UP's 2-10-2 Locos in Victorville, and Starting to Wire the Outer Mainline in Staging

The selected locomotive type this time is the Union Pacific's 2-10-2s.  After looking at those, we'll look at my slow layout progress as I begin to wire the outer mainline on the staging deck.

To introduce the UP's 2-10-2s, I'll quote from Model Railroader's 2009 review of the BLI HO models: 

"Locomotives with a 2-10-2 wheel arrangement were known as class TTT (Two-Ten-Two) on the Union Pacific RR.  Between 1917 and 1924 the railroad received a total of 144 class TTT locomotives in seven subclasses.  Alco, Baldwin, and Lima built 2-10-2s for the UP.

"There were many variations between the TTT subclasses, including several different feedwater heater types, Walschaerts or Young valve gear, and different tenders.  Some were coal-fired, while others were oil-fired."

Here we see #5515 at San Bernardino in a nice shot by Jack Whitmeyer:

The locos seen running on Cajon Pass during my postwar time period included numbers in the ranges 5004-5024, 5317, and 5500-5528.  

All the UP steam locos left Cajon Pass in mid-1948, but some returned during mid-1950 to late 1951.  The locos that returned were #5004, 5006, 5008, 5014, 5023, 5317, 5515, 5518, and 5522.  All the postwar photos I found are from this 1950-51 return of steam.

Here we see #5004 waiting for helper duty beside the Victorville boiler house in Sep. 1951, thanks to Stan Kistler:

These locos were normally used as helpers on both freight and passenger trains.  Here is #5006 helping a set of PAs with an eastbound passenger train on Sullivan's Curve, as shot by Richard Steinheimer:

Frank Peterson shot #5515 helping a freight westbound out of Victorville, past Frost,  in Oct. 1950:

And here is #5515 pushing behind a westbound freight out of Victorville in Sep. 1951, as shot by Stan Kistler:

Here's a nice shot of #5006 helping E-units with the eastbound City of St. Louis at Alray in Oct. 1951, as shot by Richard Kindig:

Chard Walker shot helpers #5515 and 4-10-2 #5090 waiting at Summit:

James Ady shot #5515 helping PAs with the eastbound Utahn at Cajon in Oct. 1950:

Finally, here we see #5317 helping PAs with an eastbound passenger train at Sullivan's Curve in 1950, thanks to Stan Kistler:

And now for the HO models.  Westside made brass models like this one:

I have three of the Westside models, painted and lettered for #5006, #5023, and #5528.

Key also made a brass model, but I don't have any of these:

More recently, Broadway Limited made a brass hybrid model like this one, but mine is numbered #5509:

My final topic is the slow progress on my layout, due to having to get the house and yard fixed up before two of my sisters come to visit us in late October, and due to the start of football season.

But I did start on the big project of wiring my recently completed mainlines in staging.  I'm starting with just the outer mainline, hoping to get a train running around the complete loop before long.

It's been well over a year since I wired three stub tracks in the E Yard in the staging room, so I reviewed how I did the wiring there.  I shot this photo, showing how I ran the bus wires beside the edge of the layout (easy to reach), with the feeder wires from the rails connected to the bus wires with suitcase connectors:

As you can see, I'll need to go back and bundle and label the wires neatly later.

My goal on the mainlines is to have a pair of feeder wires (22 gauge) attached to each separate section of flextrack, and they in turn will be connected with suitcase connectors to the two bus wires (14 gauge), one for the common rail and one for the blocked rail.

So I located spots all along the outer mainline where the feeders could be attached, usually about every three feet apart, and marked them by placing red suitcase connectors beside the rails, as seen here in Section 5:

It took 84 connectors to go all the way around the outer mainline!  Then I drilled 84 holes beside the rails, leaving the connectors there so I can find the holes later.

I was anxious to see a loco run, so I soldered a pair of feeders to one spot on the outer main, connected them to two bus wires, and connected the bus wires (black and red) to a DC power pack.  I put an old Athearn F7 on the rails and was delighted to see it run back and forth along the full length of that one block in Sections 6 and 5:

In this photo, the two spools of bus wires are in the foreground, the F7 is behind them, the suitcase connectors are just under the edge of the layout beyond the F7, and from there the two bus wires run to the power pack in the distance.

I found that the rail joiners carry the current along the full length of the block without needing feeders every three feet, so I'll come back and add the extra feeders later, after I get the loco to run all the way around the outer mainline.  There are six blocks along that mainline, so I'll add one pair of feeders per block (for now) to quickly complete the powering of the outer mainline.

Santa Fe's Passenger F3s in Victorville, and Completing the Mainline Loop in Staging

This time we'll take a look at Santa Fe's passenger F3 diesel sets, all of which pulled passenger trains through Victorville, and then we'll look at the completion of the double-track mainline around the lower staging deck.

The Santa Fe's passenger F3 ABBA sets arrived in three batches, each looking a little different from the others.  The first batch arrived in Nov. 1946, and they were numbered 16-21.  They had the early, classic F3 appearance ("Phase 1"), with three portholes on the A unit sides, chicken wire over the upper grille area, high fans on the roof, and a pair of dynamic brake grilles on the roof behind the cab.

Here is Stan Kistler's great photo of set #19 when one month old (Dec. 1946): 

At this time they had only the high headlight (no gyro light), and the red warbonnet paint swept all the way back around the 2nd porthole.  The sides were painted silver, as stainless steel was not yet available.  This first batch of F3s kept their long warbonnets despite later changes to the carbodies.

Chard Walker shot set #20 bringing the eastbound Chief through the Upper Narrows and past the Rainbow Bridge in Victorville in April of 1947:

During 1948 this batch of F3s were converted to "Phase 2 Early," with the middle porthole removed and chicken wire now running between the first and third portholes over new carbody openings on the A units.  Santa Fe also moved the headlight lower on the nose and added a gyro light in the upper headlight opening.

Here we see set #18 with the eastbound Chief at Devore, thanks to Donald Duke, with a 2nd headlight and the new chicken wire on the A-unit sides:

#16-21 lasted this way until more changes were made in 1952-53, to be discussed later.

The 2nd batch of passenger F3s arrived during March-June and Sep. of 1948.  These were "Phase 3" sets, numbered 22-30.  They had horizontal louvers between the first and third portholes on the A units, and they had normal, lower roof fans.  They had a shorter warbonnet shape, and they had some stainless steel panels on their sides, instead of all silver paint.

Here we see set #26 with the eastbound Grand Canyon at Sullivan's Curve in July, 1950, thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

 

Here is set #24 coming through Victorville with the eastbound Chief in the late 1940s, as shot by Richard Steinheimer.  Chard Walker is waving at the fireman:

 

Jack Whitmeyer shot F3 set #29 with the eastbound Grand Canyon at the Victorville depot (with pump houses on the left) in July of 1948:

The final batch of passenger F3 ABBA sets, #31-36, arrived in Oct-Nov of 1948 and Jan. of 1949.  These were "Phase 4" F3s, with horizontal grilles along the upper carbody sides, instead of chicken wire.

Here is F3 set #33 at Sullivan's Curve, thanks again to Jack Whitmeyer:

 

Gradually during 1951-1953 all of the F3 sets got vertical grilles along the upper carbody sides, regardless of what they used to have there.

Here is set #35 (now with vertical grilles) with the westbound Grand Canyon, leaving Victorville and coming through the Upper Narrows, thanks to Stan Kistler:

 Finally, here is set #33 at Devore in June, 1955, thanks to C.H. Kerrigan:

There have been many HO models of Santa Fe's passenger F3s, so I'll only cover a selection of them.

I have the old Stewart ABBA set of the Phase 1 F3s (#16-21), as seen here:

And I have an ABBA set of early F3s by Athearn Genesis, but with 1953+ details, as seen here:

I'm not sure what other F3 models I might have, but I should try to collect more of them, it seems.  Here's a model that Broadway Limited made, with chicken wire between the portholes of the early F3s:

 

Here's a brass model of the 2nd batch of F3s, by Oriental Limited:

And a model of the 3rd batch of F3s, by Broadway Limited:

So many variations, so little time and money to collect them all!

Now let's look at the latest progress on my layout, when I was finally able to complete all the mainline tracks looping around the edges of the lower staging deck.

I had to cut and fit several flextracks to connect the final tangle of turnouts together.  One of the turnouts is a Shinohara #6 double-slip switch on the inner mainline.  Here's a view of the final tracks in Section 2, looking from the previous section, with the pushpins still in place on the new tracks:

You can see the double-slip switch on the inner mainline, about halfway up the photo.  Here's a view of the same scene, looking back from the other end:

You can see a 2nd double-slip switch that will connect with the first one when I get into laying the yard tracks.

I didn't have a golden spike to drive when the mainlines were complete, so I just posed for a photo at that location:

After three days of an anniversary trip to Victoria, BC, I cut about a dozen cork roadbed pieces to fit under all the switch machines to support them and to fill the voids there.  I painted some light gray for the mainline locations and some dark gray for those adjacent to side tracks:

With the switch machine pads now in place, I photographed the area around the double-slip switch, showing where two Atlas switch machines will attach to the throw bars of the double-slip switch:

I'm going to have to invent some way for the switch machine arms to connect to the Shinohara double-slip throw bars, which are missing the holes that the Atlas throw bars have.

I'm anxious to see some trains running around the completed double tracks, so I plan to postpone the control panels and just add feeder wires and bus wires to all the track sections and temporarily connect them directly to DC power packs, so I can test all the mainline tracks.

I'll report back in another two weeks.