UP's E8/E9 Diesels in Victorville, and Getting Layout Help from More Volunteers

This time we'll cover the Union Pacific's E8 and E9 passenger diesels that ran through Victorville and over Cajon Pass, and then we'll take a look at some layout help I've been getting from my team of volunteers.

The E8 and E9 diesels were externally identical, except for a rubber rim around the headlight of an E8.  On the UP they were normally paired as A and B units, with extra units of various types added as needed.

The UP got E8s #926-930 in May-Aug. 1950, plus #925 in June, 1952.  Then came E8s #931-942 in March-May 1953.

They got E9s #943-947 in May-June 1954, then #948-956 in May-June 1955.   #957-962 arrived in Sep-Oct. 1955, then #900-907 in May-June 1956.  But #908-909 arrived after my time period, in Aug. 1961, followed by #910-911 in Dec. 1962 and #912-914 in Dec. 1963.

I didn't find many photos of E8s or E9s shot on Cajon Pass during my time period -- most of the shots were made in the 1960s.  But here's a postcard view of E8 #942 leading an A-B-A set with the new Challenger train in Cajon Pass in June of 1954:

 

Here we see E8 #932 and two more E units with the eastbound City of St. Louis train nearing Summit, with TR5 set #1872 as a helper.  This was shot by Don Sims c.1953:

 

Alan Styffe shot the westbound City of St. Louis train at Summit in Jan. 1957, behind E9 #905 and trailing units:

Here we see E9 #930 and two trailing units with the eastbound City of St. Louis at Alray in Dec. 1954, thanks to Robert Heuerman:

Here's a mid-to-late 1950s UP publicity photo of E9 #949 and trailing units leading the eastbound City of St. Louis around Sullivan's Curve:

 

I'll add just one 1960s shot by Jack Whitmeyer, showing E9 #910 and three trailing units with an eastbound train at Cajon:

 

These diesels would have also been pulling the City of Los Angeles train, but those crossings were in the dark.

There have been plenty of HO styrene models of UP E8s and E9s.  Here's the Proto 2000 model of an E8:

 Here's the later Walthers Proto model of an E9:

Broadway Limited also made an E9 model:
 

And so did Rapido:

Turning now to my layout progress, I got a new volunteer named George Chambers, who is interested in helping to build structures for my future Victorville scenes.  He stopped by to see the layout and to show me some O-scale models he has built, which he posed with here:

 

I began to discuss the various buildings needed in Victorville, and he chose the very first one I mentioned, which is the Victorville Lime Rock Company plant that was near the Upper Narrows end of town (and still is, now greatly expanded).  Here's a newspaper photo of the plant in 1949, before the 1953 expansion:

Here's where the plant would fit on my layout:

I sent George lots of photos and scale drawings of the plant (thanks to Wayne Lawson), and he is beginning to work on it.  The plant may be a bit wider than my trackplan shows, so it may have to extend into the aisle by an inch or less.

The next big event was a work session a couple of days ago, attended by Ray Rydberg (again), Bill Messecar (again), and Colin Kikawa (his first time here).  Here are the three helpers posing beside the layout (left to right, Ray, Bill, and Colin):

We set up a process for finishing the last few feeders on the outer mainline, then for adding many new feeders to the inner mainline.  I marked the spots for the feeders, Colin came behind me to drill a pair of holes at each spot, then Ray followed by cutting, stripping, and inserting a 22 ga solid feeder wire into each hole, and Bill followed him by soldering each feeder to its rail.  We had used red and black wires on the outer main, but we're using yellow and blue on the inner main.

Two of my helpers left at lunchtime, but Ray stayed and worked until 3 pm.  Ray and I also worked on adding more Velcro straps to hold the bus wires.  The team got a lot accomplished pretty quickly -- thank you!

Turing now to the ongoing control panels project, a new volunteer from my online Cajon Pass Group, Don Borden (back east), has offered to use his CAD experience in drawing control panel artwork to draw my final panel designs for me.  I would then print them here and attach them to the back face of clear Plexiglas panels.  Here is a sample drawing he sent me, showing the design for his own LA & Victorville staging yard controls:

I spent part of my time revising my drawings for the three mainline control panels, following lots of good advice I got from my wiring expert, Tim Fisher.  I'm attaching the latest version of the panel drawings, which are still just preliminary designs.  I've added block names and some track names to the drawings, as well as a couple of Reversing track switches (REV) in the Reversing Tower panel:

In this plan, each powered Atlas turnout will be controlled by a toggle switch that both sets and shows its direction, with a pushbutton beside it to actually throw the turnout momentarily.  You can see these pairs of switches and buttons on the diagrams.

I reviewed the chapters of the wiring books on how to build a control panel, and then I watched lots of online videos about the process.  

I came across one video that shows a new technology I was not familiar with, called Touch Toggles by Berrett Hill Shop.  Basically, this might allow me to create touch-screen control panels instead of using mechanical toggles and buttons and rotaries.  Here is their website:  https://www.berretthillshop.com/

Here's a photo of the sort of control panel that they can create, with lights that change color and cause layout actions when you touch them:

I'm initially excited about this technology, but I have a lot of questions about whether it can apply to my situation, so I will try to contact them this week for some answers.

Meanwhile, I'll try to organize more work sessions to get more of my layout wiring finished.  If you would like to help, just let me know.