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.