Our locomotive type this time will be the Santa Fe's heavy 2-8-0 steam locos. Then we'll look at a bit of layout progress, including receiving some very nice Victorville building models.
The Santa Fe had many early classes of 2-8-0 locos, but the ones seen near Cajon Pass in the postwar years were the 1900 Class (#1900-1919) built in 1912-1913 and the 1950 Class (#1950-1991) built in 1907. Worley says that they were practically identical, except that the bell was in front of the sand dome on the 1950 Class.
The latest photos I've seen of these locos near Cajon Pass were shot in 1949-1950.
#1901 was photographed in San Bernardino, where it may have been working as a switcher, by Jack Whitmeyer in Dec. 1950:
Jack Whitmeyer also shot #1901 working near the 5th Street Tower at the east end of the San Bernardino yard:
There are photos of 1950-Class locos working as helpers on Cajon Pass. In this photo we see #1983 helping 4-8-4 #2925 with an eastbound passenger train at Devore in Feb. 1949, thanks to James Ady:
Here we see #1987 resting while serving as the Victorville local switcher at the end of WW2, before the buildings inside the wye were repainted yellow:
In this photo from the Todd Peterson collection, #1987 is helping 2-10-2 #3886 with an eastbound freight at Keenbrook:
Finally, here's a great photo by Chard Walker, showing #1991 near the depot in Victorville, either working as the local switcher or between jobs as a helper engine:
I've identified two different brass models of the 1950-Class locos (and I have one of each). Here is the early PFM United model:
Here's a painted version of the PFM United model:
A later brass model was imported by Sunset, as seen here:
Now we'll look at some minimal layout progress over the last two weeks, highlighted by receiving the first two cardstock models of Victorville buildings that Craig Wisch has built and mailed to me.
in the first week I was in some sort of slump and didn't get much done, plus it's football season now, so I spend part of every weekend watching my teams on TV.
Early in the week I received a package from Craig Wisch in Victorville. He had packed and sent me his cardstock model of the old Victorville jail (which still stands there). It arrived in perfect condition, and I set it on the layout beside some other models that friends have recently built for me (it's the square, gray building in front):
Craig also began working on a model of the Peterson Feed Store, after we agreed on how much to compress the depth. Here's his photo of some early progress on the store:
But there was so much still to do with routing the bus wires, and attaching more of the feeder wires to them, and connecting the bus wires to four (future) control panels (or at least to two power packs, as a start). And wiring is my least favorite job on the layout.