Santa Fe's Early 2-10-2s in Victorville, and More Helpers for My Layout

This time we'll look at Santa Fe's early 2-10-2 steam locos that were operating in Victorville in the late 1940s.  Then we'll look at a little more layout progress, thanks to two more helpers who visited me.

Santa Fe's first 2-10-2 steam locos were built in 1903-1904 and were numbered 900-984.  A virtually identical group of 2-10-2s were built in 1905-1907 and were numbered 1600-1673.  In 1912-1913 they got another batch, numbered 1674-1705.

Two more groups were created when they cut apart the unsuccessful 2-10-10-2 locos of the 3000-class into two halves in 1915-1918.  These became numbers 3010-3019 and 3020-3029. 

So, the early 2-10-2 locos we'll look at here are from the 900 class, 1600 class, 1674 class, 3010 class, and 3020 class.

Here we see two locos from the 900 class, #945 and #979, taking water at Keenbrook while uncoupled from the rear of an eastbound freight in June, 1949, thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

 

Frank Peterson shot #979 helping bigger 2-10-2 #3833 with a westbound freight near Frost (after leaving Victorville) in 1947:

 

Here we see #1626 and #979 pushing on the rear of an eastbound freight at Pine Lodge in June, 1949, in a nice shot by Stan Kistler:

Herb Sullivan shot #1676 helping a 4-8-4 with an eastbound passenger train approaching Sullivan's Curve in 1946:

In May of 1950, Jack Whitmeyer shot #1677 in the San Bernardino B Yard (all the other shots I've seen of these locos were taken in 1949 or earlier):

Here's an action shot of #1677 with an eastbound freight at Cajon in June, 1949, thanks to Stan Kistler:

Stan Kistler also shot #1689, freshly shopped at San Bernardino in Feb. 1947:

 

James Ady shot #3013 and 4-8-2 #3723 pushing an eastbound freight at Devore in August of 1947:

Finally, Tom Baxter shot #3014 at San Bernardino in Nov. 1948:

 

As we've seen, these locos were normally used as helpers on Cajon Pass in the postwar years, and they were out of action after 1949 or 1950.

There have been various HO brass models of the locos in these similar classes.

Hallmark made a 900-class model, like this one (mine is #979):

Division Point also made a 900 class, but I don't have this model (and this one happens to have a coal tender):

Westside made a 1600 class, as seen here with a turtleback tender (mine is #1690):

Division Point also made a 1600-class loco, which I don't have:

Westside also made a 3010-class loco (mine is not yet painted):

Now it's time for a layout progress update.  I had no visitors the week before last, due to all the snow we got that week.

But I bought some Velcro parts and found a way to make straps to support my bus wires along the edges of the layout.  I bought a roll of 3/4" wide Velcro strap, which I cut into 4" lengths, which are about right for attaching to the benchwork and then rolling into a circle around the bus wires.  I also bought a pack of 7/8" square sticky-back Velcro squares for attaching the straps to the inside of the 1x4" edge boards. 

The edge boards are rough on the back side, so I cut 2" wide clear packing tape into 2" squares to first stick to the inside of the boards, and then the sticky-back Velcro squares are stuck to the smooth tape, and then the Velcro straps are stuck to the Velcro squares and then curled around the bus wires.  The Velcro will open to allow me to add more bus wires into the straps later.

 

This view shows the products being used and four of the Velcro straps around the bus wires, spaced about 12" apart under the edge boards:

 

Here is a view from under the layout edge, showing the Velcro strap attached to the Velcro sticky-back square, which is stuck to the clear tape on the board:

 

I also did some initial design work for the three mainline control panels, one for each of the three "tower" areas around the layout.  I think I should build and wire these mainline panels before dealing with the separate yard panels:

The large circles are the rotary switches to assign cabs to blocks, and the small vertical ovals are the toggles for the powered switch machines (I added an X beside those that control both turnouts in a crossover).  Each switch toggle will also need a momentary pushbutton beside it, but I didn't yet draw those in.  The short lines through the tracks are the block boundaries (a double line marks the end of a reversing section).

My wiring advisors, Tim Fisher and Richard Mukai, reviewed this drawing and got back to me with some improvements I need to make when I find time.  We're also discussing what electrical parts I need to buy for these panels.

This week I had two helpers visit me -- Ray Rydberg on Wednesday afternoon, and then Bill Messecar on Thursday morning.

I had never met Ray before, but he's about my age and is planning to build a new HO layout to replace an unfinished one from years ago.  He brought along his rough track plan, which we agreed to discuss and develop in the coming weeks.

Ray got the job of cutting and stripping lots of feeder wires for all the sections of track along the outer mainline.  The holes were already drilled beside the rails, so he inserted each wire he cut to reach to the nearest suitcase connector on the bus wires.  Here's a posed photo of Ray hard at work (on his knees):

While Ray was working for almost four hours, I was adding more masking tape to lift the bus wires and their connectors into the right locations for Ray.

Then my old friend Bill Messecar arrived the next morning, and he went to work soldering most of the feeder wires to the rails.  He was very good and very fast at this, and he even fixed some of the botched soldering jobs I had done.  I forgot to shoot a photo of Bill at work, but I'll do it next time, when he returns to finish the last parts of the outer mainline.

While Bill was soldering, I was adding more Velcro straps to hold the bus wires around part of the layout, but  there are still quite a few more to add.  I've also begun to clamp the suitcase connectors to the soldered feeder wires, as seen in this photo of me on my knees:

 

Progress will slow down now, with Christmas just two weeks away.  I'll back with another blog entry in three weeks.  Happy Holidays!