UP's PA Diesels in Victorville, and Finding Volunteers to Help Build My Layout

Our featured locomotives this time are the Alco PA-1 and PB-1 diesels of the Union Pacific.  My layout progress report will be about recruiting volunteers to help build my layout, including the first visit by one of my volunteers.

The UP acquired three PA-PB-PA sets in Sep. 1947, with leading cab numbers of 994A-997A.  These were soon renumbered to 600-603 in March, 1948.  Then in Jan. 1949 they acquired four PA-PB sets with leading cab numbers of 604-607.

Chard Walker shot a three-unit PA set entering Victorville through the Upper Narrows, passing the Rainbow Bridge, with an eastbound secondary passenger train in the late 1940s (beautiful):

 

In October, 1947, before the renumbering into the 600-series, set #997 with the eastbound Utahn was climbing near Alray, thanks to the Richard Kindig Collection:

The UP mixed their PA and PB units together as needed.  Here is a PA-PB-PB set #602 passing the Victorville Lime Rock plant with a westbound passenger train in 1953, as shot by Don Sims from up on the Rainbow Bridge approach (I love this shot!):

Here we see a PA-PB-F3 set with a heavyweight train, being helped eastbound up Cajon Pass by 4-8-2 #7019, as shot by Chard Walker:

The PAs were also mixed with FM Erie-Built units, as seen here at Summit with the eastbound LA Limited in June, 1952, as shot by Robert Hale.  The UP TR5 cow-calf set on the right helped the train to Summit:

Note that the PAs are always pulling secondary trains, as they were not as reliable as the EMD passenger diesels (same as on the Santa Fe).

Here we see #606 leading a three-unit PA set with a westbound Shriners Special out of Victorville, climbing at Frost, as shot by Frank Peterson in June, 1950:

Here is #605 with a mixed PA-PB-Erie set being helped eastbound up Cajon Pass by a 4-10-2, as shot by Chard Walker:

In this next shot by Richard Steinheimer, #605 is leading an A-B-A set with the westbound Utahn out of Summit in the 1950s:

Let's conclude with a classic shot by Donald Duke, showing UP 4-8-2 #7019 helping PA #605 and a mixed set of diesels with the eastbound LA Limited at Sullivan's Curve in June, 1950:

As for HO models of the UP PAs, there have been many, so I will only cover the most common styrene models here.  Athearn made PA-PB models for many years, as seen here:

I think that most of my PA-PB models came from Proto 2000, as seen here:

Walthers later upgraded these and sold them as Walthers Proto:

Broadway Limited also made UP PA-PB sets:

 And so did MTH:

 

And now for my layout progress report...

I didn't have much luck in re-testing my three control boxes wired in series -- a DC power pack, a Crest (formerly Aristo-Craft) radio receiver for walkaround control, and a Kato Sound Box.  But I was able to turn down the momentum from the Sound Box, and in one test I was able to bring the Crest radio receiver back to life, but not for long.  So I set aside this testing until later (too frustrating!).

Taking the advice of some friends, I decided to try to recruit some layout helpers.  My friend Bill Messecar had already volunteered to help me with wiring and other tasks, as needed.  I sent out an email request for more helpers to both the Boeing club and to the NW Santa Fe Mini-Meet mailing lists.  

 

I got four new volunteers who say they are within driving range of my home in Bellevue, WA -- Colin Kikawa, Travis Mahan, Ray Rydberg, and Jay Biederman.  And Richard Mukai says that he may be able to build some control panels at his home in Las Vegas and then bring them here when he's in town.

I sketched out for them some ideas of what needs to be done next on the layout:

1.  Solder more feeder wires to each section of rail along the outer mainline loop (I'm not very good at it).

2.  Attach cable ties along the bottom edge of the benchwork frame (probably with Velcro straps), to hold all the bus wires that will run along the edges of the benchwork.

3.  Attach wire labels to the bus wires, telling which block they are coming from.

4.  Glue down all the cork sheets that will support all the staging yards on the lower deck.

5. Begin wiring the inner mainline by adding more bus wires and feeders.

6.  Help construct and attach and wire several local control panels. 

 

I went back to the problem of designing the local control panels for the lower deck.  As you may recall, there are three proposed "tower" locations for the panels -- ABC Tower, Turntable Tower, and Reversing Tower.  I marked the boundaries between these areas of control in red ink on the track schematic below:

  and then on the actual track plan, as you can see in the image below:

Now the detailed design of the panels has to take place.  Several panels for the ABC Tower were designed early this year, so I will review those and then design the panels for the Turntable Tower and the Reversing Tower.

 

On the Friday after Thanksgiving my first volunteer helper, Travis Mahan, arrived at noon to help me with the layout.  I gave him the job of cutting and gluing down the first sections of sheet cork (each 12" x 36") to support some of the staging yards.  

 

Here Travis posed for a photo after the first section had been glued down with DAP Alex Plus caulk and weighted with water bottles:

 

About three hours later, when seven cork sections had been glued down (and he had removed his sweater), he posed for a final photo for the day:

 

 

Many thanks to Travis for his help, and I hope he will be back again soon.

 

While he was working, I got busy sliding more suitcase connectors into position along the two bus wires for the outer main.  This was so that if my next helper, Bill Messecar, can visit me this week, he can help with soldering feeder wires to the rest of the rail sections, and we can connect the feeders to the bus wires with the suitcase connectors. 

 

But I think that my progress will slow down due to the holidays, and due to time spent planning for a first trip to Europe next spring!

Santa Fe's All-Blue FTs in Victorville, and Wiring to Test Walkaround Controls

Our Victorville locomotives this time are Santa Fe's all-blue EMD freight FT diesels of 1951-52.  Then we'll look at my slow layout progress again, as I rewired things to try to test my walkaround control scheme.

One of several paint schemes that the Santa Fe tried on their freight FT diesels in the postwar years was the experimental "all-blue" scheme that was applied to about two dozen FT sets during 1951 and 1952, but they were repainted during 1953.  Some of these sets had all four ABBA units, but some had three, two, or just one unit.  The sets were used as both road engines and as helpers during this time.

Here we see FT set #170 as a helper at Summit in May of 1951, as shot by Chard Walker:

Note that the only yellow paint is in the vertical nose stripe and the "cigar band" emblem on the nose.  This was Santa Fe's first use of the cigar band on freight units, in place of the previous "cat whiskers" scheme.

Here's a super shot by Stan Kistler, showing FT set #120 helping 2-10-2 #3889 west out of Victorville, climbing near Frost in June, 1952:

There are not many shots of these units on Cajon Pass, so I'm including this shot of #194 westbound with a freight in Corona (west of San Bernardino) by Ed Von Nordeck:

Here we see set #120 eastbound with a freight in San Bernardino, thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

 

Here we see three-unit set #151 with a westbound freight at Summit (on the right), while a two-unit FT set in the previous paint scheme (yellow along the upper sides and cat whiskers on the nose) pushes backwards on the rear of an eastbound freight in June of 1952, thanks again to Stan Kistler:

Returning to Corona for our final photo, here is set #170 with a westbound freight in 1951, thanks again to Ed Von Nordeck:

I only know of one HO model of these all-blue units, produced by Stewart many years ago.  I have an ABBA set of these (although I can't locate them among my treasures at the moment).  Here's a catalog photo of two Stewart units:

Now let's look at my slow layout progress.  I decided that I should test my proposed walkaround control system before going much further.  I tested it years ago on a test track, but I need to know that the radio signals will work across the entire basement.

I parked the Blue Goose in the E Yard in the staging room and put my old Athearn F7 back on the track for the tests.  I disconnected the bus wires that were running across the top of the layout and rerouted them under the layout, where they belong, then reconnected them to the terminal strip.

I placed a TV tray beside the layout (near the double-slip switches) and placed three control boxes in a row on the tray: an MRC Tech 7 power pack on the left, then a Crest (formerly AristoCraft) radio receiver box in the middle, and then a Kato Sound Box on the right, as seen here:

I figured out how to wire them in series, with the the DC power going from the power pack into the Crest radio receiver, and from there into the Sound Box, and from there to the terminal strip, and from there to the various track blocks on the outer mainline.  

Also, the blue box on the left side of the Sound Box gets AC power from the power pack, to power the sounds when a Kato Sound Card is in the slot on top (I'm using a 1st-generation EMD sound card to match the F7).

The next step was put new batteries into the Crest walkaround controller (standing up on the tray against the benchwork).  Then I worked through all the convoluted steps in getting the walkaround controller set to a chosen radio frequency and synced to the receiver on the same frequency.

For your entertainment, here are the first steps in setting the frequency (the page on the right):

  This process continues on the left page here:
 

I think the transmitter and receiver got linked correctly, judging from the lights that blinked during the process.

But when I tried to run my old Athearn F7, nothing happened, except that an Overload light on the MRC power pack came on as I turned up the speed (voltage).  Rats!

So I backed off and tried just the power pack and the Sound Box together, without the radio receiver in the circuit.  Now the loco moved, but it seemed that the Sound Box was adding a lot of momentum into the circuit, as the loco was very slow to start up and then very slow to slow down.  I need to look into the Sound Box user guide about this.

My next experiment was to remove the Sound Box from the circuit and use just the power pack and the Crest radio receiver.  As I turned up the speed on the power pack, the Overload light came on again, and the Power light didn't come on the receiver, and the loco didn't move.  Hmm.

This was all working for me some years ago, so I'll keep on trying to figure out the problem.  I also want to get to work on designing the various local control panels.  But I'm not enjoying any of this electrical work.