UP's Alco FA-FB Diesels in Victorville, and Improving the Staging Yard Designs

This time we'll take a look at the Union Pacific's Alco FA-1 and FB-1 mainline diesel freight locos that operated through Victorville, and then we'll look at the final improvements to the lower deck staging yard designs.

From June of 1947 through September of 1948 the UP acquired 44 FA-1 cab units and 44 FB-1 booster units, enough to assemble 22 ABBA sets of 6,000 HP per set, in its effort to dieselize its California mainline freight operations.

Here is UP FA-FB set #1603 climbing the grade westbound at Frost, just after leaving Victorville, as shot by Frank Peterson in Oct. 1950:

 

The sets acquired in 1947 were numbered in the 1500-series, but they were all renumbered to the 1600-series during 1948.  Most photos show them in their 1600-series numbers.

Here is set #1603 again in Oct. 1950, this time stopped beside the Victorville Wye (see the boiler house and elevated fuel tank at the left), waiting for UP steam helper #5092, a 4-10-2, to be added for the climb up Cajon Pass:

 

Here we see an ABBA set of FAs and FBs heading west past the Riverside cement plant at Oro Grande, heading to Victorville, as shot by Donald Duke circa 1950:

Here is UP FA-FB set #1611 waiting to depart the B Yard in San Bernardino, headed east to Cajon Pass and Victorville in April 1950, as shot by Jack Whitmeyer:

Here's another UP FA-FB set, working hard as it climbs west out of the Upper Narrows at Victorville, as shot by Donald Duke:

Here's one final action shot as FA-FB set #1603 climbs westbound out of Victorville's Upper Narrows in Oct. 1950:

 

The UP's FA-FB sets operated over Cajon Pass from 1947 until sometime in 1954, when they were replaced by new GP9s from EMD.

There have been many HO-scale models of the UP's FA-1s and FB-1s.  Here are the Walthers Trainline models, which used to be made by Train Miniature:

Note that models have been made with the early 1500-series numbers as well as the 1948+ 1600-series numbers.

Here are the Proto 2000 models:

 And here are the HO models from MTH:

Rapido is now planning to make super-detailed models of these locos.  My models came from both Proto 2000 and Train Miniature.

Turning now to progress on my layout design for the lower staging deck, I erased and drew some new stub-ended yards and moved some crossovers to make an improved Version 4 track plan, which I hope is the final design.

I've checked that each train and each loco can get to where it needs to go.  Sometimes there will be back-up moves, such as backing a train into a stub-ended storage yard after its run.

Here is the revised track plan for the main peninsula:

 Here is the revised turntable area drawing:

 And here is the revised helix room drawing:

 

Here's Version 4 of the straight-line schematic drawing of the tracks, with new labels for some of the yards (the old D Yard in the helix room is now called the F Yard):

I remeasured the storage capacities for all the tracks that had changed, and here are the new numbers:
 

I think my next steps are to move a few legs on the benchwork, add a plywood triangle in one spot, sand down the joints between sections, and add shims and wood filler between some joints.  Then the track lines can be drawn on the plywood.

Santa Fe's 4000-Class 2-8-2s in Victorville, and Revising the Staging Yard Designs

This time we'll take a look at Santa Fe's heavy 4000-class 2-8-2 steam locos, some of which operated in Victorville, and then we'll discuss more revisions to the staging yard designs.  I was gone on vacation this past week, so not a lot got done since last time.

During 1921-1926 the Santa Fe acquired 101 heavy 2-8-2 Mikado locos, numbered 4000 to 4100.  These were a continuation of the previous 3160 class, which had 128 locos.  

Here is one of them, #4068, in action:

 

During the postwar years on Cajon Pass, these locos normally served as helpers.  Here's a Chard Walker photo of #4027 as it returns to Victorville after helping a train to Summit in Nov. 1948 (note the Upper Narrows in the background):

Here's another Chard Walker photo, this time showing #4025 working in Victorville, with the stock pen in the background:

In June of 1950 Stan Kistler photographed #4010 as it helped a Green Fruit Express train with F7s up the grade above Cajon station:

On the end of that same train, #4009 was a rear-end helper.  Here we see #4009 at rest in the postwar years:

By the way, #4000-4014 were a little different from the later ones, as they had Hodges trailing trucks instead of the later Delta trucks.  Locos that came with one sand dome later got a 2nd one.  Most got an extended cab after 1940, and most eventually got a modern Elesco feedwater heater.

Some of these locos operated as helpers in Victorville until about mid-1951, when the Santa Fe stopped using them in this area.  They were also sometimes used on the local freights.

There have been HO scale brass models of various versions of these locos over the decades, such as by PFM in 1962-63, Sunset in 1977, Key in 1988, and Sunset again in 1992, and I have a few of them.

Here's an example of one of the Key models:

And here is one of the Sunset models (note the variations on the box label):

In the last year or so, Broadway Limited Inc. has produced a nice styrene model of the postwar version of #4015-4100, such as this model of #4023:

These are still on the market, with lower prices now, so I might want a second one!

Before I went on vacation, I made some revisions to my staging track plan.  Following more advice from Tim Fisher, I removed most of the stub tracks that came off backward from another track, as they are not worth the cost of the turnouts to connect to them.  I also revised some of the connections among the tracks that feed into the return loop.

The plans are now up to Version 3.  Here is the revised main peninsula plan, with the large, curving A Yard of double-ended tracks, and the adjacent B Yard with stub-ended tracks: 

 And here is the revised turntable area:

 I also revised the straight-line schematic to show the current plan:

Finally, I remeasured the storage lengths of the all the tracks that had changed.  Here is the current list of storage tracks and their lengths and radii, if any:

 

I'm still discussing any further improvements with Tim Fisher, along with an operating scheme for how the staging tracks would be used.  Here are some thoughts:

Use the double-ended 10-track A Yard for freight trains, and use the stub-ended 8-track B Yard for passenger trains.

Use the turntable tracks and the track that loops around it (Track S1) for storing steam locos, and use the C Yard, D Yard, E Yard, and R Yard (all shorter tracks) for storing sets of diesel locos (F-units, E-units, Erie-Builts, PAs, FAs, etc.).

Keep tracks T1 and R1 open as switch leads into the A and B Yards.

Maybe add one more track to the C Yard and one more to the R yard.

We are thinking that a mainline operator should take his assigned loco to his train, then take his train up the helix and through Victorville on the upper deck, return down the helix, return the train to its empty track, and take the loco back to its storage track.  

 

The cabooses would be left on the freight trains in the yard.  The passenger trains would be backed into their stub-ended storage tracks.

Consider eliminating some of the mainline crossovers, and maybe run left-handed on the lower deck mainlines, and maybe have the trains make a trip around the lower deck before they climb the helix and when they return from the helix.

I'll get back to work on the design this coming week.