here we see a pair of Mojave Northern 0-6-0T saddletank steam locos pushing some rock cars up the trestle:

 

Here's a rare close-up of a rock car that I found on my old computer, after my friends Bill Messecar and Don Hubbard had already built 14 HO scale models of these for me:

My friend Jim Coady had previously designed and ordered the 3D-printed rock bins for these cars, and here's the rock car model that he has built himself, as seen on his layout:

Here's an action photo of an 0-6-0T pulling a string of loaded rock cars:
 

Later in my postwar time period, they supplemented the old rock cars with regular hopper cars, which did not unload from the trestle.  Here's an action photo with some hoppers in tow:

 

Here we see one of the steam locos being serviced at the plant, with some rock cars on the left and some kilns on the right:

 Here's a view of all three steam locos at the engine house:

In 1948 they added two GE 70-Tonners to help with the work, as seen in this 1950s Richard Steinheimer photo at the cement plant:

In this view, the engine house is in the center background, along with a rock car and some steam locos.

As the Mojave Northern main line leaves the cement plant, there is a short passing siding where a loco can run around a string of rock cars, and then the line crosses a long, low trestle over the Mojave River, as seen in this fan trip photo:

 

This scene will be included on my layout, but after this my M.N. track will have to sneak through the Lower Narrows scene (where it doesn't belong), hidden behind the cliffs of the Lower Narrows, until it emerges in the staging room, where there will be another siding for loading the rock cars at a quarry scene, as seen here:

At the quarry they used a large electric shovel to load the limestone into the cars, as seen above.

This concludes our second tour of the Mojave Northern Railroad.

In the past two weeks I've been working on my benchwork again.  I attached the legs to Section 8's frame (the first section outside the staging room), cut notches for the legs to pass through its plywood tabletop, and attached the plywood on top of its frame, as seen here:

The three closest legs were temporarily clamped in place, while the three distant legs are permanently attached.  Section 8 is bolted to distant Section 9 and so supports the near end of Section 9.

Then I had to make more legs to support Section 7, and I cut notches in Section 7's plywood for the six legs to pass through.  I attached the legs to Section 7, bolted it to Section 8, and laid the plywood on top, as seen here:

Section 8's plywood has now been screwed down, and I'll repeat that for Section 7 next.

I was going to work on Section 1 next (the one on the floor to the right of Section 7), but then I'd have just a narrow aisle into the far side of the staging room, so I'll do that Section last.  I'll work on Sections 6 and 6A instead.

Meanwhile, I received my new BLI ATSF 2-8-2 #4025, so I tested it on one of my three short staging tracks, as seen here (I love it):

That's all I have until next time.