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.