Santa Fe's H16-44 Diesels in Victorville, and Installing Section 3A

This time we'll first take a look at Santa Fe's Fairbanks-Morse H16-44 roadswitchers in Victorville.  Then we'll look at some progress on building my layout, along with a new sketch for planning the staging yards, and some nice drawings by Jim Coady for building the three pump houses in Victorville.

Santa Fe got their first ten FM H16-44s in March-June, 1951, numbered them 2800-2809, and painted them in the "zebra stripe" scheme they used in the 1950s for switchers and roadswitchers.  Here's one of them, #2801, when new in 1951:

These first ten locos had the "Loewy" styling with the rounded cab windows and the rounded trim.  They were renumbered to 3000-3009 in July-August, 1952 (a year later), to make room for more GP7 numbers.

In June-August of 1952 they got ten more H16-44s, numbered 2810-2819, but these were quickly renumbered to 3010-3019 in July-August, 1952.  These last ten locos did not have the Loewy curved styling and were not assigned to California, so I won't be covering them here.

The H16-44 locos were important in Victorville because one of them was often assigned as the local switcher after Santa Fe's steam locos were retired from this job in mid or late1951.  Here's a Stan Kistler photo of #2802 as the local switcher beside the Victorville boiler house on Dec. 23, 1951:

Stan also shot #3000 (formerly #2800) in the same spot on March 7, 1954:

Note that the tall stack from the boiler house was removed by then (there was no more need to heat the fuel oil used by steam locos).

Besides serving as the Victorville switcher, these locos were also used as helpers on Cajon Pass, as seen in this Stan Kistler action photo from June 22, 1952:

Here's a Chard Walker photo of #3004 as a helper at Summit in 1953

Here's one more photo, showing #2804, as shot by Jack Whitmeyer on Oct. 21, 1951, in San Diego (these locos were used as regular roadswitchers too).

 

The first ten H16-44s stayed in California until October, 1956, and some into early 1957, so I can use these when I'm operating in 1951 through 1956.

Atlas made some HO models of these locos in both the Loewy style and the later style with squared cab windows.  Here's their Loewy-styled model:

Most of my diesel models are packed away during layout construction, so I'm not sure how many of these I have and whether I'll need to renumber some into the 3000-series for 1952-1956 operations.

Speaking of layout construction, I worked to complete the new Section 3A that fills the hole that was beside Section 3.  I removed four tall legs from the edge of Section 3 and clamped them onto the frame of Section 3A, after replacing them with the short legs I had built, as seen here:

Then I screwed the tall legs onto the Section 3A frame, drilled and bolted the frame to the adjacent sections, and cut plywood rectangles to fill the holes in Section 3 left behind by the tall legs.  I also cut five leg notches in the edge of Section 3A's plywood top and placed the plywood top onto its frame.

I posed for a photo beside the new Section 3A, as seen here:

After the plywood top on 3A was screwed down, I shot an overview of the entire scene:

Then I began to sketch how the staging yards might fit into this lower deck shape.  It's just a small 1/48 scale drawing, so things won't actually fit as nicely when they are drawn larger and to scale (they never do).  But here's my rough sketch, with the double-track mainline drawn thicker and darker than the rest:

Inside one of the mainline curves is an open space where I can't get many yard tracks to fit, so I got the idea to stick a turntable with whisker tracks into that area, as seen in the sketch.

Note also the two dotted lines -- one is the track leading to the helix to the upper deck, and the other is the critical connection to form a return loop for turning the trains.

The longest staging yard wraps around the big curve at the right end of the drawing.  Inside there is a single-ended yard for storing diesel locos.

I'd like to have #8 turnouts leading into one of the yards, but I may have to settle for #6's, we shall see.

My final piece of news is that my architect friend, Jim Coady, completed a whole set of beautiful CAD drawings for the three pump houses with derricks that stood along the tracks in Victorville, in front of the water tanks for steam locos.  I had sent him all the dimensions and photos that I could round up.  Here is just the cover sheet of his drawings:

And here are two of the better Jack Whitmeyer photo close-ups that he worked from:

The news gets better, as my local friend Bill Messecar has volunteered to scratch-build three of these in HO for my future Victorville scene -- lucky me!

My next jobs are to draw the staging yards accurately in 1/16 scale, and to add more shims between some layout sections and sand the tops smooth where the sections meet.

UP's Aerotrain in Victorville, and Creating a New Section 3A

The Victorville locomotive topic this time will be UP's Aerotrain, and my progress report will cover the creation of an extra new Section 3A.

General Motors in 1955 designed and built two futuristic-looking new trainsets they named the Aerotrain.  The locomotive model number was LWT12, and it pulled ten short bus-like coaches.  The second demonstrator trainset first came west through Victorville in March of 1956, when it went on display in Los Angeles and then was tried out as a San Diegan train in April.

Here's a good photo of one of the GM demonstrator Aerotrains:

 

After the trainset failed its trials on the San Diegan, it was sent back east until December of 1956, when the UP began using it as its new City of Las Vegas train between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.  Its first run as a UP train was on Dec. 18, 1956, when it began passing through Victorville (without stopping) eastbound as Train 116 each day at noon, and westbound as Train 115 at 8:43 pm.

Here is the train with its new UP emblem on the front:

Since my modeled time period ends at the end of 1956, I can run this train through Victorville during the last two weeks of 1956.  It had nine cars at that time, but a 10th car was added during 1957, and then a second trainset, but the UP gave up on it in Sep-Oct 1957 and replaced it with conventional lightweight equipment.

While it ran over Cajon Pass, it needed a GP9 helper from San Bernardino east to Summit, where the helper was cut off.  Here's a photo by Eugene Crowner showing the Aerotrain with a helper approaching Summit:

Here's another photo by Crowner, as the train rounds the curve into into Summit:

 

Here's the train at Summit after the helper has cut off and backed into the engine track (hidden behind the train):

The train didn't need any helper from Victorville west to Summit, and I haven't seen any photos of the train in Victorville, even though it came east through town at noon every day.

Con-Cor made a nice HO model of the train, including extra cars, but the full-width diaphrams should be painted silver:

Here's a view of the Con-Cor loco (with UP emblem) and observation car:

I recently found this HO billboard to set on my layout when the train is running:

But enough of the experimental Aerotrain.  Next time we'll look at some kind of Santa Fe diesel that ran though Victorville.

As for my layout progress, I first decided to draw some diagrams for my friends, showing where all the final benchwork section boundaries are.  Here's a diagram using the upper level track plan:

 

And here's a similar diagram but with the section numbers added:

As I was drawing these, I realized that I had a big hole in the lower deck where more staging tracks could be placed.  The hole was where a new Section 3A is now shown on these diagrams.  

I had put the hole there for pop-up access to the far side of the Victorville scene, but now I want to trade away that access in favor of more staging tracks.  I can compensate for that loss by adding a raised platform in front of the Victorville scene, just as I plan to do for the wide cement plant scene on the other side of the layout.

So I measured for the new Section 3A and cut out an 18" wide piece of plywood for the tabletop.  I set it in place on sawhorses to check the fit:

Then I bought some better 1x4 boards and built a frame for 3A.  I set it on sawhorses in the same spot to test the fit:

Note that I also built six short legs, as seen here on the plywood.  I want to remove the row of four tall legs from Section 3 and move them to the far side of 3A, where they won't get in the way of the staging tracks.  I'll replace them with four of the new short legs, and the other two short legs will support some other areas of the layout that could use a little help.

Next week I'll work on removing and reattaching the tall legs, attaching the new short legs, and cutting some plywood rectangles to fill in the open notch holes where the tall legs were.  I'm glad I noticed the 3A problem in time to fix it!

Santa Fe's Light 2-8-2 Locos in Victorville, and Leveling and Bolting the Layout Sections Together

The third featured locomotive type we'll look at is Santa Fe's light 2-8-2s, which were used as helpers out of Victorville, as well as serving as the local switcher.  Then we'll see how I added some short legs to the layout, leveled the whole layout, and bolted all the sections together.

Santa Fe had two main classes of light 2-8-2s: the 3100 class (29 locos built by Baldwin in 1913) and the 3129 class (30 more locos built by Baldwin in 1916).  They were almost identical, so we'll cover them both here.

Here's one of the 3129-class locos, #3152, which was serving as the Victorville local switcher, but it was pressed into service to help the partly disabled Super Chief diesels up to Summit when Chard Walker shot this photo in Dec. 1950:

 

Here's one of the 3100-class locos, #3119, switching a string of freight cars in Victorville in 1949, as shot again by Chard Walker:

Note that the 3129-class locos (top photo) differed from the 3100 class by having a centered headlight, two sand domes (in postwar years), and unusual front handrails.

Here's another 3100-class loco, #3121, resting inside the Victorville wye between local switcher assignments, as shot by Stan Kistler in 1950:

 

Here's a 3129-class loco, #3134, also a local switcher, resting at the same location inside the wye, with the sand house, elevated fuel oil tank, and boiler house behind it, from left to right:

Note the centered headlight, 2nd sand dome, and unusual front handrails on the 3129-class locos.

Now let's take a look at the light 2-8-2s in action as helpers out of Victorville and San Bernardino.  Here we see 2-10-2 #3882 and 2-8-2 #3154 pushing on the rear of an eastbound freight near Cajon station in 1947, thanks to Stan Kistler:

Here is 2-8-2 #3130 helping a 3800-class 2-10-2 west from the Upper Narrows of Victorville in 1946, as shot by H.L. Kelso:

Finally, here is 2-8-2 #3131 helping three FT units with a freight at the same location just west of Victorville, as shot by Donald Duke in the late 1940s:

I can use these locos on my layout into 1951, when they were replaced by diesel helpers and diesel local switchers in Victorville.

I have one painted brass model made by Hallmark for each of the two light 2-8-2 classes.  For the 3100 class, I have #3119, which I bought unpainted from Richard Hendrickson's estate.  He had chosen that number, included two prototype photos of it, and substituted a smaller 12K tender as seen in photos:

For the 3129 class, I have loco #3129, which I recently got painted and lettered:

Next time we'll take a look at some UP diesel type that was seen in Victorville.

The work on my layout's benchwork during the last two weeks was done mostly under the layout.  First I crawled under there on my back and attached the six short legs I had made recently to better support some sagging corners of some sections.  Here's a view of three of the short legs after installation, supporting the area where Sections 1 and 7 meet Section 2:

The next step was to level all the sections with each other, using the long yellow level you see here, and by turning the footpads until everything was level (here's a view from the laundry room doorway):

Then I crawled under the layout on my back again and drilled bolt holes between adjacent sections and inserted and tightened bolts to hold the sections in alignment.  Usually there were two bolts connecting adjacent sections.  Here I am working in a most uncomfortable position under the layout again:

One additional step was to add some shims where there were a small wedge-shaped openings between adjacent sections (there were about three places like that).

Next I'll re-check that everything is still level and smooth, with no legs floating loose above their pads.  Then I'll go back to the drawing board and finally draw an exact track plan for the lower deck, with as many staging tracks as I can fit in.