Santa Fe's Heavy 2-10-2s in Victorville, and Layout Helpers and Control Panels

This time we'll take a look at Santa Fe's heavy 2-10-2 steam locos that worked on Cajon Pass and into Victorville in the postwar decade.  Then we'll look at more layout help I got from friends, as well as some progress in redesigning control panels to use Touch Toggles instead of mechanical toggles and rotary switches.

During 1919-1927 the Santa Fe acquired 140 heavy 2-10-2 steam locos in seven groups from Baldwin.  These were in the 3800-class, and many of them served as the main freight road engines and helpers on Cajon Pass until gradually replaced by freight F-units, so we have many photos of them.  (But #3829 was a 2-10-4.)

I worked with Don Borden to create a detailed clinic on all the differences and changes among these locos for our local Santa Fe Mini-Meets in 2011, but I won't go into those details here.  Let's just enjoy some photos of them in action on Cajon Pass after WW2.

Here's a nice shot by Chard Walker, showing #3911 with an eastbound train of reefers, coming into Victorville after descending Cajon Pass:

 

Here we see #3896 helping road engine #3940 as they pull a westbound freight out of Victorville and up to the Frost flyover circa 1950, thanks to Stan Kistler:

 

Here is #3911 by the water tanks in Victorville, while an eastbound passenger train is stopped by the depot, as shot by Chard Walker:

 

Frank Peterson photographed #3885 helping #3892 with a westbound freight climbing from Victorville to Frost in Dec. 1946:

 

In May of 1950 Chard Walker shot #3879 with an eastbound block of reefers by the Summit depot (perhaps a head-end helper had already been cut off the train):

The 2-10-2s were also used as rear-end helpers (ahead of the caboose if there were two of them).  Here we see #3895 and early 2-10-2 #1621 working hard behind an eastbound train at the Alray tunnels in Sep. 1947, thanks to Donald Duke:

 

Frank Peterson shot #3879 helping #3878 with a westbound freight as it pulled into Summit from Victorville in Oct. 1948:

 

Here we see #3857 helping 3-unit FT set #131 with a westbound freight approaching Summit in Sep. 1947, as shot by Frank Peterson:

 

Chard Walker shot #3895 passing the water tanks in Victorville, where the helpers took on water, turned on the wye, and waited for the next westbound freight to help:

 

Here we see #3858 helping a set of two F-units out of Victorville and west through Frost (photographer and date unknown):

Jack Whitmeyer shot #3841 helping F7 set #222 with a westbound freight entering Summit in June of 1952.  This was the last year that the 2-10-2s were used on Cajon Pass, and in these final years they were only used during the June "spud rush," when many of the freight F-units were sent to the Valley Division to handle the potato crop, and the 2-10-2s returned to work on Cajon Pass for about a month each year:

 

Our final shot shows #3844 and 2-8-2 #4009 pushing ahead of the caboose on a eastbound freight at Sullivan's curve in June of 1949 (the spud rush again), thanks to Jack Whitmeyer:

Let's look at the various HO models that have been made of these locos. Northwest Short Line imported brass models in 1961 that represented #3850-3869 as built:

 

Then came the numerous PFM (United) brass models during the 1960s that represented #3891-3915 as built (with the slanted cab front wall):

Key imported some brass models in 1986 that represented #3800-3890 as modernized (extended cab and drifting valves, etc.):

Broadway Limited delivered styrene models in 2006 that represented #3876-3882 as built:

And then Broadway Limited came through in 2014 with the modernized version that most of us wanted, for locos #3850-3890:

Now it's time to review the progress on my layout during the last two weeks.

All my attention during the first week was focused on learning about the use of Touch Toggles for control panels, as sold by Berrett Hill Shop.  I copied and printed a lot of pages from their website to study all week:

https://www.berretthillshop.com/

I also had two long phone calls with the owner, Kevin Hunter, to get many of my questions answered.  He likes to talk and is very helpful.

My biggest question was about whether he has any product that can replace a rotary switch on a panel, for DC cab control.  I want to have three cabs to select from on the lower deck and four cabs on the upper deck. 

He said that he's been developing a logic board that will handle four cabs, and that item will be available very soon, so that was good news.  A group of Touch Toggles would act like radio pushbuttons, where only one is selected (lit up yellow) at a time.

Before I switched to trying Touch Toggles in my panel designs, I made a final updated version of my pencil drawing showing all three mainline panels, still using mechanical switches:

Then I decided to try drawing each panel full size on an 8.5x11" sheet of paper, but now using only Touch Toggles.  I began with the easiest one, for Turntable Tower, and I began by drawing 3/4" squares to show the space taken by each Touch Toggle. 

A toggle for a turnout has two lights, one above the other, and one light (on the through track) changes between green and dark, while the other (on the diverging track) changes between dark and red, to show which route through the turnout is selected.  In the case of a crossover, they sell a subordinate third light for the parallel track, which also shows green or dark, to match the first parallel track.

Here is my first drawing of Turntable Tower using Touch Toggles.  There is a row of three toggles for each block, where the user touches the cab number he wants to use (cab 1, 2, or 3) in that block, and it lights up yellow while the others turn dark:

Next I made a first drawing for Reversing Tower, but this time I skipped drawing the 3/4" squares for the toggles and just drew the locations of the lights.  Here is that drawing:

Finally, I attempted to draw the most complex panel, the one for ABC Tower, but I found that it really doesn't fit in my 11" sheet of paper.  I plan to split this panel into two adjacent panels.  Here is the overcrowded drawing:

This week I was lucky to have three helpers visit me to work on my layout with me.

Bill Messecar was here on Tuesday morning, and he continued to solder feeder wires to the inner mainline track, while I prepared each feeder by adding two 90-degree bends into the bare end of each wire.  I asked him to pose while holding some Victorville buildings he had scratch-built for me -- the Victorville depot and two pump houses:

George Chambers arrived after lunch on Wednesday and brought some sample models of aluminum panels he had bought for modeling the Victorville Lime Rock plant.  He went to work gluing down sheets of cork to support the staging yards, picking up where Travis Mahan had left off.  He posed with the caulk gun after finishing the first yard of sheet cork:

On the same afternoon, Ray Rydberg arrived an hour later and added a lot more Velcro straps around the bus wires along the edges of the layout.  Here's a photo of Ray at work:

 

Meanwhile, I was clamping down a lot of suitcase connectors to connect the outer mainline feeders to the bus wires.  Then we tested about ten more old Rivarossi steam locos that Ray had collected -- most ran okay, but a few didn't.

Those were two very productive days, and I hope my helpers can return again before long.  New helpers are always needed too, of course.

The rest of my time was spent on revising my control panel drawings, following the daily advice I got from Tim Fisher and Don Borden.  

 

We decided to have four Touch Toggles in a row for selecting one cab number for each block, and only one will light up yellow at a time, and the fourth one will be used as an Off button for the block.  The rows of cab buttons are now drawn above of each track, but Don may want to arrange them differently.

Here is a scan of the latest pencil drawing for the Turntable Tower panel:

I'll work on the other panels this week, including splitting the too-large ABC Tower into two adjacent panels -- one for A-B Tower and one for C Tower.  And I'll stay in touch with Kevin Hunter at Berrett Hill Shop with the questions we still have about his Touch Toggles.