Santa Fe's 3751-Class 4-8-4s in Victorville, and Continuing to Wire the Outer Mainline in Staging

This time we'll take a look at Santa Fe's first 4-8-4 steam locos, the 3751 class, which ran through Victorville, and then I'll show a little more progress on wiring the outer mainline track in staging.

The Santa Fe acquired their first fourteen 4-8-4 locos during 1927-29 and numbered them in the 3751 class as #3751-3764.  They went through quite a few modernization steps over the years, but I will be looking at them as they were during their final postwar years.

Here we see #3755 leading Alco PAs and a passenger train eastbound into Victorville, as shot by Chard Walker.  It had probably helped the train to Summit and then stayed on for another helper assignment in Victorville:

 

Stan Kistler shot the first loco in the class, #3751, with the first section of the westbound Grand Canyon train at Frost, just after leaving Victorville in Dec. 1951:

Three locos in the class were never fully modernized and retained a distinctive Elesco feedwater heater in front of the stack: #3753, 3756, and 3757.  Here is #3757 pulling the 2nd section of the westbound Grand Canyon toward Summit, thanks to Chard Walker:

Here's a magnificent view of #3758 helping F-units with the eastbound Grand Canyon at Sullivan's Curve, as shot by Robert Hale:

Chard Walker shot #3759 with a westbound passenger train in Victorville (note the covered hoppers from the local cement plant):

Here we see #3758 helping F-units with an eastbound passenger train at Summit in June of 1952, as shot by Jack Whitmeyer:

Jack Whitmeyer also shot #3759 as it was serving as a helper and a pilot engine for the SP's detouring eastbound Golden State at San Bernardino in June, 1953:

Chard Walker shot #3760 as it helped F-units with an eastbound passenger train near Summit:

 

During 1952 and 1953 these locos were only rarely used over Cajon Pass.  On Feb. 6, 1955, there was a final use of #3759 as it pulled a "Farewell to Steam" railfan special from LA to Barstow and back.

Here is #3759 eastbound at Blue Cut on that final run over Cajon Pass in Feb. 1955, as shot by Robert Heuerman (note the railfans in the baggage car):

Now let's look at some of the HO models.  There were many variations among the actual locos of this class, and many variations among the HO models, so I can't cover them all.

Key made a brass model that was not modernized:

And Key also made a mostly modernized version but with a top-mounted Elesco FWH, like #3753, 3756, and 3757 had:

And Hallmark made a number of Super Crown models, like this one:

But I don't have any of the brass models.  Instead, I have three of the Broadway Limited models from various runs (they kept improving the details on each run):

Now it's time to look at my slow layout progress.  I'm in the phase of wiring the outer mainline in staging, which I don't enjoy, but it's rewarding to see a loco run over each track block as it comes online.

Last time I had wired the first block, so I continued on with the 2nd block, which continues around the main peninsula.  I received the new BLI Blue Goose model (1950 version), so I ran it all the way around the peninsula, with smoke puffing out:

 

Then I wired the third block, which is near the throat of the future A Yard.  The bus wires temporarily run up onto the benchwork there, where they connect together with a terminal strip before attaching to a power pack.

I tested the Blue Goose on the third block (now with its the smoke turned off), as seen here:

The power pack and terminal strip and wires can be seen behind the loco.

Besides the expensive new loco, I also received an expensive, ready-built model of a Southern California concrete bunkhouse (with outhouses), as Victorville and some other stations had.  The model came from Right On Track Models, and it's beautiful:

Last time I failed to mention that a Santa Fe friend who visits the Seattle area once in a while, Richard Mukai, has volunteered to help me build my control panels when he's in town.  So he and Tim Fisher are both advising me on my wiring now.

Today I added some red ink notes to a photo of my staging deck track plan, to help identify the locations of my mainline blocks, my staging yards, my probable control panel locations (ABC Tower, Reversing Tower, and Turntable Tower), and a proposed location for my power packs under the layout:

Each power pack will also sit beside an Aristo-Craft radio receiver and a Kato Sound box, and the trains will be operated by using walkaround Aristo-Craft throttles.

My goal is to get the entire outer mainline running before two of my sisters arrive here two weeks from now.  I'm very busy getting the house and yard fixed up, and watching football and now the baseball playoffs too!