Santa Fe's First Freight F3-F7 Diesels in Victorville, and Laying More Mainline Tracks in Staging

Our Victorville locomotive type this time is the first group of freight F7s that Santa Fe bought, along with their two sets of freight F3s.  My layout progress is slow but steady, as I lay more flextracks along the staging mainlines each week.

Let's begin with Santa Fe's only freight F3s -- two ABBA sets, #200-201, built in Oct-Nov. 1948.  These were late F3s (Phase 4) and looked almost the same as the first F7s, except for having dynamic brake slits instead of a fan on the roof.  They came in the creamy yellow catwhisker paint scheme of the time.

The F3s and F7s began replacing the FTs as the mainline freight engines over Cajon Pass.  Here we see F3 set #200 exiting the San Bernardino B Yard eastbound in Dec. 1948, thanks to Stan Kistler:

After the two freight F3 sets, next came the freight F7s, also in the creamy yellow catwhisker paint scheme.  Sets #202-207 arrived in June-July 1949, sets #208-211 arrived in Sep. 1949, sets #212-226 arrived in Nov-Dec. 1949, and sets 227-232 arrived in March, 1950.  These were all "Phase 1 Early" F7s with 36" dynamic brake fans, and they were all ABBA sets.

Here we see #206 climbing west from Victorville to Frost in Oct. 1950, as shot by Frank Peterson:

Here is set #226 approaching Victorville westbound through the bridges in the Lower Narrows in April, 1950, thanks to Joseph Lynch:

Jack Whitmeyer shot #204 (without its trailing cab unit) with an eastbound freight leaving the B Yard in San Bernardino in Sep. 1949:

Here's another shot of #206, this time descending Cajon Pass with a westbound freight at Keenbrook, thanks to Chard Walker:

Stan Kistler shot #222 climbing westbound from Victorville through Lugo in Oct. 1950:

Here comes #220, climbing eastbound to Summit, as shot by Thomas Hotchkiss:

Finally, here's a nice roof shot of #231 entering Summit in May, 1954, thanks to Fred Scott.  Note how the yellow paint curved across the cab roof:

These units all continued to operate over Cajon Pass and through Victorville during the 1950s.  The creamy yellow paint was gradually replaced by chrome yellow during 1951-1953 (but it's often hard to see the difference in photos), and during 1954-1957 the catwhiskers were gradually replaced with the cigar band paint scheme, which we'll save for another time.

As for HO models, I have one Stewart ABBA set of Phase 4 F3s in catwhiskers, as seen here:

 

I see that Athearn Genesis also made a model of this F3 (note the dynamic brake slits on the rooftop, behind the horns).  But none of these models should have the "Santa Fe" lettering on the sides of the B units:

Looking now at the HO models of Phase 1 Early F7s, I find that I have a couple of ABBA sets from Stewart, as seen here (again, with incorrect "Santa Fe" lettering on the B units):

 

And I found that I have an ABBA set from Athearn Genesis too, like this (again, with incorrect "Santa Fe" lettering on the B units):

I see that Broadway Limited also made a set, which I don't have:

 

Now let's look at my slow layout progress.  To continue through the mainline turnouts in Section 6A, I first had to paint the cork roadbed for the sidings on each side of the mainlines, so I painted that roadbed the darker shade of light gray that I had used in the staging room over a year ago.  Then I was able to glue down the #8 mainline turnouts (except for the moving parts, of course).

After the first sections of flextrack were attached and glued down beyond those turnouts, that area looked like this (with pushpins in the new tracks):

 

Then I continued around the curves from Section 6A through a bit of Section 2 and into Section 1.  Where the rail joints fell on curves, I first soldered the joints while the track was still straight, as seen here (with wet cotton balls to keep the ties from melting):

I continued by laying more tracks around the curves in Section 1 and into Section 8, first soldering the rail joints that would fall on curves.  Here's a view looking at the new Section 1 tracks after they were laid:

The tracks continued almost to the next group of mainline turnouts in Section 8.  Here's a view from Section 8 looking back at the tracks curving out of Section 1 and approaching the turnouts:

Next week I'll have to deal with this next group of turnouts, and then I can push through into the staging room loop.  This is an enormous project!

A lot of my hobby time also goes into locating all the loco photos to use in these blog entries, and researching the locomotive types and HO models, but I enjoy that.  I've set aside work on the final plans for the Victorville boiler house until a bit later.

On Father's Day weekend, I got to visit nearby Snoqualmie to watch their NP 0-6-0 steam loco running, as seen here:

 I'll be back again in two weeks.

UP's Early 4-6-6-4s in Victorville, and Laying a Few More Mainline Track Sections

 It's time to cover some Union Pacific steam locos again, so I've chosen their early "Challenger" type 4-6-6-4s.  My layout progress was slower this time, but I'll show you the new mainline track sections that are in place in staging now.

The  UP got two groups of early Challengers: 15 locos in the CSA-1 class in 1936 (#3900-3914), and 25 more in the CSA-2 class in 1937 (#3915-3939).  All of these were converted to oil and renumbered in the 3800-series by 1944,  before my 1946 time period begins.

I like to start with a color photo, so here is #3823 with a freight somewhere on the UP, sometime after 1944:

Note the headlight centered on the smokebox, which is the easiest way to the tell the early Challengers from the later ones, which had their headlight on the pilot.

These locos were in constant use on Cajon Pass (and therefore in Victorville) until mid-1948, when the UP first dieselized that route.   They were used as road engines on freights, as well as serving as helpers on freight and passenger trains.

Here we see #3817 helping 4-8-4 #839 with the westbound LA Limited leaving Victorville in July, 1947, as shot by Chard Walker:

Here's another great shot, this time by Stan Kistler, showing westbound #3837 on the left, meeting eastbound #3836 with a freight on the right, by the water tanks in Victorville in Nov. 1947:

Here's a nice shot by Jack Whitmeyer, showing #3839 with a westbound freight by the pump houses and water tanks in Victorville:

Here we see #3816 with an eastbound freight at Cajon station in August, 1947, thanks again to Jack Whitmeyer:

 Walt Thrall shot #3827 with an eastbound freight approaching Summit in Feb. 1947, with two steam helpers on the rear:

 

Here is #3823 with an eastbound freight coming through Summit in 1947, as shot by Malcolm Gaddis:

 

This is #3825 rounding Sullivan's Curve with an eastbound freight in March of 1947, thanks again to Malcolm Gaddis.

Here's a color photo of #3800 with a freight, somewhere on the UP:

Finally, here are #3816 and #3817 double-heading with a westbound freight coming into Summit, on their way to be loaned to the SP in June of 1948, as shot by James Ady:

 

As for HO models, I will need a number of these to cover all the UP freights and helper assignments when I'm operating in 1946 through early 1948.

I have two of the Key Imports brass models with oil tenders, painted like this one:

And I have two of the Athearn Genesis models, like this one:

 

But I don't have any of these hybrid ones from Broadway Limited:

Turning now to my slow layout progress over the last two weeks, I continued to glue down (with caulk) a few more sections of flextrack on the mainline curves in Section 6 and then on the straightaways in Section 6A, until I reached the first group of turnouts since I began.

Here's a view of the new track on the curves in Section 6, looking toward Section 6A:

 

And here's a view looking backward to the new tracks on the curve in Section 6, and in the distance, in Section 5:

This week my only addition was cutting and fitting some tracks in Section 6A, up to where the first turnout will be on each main track:

As you can see, I attached Atlas remote switch machines to the mainline turnouts in the distance, but I need to order more of those machines.  I have some Atlas Snap Relays to power the frogs on these #8 turnouts, but I'll need more.

I need to paint the cork roadbed that's off the mainlines a darker gray before I can glue down those turnouts and proceed with more trackage.  There is still a lot of mainline trackage to lay before I complete the loop around the layout, and then comes all the wiring!

Part of each week has been spent corresponding with architect Jim Coady as we try to figure out where all the doors and windows were on the Victorville boiler house, and what their dimensions were.  Here are some recent drawings from Jim, and they are getting very close to being final:

Another large chunk of time each week goes into locating and scanning and labeling and cropping all the prototype photos that I use in each of these blog entries.

That's all for now.