Santa Fe's Heavy 2-8-0s in Victorville & New Buildings for the Layout

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:

Last week there was some question about whether there would be room for the hay storage structure beside the right rear of the store.  I did some calculations, based on how much space is taken by Wayne Lawson's four models along "industry row" (Hayward Lumber, Peterson Feed, Shell Oil, and Standard Oil), and I decided that I need to compress the widths of my lots quite a bit, so there's no room for the hay storage structure.

Here's an overhead photo that Wayne sent, showing his longer models of the lumber store and the feed store, but his lots are wedge-shaped because his tracks happen to curve there:

 

We also referenced my copy of the 1943 updates to the 1923 Sanborn map of this area, as seen here:

 

 

The only thing I got done on my layout that week was to get all the loose feeder wires off the floor and re-attach them to the benchwork leading into the staging room.  I'm finding that the Gorilla tape is not really needed if I can just press a push-pin firmly into the top part of each Velcro strap (from the back side).

Here's a rather pathetic photo showing the bus wires now off the floor:

 

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.

 

Craig Wisch's beautiful model of the control house for the electrical switching station in the Lower Narrows arrived early this week.  It's quite large, and it survived the journey well, thanks to lots of good packing around the delicate poles (vigas) that stick out along the top part of the building.

The three roof vents were not yet attached to the rooftop, so I finished painting them with some gray paint and then glued them to the rooftop with Aleene's Tacky Glue, to match the locations in some aerial photos of the rooftop.

Here's my photo of the front of the building, after I set it next to my other recent models:

 

 

Note how much larger it is than the old jail that Craig had sent me the previous week, and the old Sheriff's Office on the far right, which Bill Messecar built for me a couple of years ago.

I turned the model around and then shot the back side (note the three roof vents):

 

Many thanks to Craig Wisch for his beautiful cardstock models!  He is now busy working on his model of the Peterson Feed Store.

There were more emails back and forth between Jim Coady, Craig Wisch, and myself, discussing the feasibility of building an HO model of the 36" long Rainbow Bridge someday.  We're now leaning against trying to 3D-print the parts from Jim's CAD model, in favor of Craig someday building a cardstock model of the bridge, using actual photos of the bridge parts, showing the rivets and all.  But that's just a dream at this point in time.

On Thursday morning Bill Messecar kindly visited me again, and we worked on removing all the kinks in the mainline track curves, where the rail joiners are located and the rails are not attached to the ties.  He showed me how to use tiny HO rail spikes to hold the rail joiners in place, by pushing a number of spikes into the cork roadbed and against the rail joiners and rails.  All the curves appear to be very smooth now!  I took him out to lunch when we finished.

In the next days I worked in the staging room, along the edges of the layout and sometimes under it, reattaching all the Velcro straps to the edges of the benchwork, to support the bus wires.  I gave up on the Gorilla Tape and replaced it all with just push-pins, twisting them back and forth to push them hard into the benchwork wood.  

Here's a photo from inside the return loop in the staging room, showing the push-pins holding the Velcro straps where the bus wires cut across the end of the layout.  Note that there are loose feeder wires from the inner mainline track that have not been attached to the bus wires yet:

 

In the October issue of Railroad Model Craftsman I read Jason Shron's excellent column (page 90) about "Building a Large Layout."  He concludes, "take some time to think about what you most enjoy about the hobby.  Prioritize what is most important to you, and don't worry about impressing your friends.  If your construction plan reflects what you really enjoy the most, you won't run out of steam.  Model railroading can be all about the journey rather than the destination."

So, with that in mind, I made a new short-term task list to focus on achieving what I like the most, which is to watch two trains running around in opposite directions on double tracks.  I already had the outer mainline wired and running (although some bus wires have come loose from terminal strips since then), so now I want to focus on getting the inner mainline wired and running too.

Here are the steps I listed for myself (and any helpers who can visit me):

1. Make a wiring diagram for the mainline blocks (instead of trying to keep it in my head).

2. Label all the wires by wrapping masking tape labels around them.

3. Connect all the inner mainline feeder wires to their bus wires, using suitcase connectors.

4. Connect all the bus wires to temporary terminal strips that connect the outer mainline blocks to one group of terminal strips and the inner mainline blocks to a second group of terminal strips

5. Buy a second power pack to power the inner mainline.  (Ignore the goal of walk-around control with radio throttles for now.)

6.  Connect the outer mainline's terminal strips to one power pack, and the inner mainline's terminal strips to the second power pack.

7. Spike shut all the mainline turnouts for now, so trains won't derail on partly open turnouts.

8. Test the operation of trains on both mainlines with both power packs.

9. Get back to finalizing the four mainline control panel drawings.

10. Build all four control panels and wire them into the mainline circuits, one by one, with separate cab controls for each mainline block.  (Recall that I'll be using Touch Toggles.)

11. Add power to the mainline turnouts, and wire them into the control panels and test them.

12. Test the mainlines by running lots of different trains around and through the mainline turnouts.

I have no set schedule for this work, but I think it has all the steps that I want to start taking.  Your suggestions are welcome.  If I want to take a break from wiring, there are always the F Yard tracks that need to be completed in the staging room. 

Layout helpers are always welcome, either in person or by building models remotely.

I've added another photo to the previous blog entry about Santa Fe's GP9s, showing GP9 #701 helping PAs with the eastbound Grand Canyon on Sullivan's curve in 1956.

Santa Fe's GP9 Diesels in Victorville & Minimal Layout Progress

Our Victorville motive power this time will be Santa Fe's EMD GP9 diesels.  Then we'll look at my minimal layout progress since last time, due to two vacation trips in the last three weeks.

The Santa Fe didn't acquire any GP9 roadswitchers until the last year of my time period, 1956, when EMD was already producing "Phase 2" GP9 carbodies.  They got 32 units in May of 1956, #700-731.  In Feb. of 1957 they got four more, #732-735, and then in April of 1957 they got their final batch of 16 more, #736-751.

They apparently assigned some of them as helpers on Cajon Pass, as we shall see, but photos of them while still in Zebra Stripes are hard to find.  Here's a photo of #714 in San Bernardino, with no photographer nor date listed:

Here we see #710 and others by the San Bernardino sand tower in 1956, as shot by Seeth Corky Thompson:

Here we see #702 and #705 in Oceanside in May of 1961, thanks to the Don Ross collection:

Here's a Santa Fe publicity photo of #715, #710, and possibly others with an eastbound freight on Sullivan's Curve, probably when new in 1956:

 Gordon Glattenberg shot this excellent photo of #716, #723, and #708 working as rear helpers on an eastbound freight at Pine Lodge in August, 1959:

Finally, here's a great photo by Robert Hale, showing GP9 #701 helping PAs with the eastbound Grand Canyon on Sullivan's curve in 1956:

I'm not sure what HO models of these locos I have (they are packed away), but here are some I found on the Web.  Here's a Proto 2000 model:

And the later Walthers Mainline model:

And finally the Athearn Genesis model:

Now let's turn to my minimal layout progress, due to two vacation trips in three weeks.

In early September my friend Craig Wisch in Victorville finished adding the poles along the tops of the walls of the control house for the switching station at the Lower Narrows.  We learned that these poles are called "vigas".  Here's his latest photo of the front side:

And here's the back side:

Those poles look great!  His final step was going to be to add three different vents to the rooftop, but he later decided to have me do that step after he sends me the model and the plastic vents.

I had hoped to finish taping up all the Velcro straps that hold the bus wires along the layout edges, using the new single-sided Gorilla Tape that I bought, but I found that some of the straps that I and George Chambers had taped up are starting to come loose.  The tape sticks to the wood very well, but not so well to the Velcro straps:

So I got to work repairing the ones that came loose, using my new Gorilla Tape, and sometimes adding push-pins as needed for the heavier wire bundles:

Here's a final view showing some completed Velcro straps and wire bundles:

This week, after my latest vacation trip, I exchanged quite a few emails with Craig Wisch in Victorville about his next project, which is to build a cardstock model of the Peterson Feed Store that stood to the right of the Hayward Lumber Store, which stood to the right of the depot.  

He pointed out that my trackplan had not allowed enough depth for the feed store and the lumber store, so I'm working on a plan to extend the plywood to overhang by about 4" along the front of the layout there.  Here's a red-ink markup to show the idea (there is lots of extra aisle space there):

Wayne Lawson has modeled the feed store in N scale, and he sent us a photo of his model:

On the right rear is a covered hay storage area.  I haven't heard whether Craig will include that (and whether I have room for it).

Wayne also sent us his scale drawings of the building, including this front view:

So, Craig is anxious to get started on this model, as soon as we agree on the space available.

Let me know if you can come here and help work on the layout, or whether you can help from a distance by building models needed for the layout.  Thanks!