Last time I covered the 1946-47 Super Chief, so this time I'll visit the UP's 1946-47 City of Los Angeles train. Then I'll cover a bit of layout work and a lot of help from others in making buildings for my layout. I'll also cover a fun steam train ride I went on.
In early 1946 Union Pacific's postwar City of Los Angeles train was running only every third day, using just two trainsets (the "7th Train" and the "9th Train") and two sets of power: an E2A-E6B-E6B set and an E6A-E2B-E2B set (they had mixed the E2s and E6s to try to equalize the power for each train).
Here's a color photo to introduce Union Pacific's postwar City of Los Angeles train. UP researcher Jeff Koeller sent it to me with some comments that follow the photo.
Train No. 104, the eastbound COLA 7th Train, is posed for the company photographer just before entering Aspen Tunnel at MP 917.21.
The photo was taken prior to the August 1946 renumbering, and after UP coach 5361 was added on May 6, 1946 (this is the first car after baggage-dormitory LA-101). The power units are E6A LA-4 (2nd), E2B LA-2 and E2B LA-3, which represents the 5,600 horsepower combination created in December 1943 by swapping the A-units in the 7th and 9th Trains.
Here is Jeff Koeller's table of the consists of both trainsets:
Jeff also sent me all the following notes and photos of the 1946 train:
The table for the "UP-C&NW COLA July 1946 Consists” is based on the 1941 consists in Ranks & Kratville’s book, Union Pacific Streamliners, and updated to July 1946 from information in the Official Guide for July 1946. Of course, that publication doesn’t list the car names or numbers, nor does it include the Bagg-Dorm cars. Also, for the coaches, it just indicates there were 3 cars, but I’ve been able to update all of that through various other resources including UP inter-department letters.
All of the cars in these two trains continued to feature City of Los Angeles lettering on the letterboards, including the two 5331-series coaches added in May 1946, which also had UNION PACIFIC sublettering on the ends of the letterboard.
The consists for the COLA 7th and 9th Trains would remain essentially as indicated up to the beginning of daily service, inaugurated on May 14, 1947. At that time, two new consists were created, and the amount of sleeping cars was reduced to 5 cars per consist.
However, by the time daily service began, the COLA train name had been dropped from the letterboards, and only the sleeping cars retained their car names. The names for non-sleeping cars were dropped and just the car numbers were used (applied over the trucks). For example, Sun Valley became LA-901. The non-sleeping cars also received the “Streamliner” logo in the center of the car side.
The sleeping cars simply had the word PULLMAN in 8-inch letters on the letterboard in a rather tightly-spaced arrangement. Individually owned non-sleeping cars had railroad ownership lettering in the letterboards, but all jointly-owned cars had 5-inch UNION PACIFIC at the left end of the letterboard, with 5-inch CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN lettering at the right end of the letterboard (same arrangement on both sides of the cars).
In July 1946, the two COLA consists were powered by an E6-E2-E2 set (LA-4, LA-2, LA-3 on the 7th Train) and an E2-E6-E6 set (LA-1, LA-5, LA-6 on the 9th Train). The lead A-units had been swapped in December 1943 in an effort to better balance horsepower (per Wayner's Car Names, Numbers and Consists).
Wayner’s CNN&C book is in error where it says that the units “exchanged numbers and positions” (on page 152). It should say that the units “exchanged positions.” The engine numbers listed here are correct.
This all changed in August 1946 when the new E7s were delivered. Now, the UP-C&NW E7 ABB set (927A, 928B, 929B) replaced the 1937-built E2s. UP-C&NW E7 units 930A and 931A were also used on the COLA, in combination with the 1941 UP-C&NW E6s in a general COLA power pool, but these units, along with the UP-C&NW E2s were also used to dieselize the Los Angeles Limited between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City at this time.
The use of COLA-lettered power units on the LA Limited eventually led to the elimination of the train name lettering in the red “name banners” on the locomotive sides, leaving just a blank, red banner. This was done at least by spring 1947. Note that E7s 930A and 931A never did have train names in their red name banners, as they were intended for City of Portland service, but were delivered about six months prior to the start of COP daily service.
Here is another well known UP company photo showing No. 103, the westbound COLA 9th Train, posed at Riview, Wyoming, MP 821.07 (4 1/2 miles west of Green River). The photo was taken prior to the August 1946 renumbering, and after UP coach 5359 replaced UP coach-lounge 5203 in the 9th Train on May 3, 1946 (this is the first car after baggage-dormitory LA-103).
The power units are E2A LA-1, E6B LA-5 and E6B LA-6, which represents the 5,800 horsepower combination created in December 1943 when the cab units were swapped in the 7th and 9th Trains in an effort to better balance horsepower needs. The green, anti-glare paint on the top of LA-1's nose is a good post-war spotting feature.
After the E7s were delivered in August 1946, the E2s were more or less relegated to the Los Angeles Limited (because the COLA got all the newest and most powerful locomotives).
But that transition was not entirely completed when Stan Kistler shot the COLA backing out of LAUPT on October 18, 1946. Here is E2 921A, along with E6 925B and relatively new E7 928B. Note that by this date, matched power sets were becoming more rare as the engines basically went into a power “pool."
Below is a Jack Whitmeyer photo of the Los Angles Limited at San Bernardino on February 15, 1947. This view shows COLA engines running on the LA Limited after the delivery of the E7s, and after the August 1946 renumbering. The engines are UP-C&NW E6A 924A (ex LA-4), UP-C&NW E6B 926B (ex LA-6) and UP-C&NW E2B 922B (ex LA-2).
Here's a photo showing the new E7 927A and two B units with the COLA as it approaches LAUPT in late 1946 or early 1947, as shot by Charles Robinson:
This ends the notes I've selected from Jeff Koeller's recent emails to me.
Let's also take a quick look at the COLA train times in Victorville during this 1946 and early 1947 time period. (This train did not stop in Victorville.)
As of June 1946, the westbound COLA, Train 203 (UP Train 103) came through at 6:16 a.m., and the eastbound COLA came though at 7:21 pm. At this time it ran only every third day, with 203 leaving Barstow on the 2nd, 5th, 8th, etc. of the month, and 204 leaving San Bernardino on the 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc. of the month.
Starting on Sep. 29, 1946, the COLA began running three times a week, to compete better with the Super Chief. The schedule in Nov. 1946 had Train 203 coming through at 6:16 a.m. and Train 204 at 7:51 pm. Train 203 arrived in SB every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. Train 204 left SB every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
These are basically daylight hours in Victorville, but if I want to avoid modeling these two trainsets (the 7th and 9th Trains), I could operate on the days of the week when the trains were not in town. Both trainsets would require all brass HO cars, which I don't have.
This completes the coverage of the 1946-early 1947 COLA train. Next comes some layout progress (or lack of it) and a steam train ride.
During the week of July 22 I received the sets of hinges I had ordered -- six piano hinges, each 12" long, and five pairs of friction hinges, each of which has a screw that lets me adjust the amount of friction. The piano hinges are for the 16x20" base boards that will hold the Touch Toggle base units and some terminal strips, while there will be two friction hinges behind each control panel, to allow it to rotate up to whatever angle the operator wishes.
I didn't screw the hinges onto the boards yet, but I laid them out on the floor to check how the parts will go together, referring to the drawing I had made previously (seen on the right side of each photo here).
First, here's a view of a 12" piano hinge at the top of a base board, connecting to a spacer board that allows all the bus wires to pass below the layout frame and above the base board:
The two black friction hinges will be used in the 2nd layer, when the control panel is placed in front of the base board, as seen here:
As you can see, this will be a fairly complex construction, with spacer boards needed for the piano hinge and for each of the friction hinges.
On that Friday I was gone with my wife to visit the town of Mukilteo, 40 minutes north of us, to pick up two Santa Fe brass locos that Gary Jordan had painted for me (and to have lunch and walk on the beach). Here is Gary's photo of one of the locos, an old Balboa model of 4-6-2 #3443:
The other loco is a Sunset pre-painted 2-8-2, which he lettered as #4009. Both need to go back for some extra paint details, such as gray smokebox fronts and smokestacks, and the 4009 needs weathering.
Meanwhile, Craig Wisch in Victorville (where the weather has been very hot) is making progress on his cardstock model of the old Santa Fe Hotel. Here is the front view, but the front wall windows and doors have not been added yet, and the porch roof posts are leaning there:
Here is the back side of the hotel, which had a sloping rooftop:
On Sunday, July 28, I drove with my wife and son for almost two hours to get to the Elbe depot of the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad by 3:00 pm, for the 3:30 steam train ride, which carried a full load of passengers.
While the passengers were boarding, I walked to the front of the train to shoot a photo of the 2-8-2 loco:
As usual, we walked inside the train to the first car behind the loco, and I posed at the front door of the car, just behind the tender:
This car has open sides and no seats, and we enjoyed standing by the open windows and rocking back and forth for the entire 75-minute trip to Mineral and back. I was in heaven, with the chugging sounds of the loco, the steam whistle, and the smell of the smoke!
As we were arriving in Mineral after about 30 minutes, I shot a photo of the yard with its stored locos and cars:
We watched as our loco uncoupled and backed around the train, getting ready to pull it back to Elbe with the tender first:
On the way back, we were now in the last car of the train, so I could get some shots out the windows as we rounded the curves, like this one:
Back at the Elbe depot, I got more shots of the loco and train, including this one as the loco ran forward around the train to get back to the front end:
The loco is lettered as Polson Logging Co. #70. You may recall that I went on a similar ride about a year ago and reported it here.
This past week I made no actual progress on the layout (the weather was too nice), but I do have some layout helpers who are working on Victorville buildings for me. My architect friend in Wisconsin, Jim Coady, has developed a beautiful set of drawings for the cafe that was adjacent to the Texaco station in the Lower Narrows, working just from three old photos we have, thanks to Jack Dykstra. Here's another one of those old photos:
Because of space limitations on my layout, we are not including the extension on the right end, which we think was probably the residence of the owners, the Rosso family. Jack used to visit the cafe in the postwar years, as the Rossos were his uncle and aunt, and he used to sit by a back window and watch as the trains came through the Lower Narrows.
Here is the cover drawing that Jim Coady developed for me and for Bill Messecar, who has volunteered to scratch-build this cafe:
And here is just one section of his scale drawings:
I sent all the drawings to Jack Dykstra for review, and he sent me some notes on where the door and windows should be on the back side (not shown here), and what the small sign board over the main front window (currently missing from the drawings) should say: ROSSO'S COFFEE SHOP. I will do some red-ink mark-ups for a final revision by Jim.
My friend Don Borden, in the eastern US, made some minor revisions to three of his control panel drawings for me, such as this one showing the left part of the C Yard, which now has more parking spots along Track C4:
And my friend in Victorville, Craig Wisch, has continued to work on his cardstock model of the Santa Fe Hotel, which we hear was home to some ladies of the night during my time period! Here is a rear and side view of the model, which now has some roofing on top:
Here is Craig's plan for the front wall of the hotel, which will also have a covered front porch on the lower level:
There were many emails back and forth with my helpers, which kept me busy for some the week.
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