Santa Fe's Freight Diesel Locos in Victorville, Visiting Some Layouts, & Assembling a Control Panel

This time I will provide links to past blog entries about Santa Fe's freight diesel locos, and then I will cover some layout operating sessions I attended in Canada, and some recent progress in assembling a control panel with Touch Toggles.

Here's one sample of the Santa Fe freight diesel locos we have covered in our past blog entries:

Here we see F7 #206 climbing west from Victorville to Frost in Oct. 1950, as shot by Frank Peterson:

Here's a list of links that should take you to any of the past blog entries for Santa Fe's freight diesel locos:

SF Freight FTs with Full Red Stripe – Nov-28-2021

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2021/11/santa-fes-ft-diesels-1st-paint-in.html

SF Freight FTs with Partial Red Stripe – Feb-12-2023

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2023/02/santa-fes-freight-ft-diesels-in-postwar.html

SF Freight F3s & Early F7s – Jun-26-2022

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2022/06/santa-fes-first-freight-f3-f7-diesels.html

SF Freight FTs with No Red Stripe – Jul-23-2023

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2023/07/santa-fes-fts-with-no-red-stripe-in.html

SF Freight FTs in All-Blue Scheme – Nov-13-2022

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2022/11/santa-fes-all-blue-fts-in-victorville.html

SF Freight Late F7s – Nov-5-2023

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2023/11/santa-fes-later-freight-f7s-in.html

SF Freight F9s – Mar-6-2022

https://victorvillelayout.blogspot.com/2022/03/santa-fes-freight-f9-diesels-in.html

Here's a sample photo from each of these previous blog entries:

SF Freight FTs with Full Red Stripe – Nov-28-2021

Here's a Jan. 1945 photo of FT set #107 arriving at Summit from Victorville, still in its ABBB configuration, as shot by Fletcher Swan:

SF Freight FTs with Partial Red Stripe – Feb-12-2023

Here we see FT set #145 (in partial red stripes) heading west out of Victorville, past the Rainbow Bridge and through the Upper Narrows, thanks to Chard Walker:

SF Freight F3s & Early F7s – Jun-26-2022

Here's a shot of F7 #206  descending Cajon Pass with a westbound freight at Keenbrook, thanks to Chard Walker:

SF Freight FTs with No Red Stripe – Jul-23-2023

Here we see two of the two-unit FT helper sets, led by #411, pushing on the rear of an eastbound freight as it rounds Sullivan's Curve (this is a Santa Fe photo):

SF Freight FTs in All-Blue Scheme – Nov-13-2022

Here we see FT set #170 as a helper at Summit in May of 1951, as shot by Chard Walker:

SF Freight Late F7s – Nov-5-2023

Stan Kistler got a magnificent shot of new F7 set #234 leaving Victorville with a westbound freight, coming through the Upper Narrows in May, 1951:

SF Freight F9s – Mar-6-2022

Here is F9 set #283, with 283C in the lead, climbing westbound just outside Victorville, passing the West Victorville siding and nearing the Frost Flyover, in April of 1959, as shot by Allan Styffe:

My next subject is the three layouts I visited in Surrey, BC, Canada, during the NMRA Pacific Northwest Region's convention of May 22-25.  I was on a road trip with my friend Bill Messecar to attend the convention, which included a mix of clinics and visits to local layouts.  I didn't make any progress on my own layout that week.

On Wednesday evening, May 22, we operated at Mike Chandler's Western Midland Railroad, set in northern Montana in 1938 (all steam).  The operations are hands-off, using powered turnouts and magnets between the rails for uncoupling.  There is an agent stationed in each aisle to assist the one-man train crews and to report fast-clock times to a dispatcher.  We used plug-in walk-around DCC throttles.  The scenery is spectacular and nearly complete.

Here we see Mike Chandler behind his large roundhouse shared by the two main yards:

Here's the aisle where the rock scenery goes all the way to the floor:

Here's one more scene, showing the lumber mill (he scratch-builds virtually all of his structures):

I had a great time running his short passenger train around, and then running a way freight that stopped to switch several of the towns, using the usual car cards and waybills.

On Friday evening we operated at the very large HO layout of Blair Sturgeon, which models the Santa Fe in 1970 along Raton Pass in Colorado-New Mexico, plus a loop like Tehachapi Loop in one of the areas, so he calls the layout Ratachapi.  

We used DCC throttles and car cards and waybills, and Blair and a couple of other regulars helped us along.  The layout is three levels high and has an eight-level helix in one of the rooms.  There is not much scenery so far, but there are quite a few structures along the way.  Most of the turnouts are powered.

Here is Blair Sturgeon posing by his roundhouse scene:

In the main room, we see part of Raton yard at the left, and the Tehachapi Loop (in reverse) in the center:

Here's an action shot, showing three of the crew members switching Raton Yard, with Blair in the foreground and Bill Messecar in the distance:

I got to run the Hi-Level El Capitan all around the layout, and then I ran a Manifest Freight that switched cars in Trinidad yard, and then I ran the Fast Mail part-way around.

On Saturday morning we went to tour (but not operate) the HO layout of Scott Calvert, who models the Canadian Pacific around Nelson, BC.  The layout is named the CPR Boundary Sub, set in the early 1960s, and it's a very large muliti-deck layout, run by DCC.  There is not much scenery yet.

Scott posed for me in one of the aisles:

Here is the diesel shop and large yard at Nelson, BC:

Here's a staging yard with lots of CP power:

From there we left for home, reviewing what we had learned from the clinics and the several layouts.  We had a great time.

This past week was devoted to assembling the control panel for C Tower, which is probably the most complex panel of the 12 panels planned for the lower staging deck, and also devoted to considering where and how it should be mounted at the edge of the benchwork.  My friends also made good progress on the structures they have been working on for me, as you will see.

Let's begin with the updated control panel drawing that Don Borden made for me, moving some things over to make room for the 3/4" square that each Touch Toggle requires (and crossovers require a taller rectangle):

25 Touch Toggles with their wires are required to cover all these buttons -- 12 cab selection buttons (four sets of 3 buttons in a row for each DC block), 4 on-off loco parking spot locations on Tracks C2 & C3, and 9 turnout buttons (with 2 lights per turnout, or 3 for a crossover).

My first step was to tape the panel drawing to a window, with the back side of the paper facing me, and to trace the circular button locations lightly in pencil.  Then I took it off the window and used a ruler to lightly draw a 3/4" square around each circle, to be used to locate all the Touch Toggle squares.

Later I made a copy of this pencil drawing and went over it with darker pencil lines, and I added a label to each toggle square, based on its label on the front side.  Here's my drawing of the squares and labels as they are arranged on the back side of the panel:

My next step was to use double-sided tape to attach each Touch Toggle to its location on the back of the panel drawing.  Then I added one-sided tape over the tops, to hold them in place more firmly.  I routed all the wires to the bottom of the panel, thinking (wrongly) that that's where the base units would be located.

I was worried that the wires would not be able to reach their base units located on other boards, so I phoned Kevin Hunter, the maker of Touch Toggles, and he gave me the good news that they make extension wires that are 6" and 12" long, or longer, so the distance to the base units will not be a problem!

Back to the panel...  I decided to wrap an inch of masking tape around the lower end of each toggle wire, so that I could write the label for each wire on each side of the tape, so that I'd know which kind of base unit to plug it into (see below):

You can see all the toggles now taped to back of the panel drawing.  My map of the toggle labels is on the right, and all the wires with toggle labels are below the panel, and the rows of base units are on the left, not yet plugged into anything.

I cut out a sheet of polyester batting to fill the back of the panel, then attached the back of the panel, with the 25 wires squeezing though the bottom and causing a bulge there.  I may want to cut out the lower part of the panel back to prevent the bulge.

Then I plugged each toggle wire into its proper base unit -- the turnout controls and parking-spot controls go to one kind of base unit for 24V power, and the cab selectors all go to the 12V base units, as seen in the upper layer of base units below:

When the rows of base units were plugged into the nearest wall outlets, lo and behold, all the toggle lights came on, in various colors, as seen here:

When I touched the lights, they changed colors, depending on their functions.  In this photo, the green lights do not show up well, but they do when seen in person.  Some of the lights are not in the precise locations they should be, so I'll need to move them a bit.  My crossover lights were blinking, so I need to phone Kevin Hunter about that anomaly.

I felt that this was a major milestone, to actually get a whole panel of various Touch Toggles to light up and respond to my touch.  None of the base units are wired to turnouts or track blocks yet, so nothing happens on the layout yet.  One step at a time!

The other issue with the panel this week was how to attach it to the benchwork.  My first idea was to have it stand at an angle close to vertical on top of the 32"-high benchwork, but my panel advisors, Tim Fisher and Don Borden, warned that it would get in the way of seeing the tracks and reaching in to fix derailments.

They recommended a drawer arrangement, where the panel would slide out when an operator needed to touch a button, and then slide back in, but I don't yet see how that would work with the benchwork framing and bus wires in the way there.  They have ideas to solve that.

A third idea is to hinge the panel so that it hangs vertically from the edge of the benchwork, so that an operator can rotate it up to horizontal, push some buttons, and then lower it down to vertical again.  In the wider aisles, the panel could stay in the horizontal position.

Here's a photo of me posing with two C Tower panels, one above the benchwork (my first idea), and a hinged one rotated to near horizontal (my third idea), in the narrow aisle there.  I clamped a 1x4 board along the top, to show where the edge of the upper deck framing will be:

Tim Fisher reminded me that I'll want to stagger the lower deck panel locations with the upper deck panel locations, so that operators can use both at the same times.  So I made a first plan for where the upper deck panels might go, based on where most of the turnouts are located, and I came up with seven upper deck panel locations, as seen here with yellow Post-it notes, numbered 1 through 7:

The numbered panels are:

1. Industry Spurs

2. Right Side of Wye

3. Left Side of Wye

4. Cement Plant

5. Throat of Cement Plant

6. Triple Double-Slip Switches

7. Staging Tracks

So, one of the goals will be to locate the 7 upper deck panels and the 12 lower deck panels in different locations around the edges of the layout.  I should work on that plan sometime.

Meanwhile, my local friend Don Hubbard has completed a beautiful model of the Grandt Line Warehouse kit to serve as my Standard Oil bulk dealer (a stand-in, since we have no ground-level photos of the actual building).  Here is his photo of his model:

And my friend in Victorville, Craig Wisch, has been hard at work on his cardstock model of the large Hayward Lumber building.  Here is what the front side looks like, as of today:

And here is the track side, which we will not normally see from the aisle of the layout:

My friend Bill Messecar has begun working on a scratch-built model of the freight carbody building that was adjacent to the passenger carbody in Victorville (which he previously built for me).

In the coming two weeks, I need to focus on a PowerPoint presentation about my layout, which I am scheduled to give via Zoom to the East Coast Santa Fe Modelers on June 15.  I'm supposed to include information about my use of Touch Toggles, which is why I'm also working on those.