UP's 1956 City of LA Train in Victorville & More C Yard Progress

In a previous entry we covered the Union Pacific's 1954-1955 City of Los Angeles train, so this time we'll visit the UP's 1956 version of the train, after it had acquired its E9 diesels, and when, for the first time, in off-peak travel seasons it was combined with the Challenger train.  Then we'll cover some progress in laying more tracks in the C Yard of my staging deck, plus another visit to Bill Messecar's layout.

First, here's a color postcard view of the City of Los Angeles train, circa 1956:

This shows new E9 #961 with two E9B units leading the first section of Train 104, the eastbound City of LA train, an all-Pullman Domeliner, in Echo Canyon, UT.   It's a UP publicity photo.

Here now is lots of great information on the 1956 train, thanks to UP researcher Jeff Koeller.

COLA 1956 Consists and Motive Power

On October 30, 1955, the route for Union Pacific’s Cities streamliners and secondary passenger trains between Chicago and Omaha was changed from long-standing operating partner Chicago & North Western to the Milwaukee Road, with Chicago Union Station becoming the new eastern terminal. This shift didn’t alter the basic consists of the City of Los Angeles, which had been relatively static since the delivery of the dome-observation-lounge cars and dome-diners in early 1955. 

The only noticeable change was the substitution of a few Milwaukee Road passenger cars, such as baggage-express cars and coaches for C&NW equipment. Also at this time, The Pullman Company assigned new “Line” numbers for the various sleeping car routes (due to a slight difference in mileage and to the change of railroad company, which required new operating agreements).  

The Milwaukee Road was thrilled to participate in such a prestigious operation, for which it upgraded trackage and equipment, as well as ordering new diesel locomotives for the service. However, competition from airlines and automobiles (with access to newly constructed freeways) led to a general decrease in train ridership and the inevitable merging of railroad services. UP’s response was to consolidate the City of Los Angeles and Challenger Domeliners between Chicago and Los Angeles effective April 29, 1956 (see the consist chart for the Consolidated COLA-Challenger Domeliner, below). 

Thus began a pattern of Chicago-Los Angeles train consolidations for off-season travel, with the trains running separately during summer seasons (and some holiday seasons). The summer season typically extended from early June through mid-September. A major upside to this realignment was that on June 2, 1956, the City of Los Angeles became an All-Pullman operation for the first time in its history (see the related All-Pullman consist chart, below). 

The year 1956 also brought several new sleeping car types into the COLA consists that were built by the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company. These included the Baker-class 5 Double Bed Room-Club cars, the Placid-class 11 Double Bed Room sleepers, three additional Ocean-class 2 Compartment-2 Drawing Room-5 Double Bed Room sleepers, and the National-class 6 Roomette-4 Double Bed Room-6 Section sleepers. The latter cars replaced American-class sleepers that had been previously operating in Line 4349 between the Twin Cities and Los Angeles, which route was shortened to Omaha-Los Angeles on April 29, 1956. 

Also in 1956, the UP’s ten 9000-series Dome-Obs-Lounge cars were converted for mid-train service by blanking out the rear-facing windows, and by adding a standard passageway door and diaphragm to the end. The work began after the conclusion of the summer season and was completed by the end of October. Now classified as Dome-Lounge cars, they ran mid-train in the All-Pullman summer consists, but they could still be used in end-of-train service during the off-peak seasons when the COLA and Challenger were consolidated. 

The 1956 COLA Domeliners continued to be handled by UP’s amazing fleet of E8s and E9s. At this time, UP began a program to equip the E8s and E9s with snow shields over their winterization hatches. Milwaukee Road also contributed to the Cities trains power pool with 18 new E9 units (six ABA sets numbered 200A, B, C through 205A, B C). Delivered in February, April and May 1956, they were painted in UP’s standard colors of Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray with red striping, lettering and heralds. Milwaukee’s E9s were subsequently renumbered to 30A, B, C through 35A, B, C in the road’s 1959 general renumbering.

Below are some photos of these trains, followed by captions written by Jeff Koeller.

Shortly after UP’s crack Cities passenger trains were transferred to the Milwaukee Road between Omaha and Chicago, UP E9 946 and a pair of E9 B-units were captured on film heading up No. 104, the eastbound City of Los Angeles Domeliner, near Elgin, Ill., in November 1955. 

Today’s consist features a 1953 AC&F baggage-express car from series 5631-5638, baggage-dormitory 5613 (converted from a baggage car in 1947), two Leg Rest coaches, a 1949 AC&F cafe-lounge, and a 1955 dome diner, followed by a couple of Pacific-class sleepers running in Coast-To-Coast service. Other cars would include Imperial and Pacific-class sleepers running between Los Angeles and Chicago, and a dome-observation-lounge car on the hind end. A.J. Wolff Collection.

This classic UP publicity photo shows No. 104, the consolidated COLA-Challenger Domeliner, at Mile Post 958, one and a half miles west of Henefer, Utah. Colorized for use in the company’s 1959 calendar, this down-on view provides a rare look at UP’s trademark snow shields that were applied over the winterization hatches of UP E8s and E9s beginning in 1956. 

The 15-car consist is headed up by E8 927 and E9 B-units 969B and 961B, followed by a Milwaukee Road B-E car, a baggage-dorm and a cafe-lounge (both by AC&F in 1949), three Leg Rest coaches, a dome-coach, a Pacific-class sleeper, a PRR 10-6 in UP colors (both are Coast-To-Coast cars), then the dome diner and dome-lounge cars, and four trailing sleepers. Union Pacific Railroad Photo.

Here’s a nice down-on view of UP dome-diner 8000 (at left) and dome-lounge 9010 operating in the westbound City of Los Angeles near Granite, Wyoming. Having the lounge car at the hind end of the train didn’t work out very well, as the sleeping car passengers preferred to have the lounge car next to the diner, where they could relax and have a drink while waiting to be called for meal service in the dining car. Thus, in 1956, UP converted their dome-obs-lounge cars for mid-train use as shown here in this fine scene shot by master rail photographer Richard H. Kindig. A.J. Wolff Collection. 

Sparkling clean Milwaukee Road E9s 201A and 201C are shown on the servicing tracks at the Western Avenue engine terminal in Chicago a few months after arriving on the property in February 1956. The pair just came in after bringing No. 111, the westbound City of Denver, into Union Station. Note that the red-and-white Milwaukee Road herald is conspicuously absent from the nose door;  the cab units received nose heralds within about a year.

These units are from an order for six A-B-A sets of E9s that the railroad purchased as part of its contribution to the Cities trains motive power equalization agreement with UP. The Milwaukee E9s operated system-wide as well as running through on UP trains to Denver and Portland. No photos have been found depicting Milwaukee diesels on the old LA&SL route west of Salt lake City (also, Southern Pacific handled all trains between Ogden and Oakland Pier). Jim Shaw photo.

With majestic Mt. Ogden as an impressive backdrop, this UP publicity photo from the Fall of 1956 captures No. 104, the eastbound City of Los Angeles-Challenger Domeliner, coming around the curve past the old stock pens at Peterson, Utah, Mile Post 975.49. The train is running “left handed” on the eastward main with the passing track and the stock yard siding nearest the camera, while the westward main and center passing siding can be seen to the left of E9 949’s nose. 

E9 B-units 963B and 951B help propel a typical 15-car “consolidated" consist upgrade. The first car is a Milwaukee Road baggage-express, then a 1949 AC&F baggage-dorm, followed by the dome coach and three Leg Rest coaches, a 1949 AC&F cafe lounge, two unidentified cars (probably the Coast-To-Coast sleepers), then the mid-train dome diner and dome lounge. The last four cars are sleeping cars of various capacities. UPRR Photo.   

Modeling the 1956 COLA

In our last installment on “Modeling the 1954-1955 COLA” we discussed the various Walthers HO Scale models that can be used for replicating a mid-1950s City of Los Angeles. That segment featured a detailed chart of the Union Pacific “Cities” Series passenger car models that Walthers has produced. By referring to that guide and the two consist charts included in this article, an accurate 1956 COLA can be assembled. 

The following HO Scale models will need to be used for the 1956 COLA: Walthers 932-9510 UP PS 5-2-2 Sleeper “Ocean” Series; Walthers 932-9520 UP PS 5 DBR-Buffet-Lounge; and Walthers 932-9500 UP PS 11 DBR “Placid” Series. The Omaha-Los Angeles “National” series sleepers have not been produced, but an American-class 6-6-4 can be used as a substitute (these cars operated between the Twin Cities and Los Angeles, until being replaced by the National-class sleepers after their delivery in November 1955-February 1956). Also, we are still expecting the announced, but yet-to-be-released, UP Club-Lounge model from Walthers. 

Checking the COLA schedules through Victorville in this year (these trains did not stop there), the westbound train passed through town at 6:33 a.m. until April 24, 1956, when it changed to 6:28 a.m.  The eastbound train came through at 7:21 p.m. all through this time period.  I can model these trains in HO with the set of Walthers UP cars.

This concludes our coverage of the COLA train, as 1956 is the last year in my modeling time period.

Now I'll cover my layout progress reports from Jan. 19, Feb. 2, and Feb. 9.

On Jan. 19 I was ready for another layout report, as I'd been working on cutting and fitting the turnouts and track sections for staging tracks C7, C8, and C9, which (like the rest of the C Yard) will be for storing road diesel sets (usually four F-units or three E-units).  The tracks were now temporarily pinned down, and they are the three tracks branching off in the center-right of this photo:

My next steps were to glue them all down and then to insert feeder wires.

My friend Gary Jordan up in Mukilteo had finished painting a pair of brass GE 70-Tonners for my Mojave Northern branch line out of the Victorville cement plant.  I assumed those locos were a light gray color, but then I found a railfan color movie from the late 1940s that showed that they were a light blue color, so that's how the models are painted:

Mojave Northern #5 was named "Leonardt" and #6 was "Merrill" (those names were low on the sides of the cabs, as seen above).

That week I received a box from Craig Wisch in Victorville with the four cardstock models of Barrio buildings that he has recently built for me.  It turned out that the much larger house was accidentally built in S scale (his normal modeling scale), so I have mailed it back to him.

I arranged the remaining three buildings into a small Barrio scene, along with a couple of styrene models of small houses to fill out the scene, and with some other Barrio buildings that were near the 6th Street grade crossing:

From left to right, we see a small styrene house, then the Barrio's CME church, then a blue styrene house, then Carr's Furniture store, then a cardstock house, and then the old jail, sheriff's office, Santa Fe Hotel, and La Paloma Cafe.  The Victorville Depot on the right should be down much farther, across from the hotel.

Here's the same scene, looking from near the other end:

From right to left, we see the Sheriff's Office (built by Bill Messecar), the old jail behind it (built by Craig), a small Barrio house (by Craig), the Carr's Furniture store (by Craig), a blue styrene house, the CME church (by Craig), and a brown styrene house.

I mentioned to Craig that I will have space for about five more Barrio houses, so he says he has some idea for mass-producing them, after I send him more photos from Google Street View.  Right now he is building for himself (in S scale) the Bowers Drug Store, as seen in this old postcard view at 7th and D Streets:

I had some fun searching for Barrio news and ads at Newspapers.com with a week-long free trial.  One of my discoveries was that before 1953, the Carr's Furniture store was named the Victor Valley 2nd Hand Store, as seen in this ad I downloaded:

This gave me the idea of making a thin sign board with this name on it to stick in front of the Carr's Furniture lettering on the store model when I'm operating in years before 1953.

On Feb. 2, I reported that I was now on my bi-weekly schedule of email layout progress reports.  The previous week of Jan. 20 was largely spent using a free trial week at Newspapers.com to download dozens of stories and ads about the Victorville Barrio.  Last time I told you that Carr's Furniture had been the Victor Valley 2nd Hand Store before 1953.  This time I discovered that the La Paloma Cafe had been Carmen's Place until late 1949.   Here's their old ad from 1948:

I also looked for any stories about the Rosso Cafe and Texaco Station at the Lower Narrows.  Among the finds was this 1945 ad for the cafe:

I found that the Santa Fe Hotel (across from the depot) had a long history of name changes, from the original Lark Hotel to the Hawkeye Hotel to Brewster's Tavern to the Santa Fe Hotel, then to the Hayes Apartments by 1955.

I sent all the newspaper clippings I found along to Craig Wisch, who shared them with local historian Marcy Taylor.  Craig is still busy building the Vandever Building with Bower's Drug Store in S scale.

Then I got to work on laying staging Track C5 beside the previous Track C4, for storing diesel sets.  Here's a shot taken when the track had been glued down with caulk and partly weighted with water bottles:

Later I drilled holes beside that track and inserted all the feeder wires needed, but they are not yet soldered to the rails.

I was disabled for part of that week due to a tooth extraction by an oral surgeon.  But I did visit Bill Messecar on that Friday morning and picked up the model of the Rosso Cafe that he has now completed:

While I was there, I realized that there was one corner of his layout that I had not yet photographed, at the far right end of his LA Union Station shelf:

And to the right of there is a small extension with a model he calls Argo Lumber, named after our friend Ted Argo, who moved to Oregon several years ago:

On a shelf directly under Argo Lumber is a model scene with three buildings that are all part of a Fine Scale Miniatures kit (Skinner's Row), which he built for fun and added scenery, figures, track, and cars:

Very impressive!  When I got home from Bill's, I set his Rosso Cafe model beside Don Hubbard's Rosso Texaco Station model, just as they will appear in my Lower Narrows scene (but I later used some white chalk to cover the weathering you see here on the sides of the cafe):

Then I got to work on the next C Yard staging track, Track C6, gluing it down with caulk.  This shot was taken when I was partway done gluing along the track, which is moved aside to make room for spreading the caulk:

I did finish the caulking and adding the water bottle weights and the ties under the rail joiners later that day.

I kept plugging away and then wrote another report a week later, on Feb. 9.  My plan was to skip any report that weekend, but I had some progress photos to share, and I wanted to change the cycle so that my bi-weekly email reports don't land on the same Sundays as my now-monthly blog entries.

That week I got to work on the next three stub tracks in the C Yard (used for storing 30" diesel sets), named Tracks C7, C8, and C9.  I began by gluing down Track C7, as seen here from the stub end, which ends in the lower right corner of this photo:

The white caulk will dry clear later.  The adjacent Tracks C8 and C9 were shorter (space for only one 30" diesel set in each), so I glued them down at the same time, as seen here from the throat of the C Yard:

Tracks C8 and C9 are the ones on the right, with all the glue and the push-pins still in place.  I added the water bottler weights after each of these photos was shot.

Meanwhile, Craig Wisch in Victorville continued to work on his S-scale model of the Vandever Building (with Bowers' Drug Store).  He has now gone back to his master plan to model all of the downtown side of D Street (Route 66) in S-scale, so there will be no more HO models for me for a while.

My friend Jack Dykstra, who as a boy used to visit his aunt and uncle in the Rosso Cafe during summers and watch all the trains run through the Lower Narrows in back, told me that their names were Randolph and Marion Rosso.  

He showed me a photo of a painting that used to hang on the wall in there, advertising Acme Beer, and he suggested that I make a billboard for that beer.  I found a website with a detailed history of Acme Beer and their labels and ads, and I picked out this 1940 ad by Vargas as a good one for my billboard:

On that Saturday afternoon my friend Jeff Koeller visited my home and toured my layout for the first time.  He showed me all his research for UP's 1956 City of LA train, which I hoped to feature in my blog a week from now (that's this one).  I asked him to pose beside my layout, with some of the HO models of buildings in the scene:

I had arranged many of the other building models on the other side of the layout, as seen here, with the Texaco station on the far left and the La Paloma Cafe on the far right:

He spent over two hours here, and we both enjoyed all the conversations, including his ideas for a small C&NW layout set in Chicago someday.

I got back to work on the new C Yard tracks, marking with masking tape where the feeder wires should go and then drilling the holes for inserting the feeders later, as seen here:

I planned to continue work on the C Yard in the next weeks.  Please let me know if you can help me with anything, either in person or remotely.

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Santa Fe's 1946-47 El Capitan Train in Victorville & Slower Layout Progress

This time we'll cover the Santa Fe's all-coach El Capitan train in Victorville during 1946-1947, and then we'll look at several more weeks of slow layout progress.

Before we get started, I want to say that my weekly progress reports and bi-weekly blog entries (which included the weekly reports) were supposed to keep me moving ahead on my layout, but instead they have been taking time away from my layout work.  So, this year I will try changing to bi-weekly email progress reports (to groups of friends) and monthly blog entries, in hopes of spending more time on my layout and less time writing reports.

Let's begin by looking at the 1946-47 El Capitan train in a color ad that the Santa Fe was using in the late 1940s, showing the train at the Albuquerque, NM, depot behind a set of new F3 diesels:

I gave a talk about the El Capitan train in 2009, and this was the introductory slide:

This train was second only to the Super Chief in the getting the newest motive power and equipment.

Here's a slide about the early history of the train, before it became a daily train on Feb. 29, 1948:

Here's a photo of the westbound El Capitan on Raton Pass in Jan. 1944, when it was still using E-units (E6L #13):

Here's a slide giving the train's typical postwar consist:

Here's a slide about the train's consist during the summer of 1946:

Here's the train's detailed consist for the summer of 1946, along with possible HO models:

Here's a Stan Kistler photo of the westbound El Capitan in Pasadena in July, 1946, behind FT set #158:

Here are the changes that happened during the winter and spring of 1946-1947:

Here is the consist during this time:

Here we have an undated photo of the eastbound El Capitan near Albuquerque, NM, behind F3 set #28:

Here are the final changes that we are covering this time, into early 1948:

And here is the detailed consist during this time:

Regarding the schedules of the El Capitan through Victorville (it did not stop there), in early 1946 it was running just twice a week (westbound at 4:41 a.m on Monday and Thursday, and eastbound at 4:10 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday).  I can avoid running these mostly-brass HO trains by not operating on those days of the week.

Then on Sep. 29, 1946, it began running every other day, alternating with the Super Chief on the Super Chief's schedule (westbound through town at 5:54 a.m. and eastbound at 10:50 p.m.).  Again, I can avoid running these mostly-brass HO trains by not operating on those days of the week (but then I get the mostly-brass HO Super Chief on the alternate days), but they were going through town in the dark anyway.

On Feb. 29, 1948, the El Capitan became a daily train, and we will cover that train a couple of months from now.

Now I'll include here my weekly layout progress reports from Dec. 15, Dec. 30, and Jan. 9

The week ending Dec. 15 was another slow week, but I did get one more staging track cut and fit together for future gluing down.  It was another diesel storage track, named Track C6.  Here's a view from the stub end of the track, looking back at the turnouts (it's the third track from the right, beside C4 and C5):

I also worked on completing the blog entry I had begun on Dec. 8, but I was waiting for the final section of text about the City of LA train from Jeff Koeller.

I traded lots of emails again with Craig Wisch in Victorville, as he began his model of the second-hand store in the Barrio.  Here is his initial drawing of the four sides of the store, modified from an off-the-shelf cardstock model:

We've been discussing what name to put on the sign board, as we can't read what was actually there.  Local author Felix Diaz just called it "La Segunda" -- the second (hand store).  We looked for sign boards on actual Mexican second-hand stores, and the most common signs said "Teinda de Segunda Mano" (store of second hand).  Craig proposed a sign something like this:

I liked this, if we made the font size the same on both lines.  But then Craig sent me a construction progress photo with an entirely different sign board (which means "just things"):

So, we'll see what becomes of this.

Then on Dec. 15 I wrote that It's been two weeks since I've done a layout progress report, because the Christmas preparations and gatherings took all my time.  At least I finally finished my Dec. 8 blog entry, three weeks late after starting it.

Speaking of Christmas gatherings, when the relatives were here, they toured my layout downstairs (some for the first time), and I ran my two trains around the double tracks for them.  I added five cars to the freight train, namely my MTH collectible (but fantasy) WW2 boxcars, one for each branch of the military, as seen here:

Back in Victorville, I continued to discuss the 2nd-hand store in the Barrio with Craig Wisch.  You may recall that we were trying to invent a Mexican name for it, such as Tienda de Segunda Mano.  But  I found an ad for it in the 1953 Victorville phone book, and it was named Carr's Furniture by then, and we decided to go with that.  Here is the ad:

Here's a new photo of the model that Craig has now renamed to agree with the 1953 ad:

Craig has been showing off his recent Barrio models to some local historians there, and they are impressed, of course!

For three days I was busy driving to and from Tacoma (45 minutes each way) to work at the annual model train show at the Washington State History Museum, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each day.  Two of us from the Boeing Employees Model Railroad Club kept trains running around the double track mainlines of our portable HO modules for the many visitors during each 3.5-hour shift.

I posed for a photo during one of the morning shifts:

I also went around to shoot some photos of the other five layouts at the show.  Here's a shot of the Pierce County Lionel Train Club layout (O scale):

Here's another action shot of that layout, from the other end (their trains run very fast!):

On the next floor up was the Mount Rainier N-Scale modular layout.  Here's a nice shot of their waterfront logging scene with a car float in the distance:

This layout also includes my favorite scene, the WW2 Army base, part of which is visible here:

Up on the next floor (the 5th floor), along with the Boeing layout, is the 4th Division NMRA HO Modular layout, as seen here in this yard scene:

Another layout on this floor is the 4th Division NMRA N-Trak modular layout, as seen here:

Here's another scene from that N-scale layout, showing a turntable that has been used as the focal point in a new shopping mall:

Finally, here is the only permanent layout in the building, built by the Puget Sound Model Railroad Engineers (PSMRE).  This HO layout depicts many Tacoma railroad scenes from the 1950s.  Here is their magnificent model of Tacoma Union Station, along with the related passenger train yards:

And here is a wide view of all the scenes at the far left end of this large, double-deck layout:

I hope you've enjoyed this tour of the Tacoma Model Train show.  Now it's time for me to get back to work on my layout.

But on Jan. 9, I wrote: I still have no layout progress to report on in this new year, as I've been too busy doing the planning for a Viking Mediterranean cruise in the spring.  But I do have some photos to share with you.

First, here is the completed model of the second-hand store that was in the Victorville Barrio, as built for me by Craig Wisch (he has improved the store sign lettering since last time):

He now has four completed Barrio models ready to ship to me, as seen here:

From left to right, they are the Emmanuel Temple CME church, a large house based on one still standing on D Street, a small, generic Barrio house, and the Carr's Furniture second-hand store.  

Craig is now working on a model of the former Vandever brick building, which included Bower's Drugs, which was on the corner of 7th and D Streets (but sadly, not on my layout).

The big event on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 8, was an operating session at Bill Messecar's layout (before it gets dismantled sometime this summer).  Here we see Bill as he watches Tim Repp run a steam-powered Santa Fe passenger train (the Fast Mail) though Corona:

Over in the Riverside and San Bernardino aisle, Colin Kikawa and David Peck were switching the Riverside Turn:

In the Corona aisle, Bill James and I were switching the Corona Turn:

And in the far left aisle, Don Hubbard and Norm Bruce (who's up on a step-stool) were switching the Placentia Turn:

We had a good time for about two hours, and then most of us went to lunch together.

Before I left Bill's, I shot a photo of the model of the Rosso Cafe that he is building for my Lower Narrows scene:

It is now painted, but it will be a tricky job to mount a vertical "CAFE" sign on the rooftop.

As I said last time, I need to get back to work on my layout now!