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.