Santa Fe's 1954 to Early 1956 El Capitan Train in Victorville & A Pause in Layout Progress

This time we'll cover the Santa Fe's all-coach El Capitan train in Victorville from 1954 into early 1956, and then we'll cover my lack of layout progress during a Mediterranean cruise and afterward. 

Let's begin by looking at a photo of the 1954 El Capitan after it had acquired its "Big Dome" lounge car.  Here it rounds the curve at Ribera, NM, with F3 ABBA set #36 as the power, and with the new Big Dome Lounge car visible near the end of the train:

From my El Capitan clinic slides of 2009, here are the cars that were added to the consist during this time period:

Here's a photo of the rear of this train, with the new Big Dome Lounge car near the end:

Also from my El Capitan clinic of 2009, here is the consist of the train during this time period:

In 2016 Walthers made four new HO model cars for the 1954 El Capitan:

the 3477-3479 Baggage-Dorms;

the 3246-3248 Chair-Observation cars;

the 1566-1577 Lunch Counter Diners; 

the "Big Dome" Bar Lounge cars, #506-513.

These were all very welcome additions for modeling this train! 

Here's the 2016 Walthers ad for their 1954 El Capitan HO models:

Here's a photo of a new Big Dome Lounge car, #506:

Here's a Santa Fe publicity shot of the inside of their new Big Dome Lounge car:

 And here's a shot showing the El Capitan observation car in Los Angeles:

The motive power during this time period were the EMD F3 and F7 ABBA sets.  The F3 set numbers were 16-36 and the F7 set numbers were 37-47, plus 306-314.  The 306-314 were ABB sets, but they always added an extra trailing A unit from the 300 series to make a complete ABBA set.

Here's a photo of one of these sets (F3 set #33) in June of 1955, on some unidentified train, possibly the El Capitan:

 

Regarding the schedules of the El Capitan through Victorville (it did not stop there),  #21 came through at 4:12 a.m every morning,. and #22 came through at 4:23 p.m. every evening.

I don't need to model #21, as it came through westbound at night, but #22 was part of the afternoon parade of eastbound passenger trains.  I can use the Walthers cars to model the 1954 through early 1956 train.  Starting July 8, 1956, the Hi-Level cars filled most of the train, which we'll cover next time.

Now I'll include here my bi-weekly layout progress reports from May 18 and June 1.

As of May 18, I hadn't written since March 30, when I got busy with last-minute preparations for our two-week cruise around some Mediterranean ports.  We flew out of Seattle on April 13 and returned very late on April 26.  Here's a map of our Viking cruise, which was called "Icons of the Mediterranean," from Barcelona on the west end to Athens on the east end:

The mysterious port of Villefranche-sur-Mer is actually for the French Riviera cities of Nice and Monaco.

Once we got back, our biological clocks were messed up for a couple of weeks, due to the long flights and the changing time zones, so nothing useful got done then.  And then I got busy with a new hobby, which is to send selected photos from our trip to various groups of family and friends, and that takes a lot of my time each day, and will continue to do so for some weeks to come.

But I wrote a May 18 report, just in hopes that it would get me going again on my main hobby of building my model railroad, which is still patiently waiting for me down in the basement.

I got back in touch with the hobby on May 17 by presenting 80 color slides during our annual Northwest Santa Fe Mini-Meet.  These were color slides from the glory years of Santa Fe's late steam and early diesels, which I had bought from Tom Gildersleeve in the 1970s.  

Here's a photo of me in front of the screen before the lights were turned down:

 

And here's a photo I shot of most of 22 attendees:

It was another successful Mini-Meet, thanks to the organizers, Bill James and Colin Kikawa.

My only other activity was to get back in touch with Craig Wisch in Victorville, who has now begun another S-scale scene of old Victorville, this time at the intersection of 5th and D Streets, along Route 66.  

He sent me this early mock-up, with his previous cardstock models of the Barrel House Liquor Store on the left and the newspaper office on the right, with a photo backdrop behind them:

 

But instead of the newspaper office, the corner on the right should have a gas station, so he is planning to build one from a cardstock kit like this one:

That's all I had at that time.  I hoped to have some layout progress to show two weeks later, but that didn't happen yet, as we shall see.

My next update was two weeks later, on June 1st: 

It seems that I won't really get back to working on my layout until I finish my long series of photo reports from the Mediterranean cruise that we took in April.  I've been sending another trip report out to family and close friends almost every day.  This will be my hobby for now, and I'm okay with that.

But here are a couple of photos of new HO trains that I got recently.  

After being delayed for years, Walthers finally released (without notice) the car model that has been missing from their UP City of Los Angeles set, namely the Club Lounge car.  I sent for two of them -- one with a 1956 car number on the sides (#6201), and one with no name on the sides, for the years 1949 to early 1956.  I bought a set of decals that will let me put the name "Mojave River" on the sides, which I chose because that's also the name of the river that will flow though my Victorville layout.

I posed the two UP Club Lounge cars on my layout, with each car facing a different direction:

 

On Wednesday, May 28, my wife and I drove up to Mukilteo to visit Gary Jordan, who has been painting brass locos for me for a number of years.  We hadn't been there since last fall, due to all the cold, rainy weather, so he had four steam locos and two diesels to return to me.  

 

I posed the two diesels (Hallmark brass GE 70-Tonners), painted as Mojave Northern #5 "Leonardt" and #6 "Merrill," on my layout beside the older MN 0-6-0T and the loaded MN side-dump rock cars:

 

 

The other event that week was the annual NMRA PNR 4th Division Spring Meet on Saturday, May 31.  We gathered at about 8 a.m. at the beautiful Snoqualmie Depot, as seen here:

 

 

As our train was approaching at 8:30, we all crossed the tracks to the loading platform:

 

The museum's tourist train of heavyweight passenger cars, pulled by a diesel switcher, arrived for us to board::

Then the loco pushed our train back to the museum and shop area in the woods between Snoqualmie and North Bend.  Here's a shot of some of the passengers riding the train:

 

When we arrived at the museum and shop, we all walked down the platform toward the rear of the train:

 

Behind the shop we could see an old 2-8-0 steam loco and a nicely-painted diesel lettered for the Northwest Railway Museum:

 

 

At about 9 a.m. we began some hour-long clinics and shop tours.  I attended two clinics, then went into the shop where they restore old equipment.  We heard about plans to restore an old interurban car that had just arrived and an NP Alco HH660 that was well along.  Their NP 0-6-0 steam loco is currently being repaired in there too.

Our lunch sandwiches were late arriving, so we did the business meeting first, which included plans for us to host the NMRA National Convention in Tacoma in 2027.  This should motivate me to get my layout into a presentable form by then.  

 

Here's the inside of the Museum building, where we had our annual meeting: 

 

 

After we ate our late lunches, we rode the train back to Snoqualmie, but by now some rain was falling.

 

Then I set out to visit the HO home layout of Jame (pronounced Jamie) Boyd, way down south of Auburn.  Once I found his home, I had an enjoyable tour of his circa 1970 Stampede Pass BN layout in progress (not much scenery yet).  It's upstairs in a separate building behind his home.  I shot a few photos there.

As you enter the room, you nod your head as you pass under a high upper-deck bridge:

 

 

On your right is a tall helix that moves trains between three levels, as I recall, and there is some nice scenery around a tunnel that enters the helix there:

 

Here we see two trains, one on each main deck, and a control panel for the staging yard that is just under the lower deck:

 

Here's an upper-deck scene with another tunnel and some scenery near the entrance to the room:

 

 

I asked Jame to pose for me, and he agreed:

 

 

Then I left for the long drive home, happy that I got to attend another great Spring Meet.

 

That's all I have for now.  Once I finish all the cruise trip reports I've been writing, I'll get back to work on the layout.

 

If you are in the Bellevue, WA, area, please visit me and the layout when you can.

 

 

Santa Fe's 1948-1953 El Capitan Train in Victorville & Progress on C Yard Wiring

This time we'll cover the Santa Fe's all-coach El Capitan train in Victorville during 1948-1953, and then we'll look at several more weeks of slow layout progress, mostly on wiring the C Yard tracks.

Let's begin by looking at a color photo of the eastbound El Capitan (#22) approaching Summit behind F3 set #24 in the early 1950s:

I gave a talk about the El Capitan train in 2009, and this was the slide covering the 1948-1950 version of the train, when it first began daily service:

Here's the train's detailed consist during 1948-1950, along with possible HO models:

Regarding the 3477-3479 Baggage-Dorms, Walthers added an HO model of these in 2016.  They also added a model of the 3246-3248 Chair-Observation cars, which was also a welcome addition for HO modelers.

Here's a 1940s Santa Fe ad with a Stewardess Nurse posing behind an El Capitan observation car, as one nurse was assigned to each train for the traveling families:

And here's a Stan Kistler photo of the eastbound train passing San Bernardino's West Yard Tower area in December 1950:

Here are the next changes that happened to the train, during 1950-1953:

And here's the train's detailed consist during 1948-1950, along with possible HO models:

Besides the 3477-3479 Baggage-Dorms and the 3246-3248 Chair-Obs models mentioned above, in 2016 Walthers also added an HO model of the 1566-1577 Lunch Counter Diners.

Here's a photo of the westbound El Capitan (#22) behind F7 set #40, east of Las Vegas, NM, in the early 1950s:

Regarding the schedules of the El Capitan through Victorville (it did not stop there), it began running daily on Feb. 29, 1948, with #21 going through at 4:25 a.m. and #22 at 4:20 p.m.  But on Nov. 29, 1948, these times changed a bit to 4:27 a.m. and 4:25 p.m.  These times remained unchanged for the rest of this time period, except that #21 began coming through at 4:12 a.m. on April 27, 1952.

I don't need to model #21, as it came through at night, but #22 was part of the afternoon parade of eastbound passenger trains.  I could use the newer Walthers cars for some of these, plus the SFRHMS kits for the chair cars.  The 1954 train will become easier to model.

In a later blog post, I'll cover the 1954-1956 versions of the train, when it got a Big Dome car and then the Hi-Level cars.

Now I'll include here my weekly layout progress reports from Feb. 24 and March 9.

On Feb. 24 I wrote that I'd been lazy for the last two weeks, not working much on the layout.  But I'd just heard that the NMRA has chosen Tacoma, WA, to host their national convention in 2027, just two years from now, so I have some new motivation to get my layout into a presentable state by then.

This week I finally got all the feeder wires cut and inserted into their holes by the rails of Tracks C7, C8, and C9 (stub tracks for storing diesel sets), as seen here, beside the masking tape between the rails:

In the photo above, Tracks C7, C8, and C9 are the tracks on this side of the post, while the earlier Tracks C4, C5, and C6 are on the far side.  All now had their feeders ready to be soldered to the rails, a job that Bill Messecar sometime likes (?) to do when he visits me.

Rather than run all the feeders to the outside edge of the layout, I've decided that they will run to the nearest edge, which for some of these will be the edge along the central pop-up area.  I will run bus wires along these edges and then over to whichever control panel controls those blocks.  I realize now that I should invent and apply labels to each feeder wire and to each new bus wire, and I should make diagrams of them all, so that I can keep track of what connects to what.

I spent most of the previous week finally getting back to the plans for the Victorville Boiler House, which stood inside the wye there.  This project has been on hold since June of 2022, when Jim Coady had made the latest drawings for me.  I studied all the photos again and came up with my final changes, which I sent to Jim this week.

On the wye side of the building (which will face the aisle), I marked in red ink where I want the freight door moved to:

And on the opposite side (the mainline side), I marked how I want the single human door made into the size of a freight door (but later I asked him to make it a double-wide human door instead of a freight door):

I also marked where to move the internal walls to match a Santa Fe drawing we have, but I'm not including that drawing here (no one will see those walls anyway).

I'll report back when Jim has completed these changes, and then I'm hoping that Bill Messecar will still be willing to build a model of it for me.

I spent part of that weekend with another free trial of Newspapers.com, downloading more articles and ads from old Victorville newspapers.  Here's one I haven't shown you before -- a 1957 ad for the Emanual Temple CME church in the Barrio, which you may recall Craig Wisch has built for me:

I was interested to see that their ads misspelled "Emmanuel" with just one "M," the same way they misspelled it over the front door to their church.  But in the 1960s they corrected the spelling in their ads, and I think they had moved to a new building by then.

Meanwhile in Victorville, Craig Wisch had been working very hard on an S-scale model of the brick building that stood at the corner of 7th and D Streets, across the street from Hayward Lumber and Peterson Feed.  It was named the Vandever Building, and it included the Bowers Drug Store until about 1946.

This was his latest photo of his model, which was not quite complete:

And here's an old postcard photo of the actual building, for comparison:

Thanks to Craig for sharing with us his wonderful work in cardstock!

I planned to work harder in the next two weeks.  Then on March 9 I wrote:

I was more productive in the past two weeks, getting all the feeder wires ready to be soldered to the rails.  After I had cut and inserted them in their holes by the rails, I decided to remove some of them and have the adjacent track sections soldered together instead, saving on some of the wiring complexity.

I tried to keep track of what was what by adding lots of labels on top of the tracks, naming the tracks and sub-blocks and feeder locations and future gap locations between diesel parking spots.  Here is one view of this, looking from the throat of the C Yard:

Then I began pulling the feeder wires toward the nearest layout edge and attaching a masking-tape label around the end of each wire.  Here's a photo of me on my knees as I was labeling the ends of the wires:

The labels are pretty simple -- just the name of the track, which is the same as the name of the block, followed by -1 or -2, etc. for the number of the parking spot it controls, followed by a -a or -b, etc., when there is more than one pair of feeders to the sub-block.  In this yard, the active rail feeders are white and the common rail feeders are green.  Sometimes only a feeder to the active rail is needed.

Here's a view of the labeled feeders that run to the inside of the pop-up area, when that is the nearest layout edge (look below the edges of the benchwork):

Bill Messecar was able to visit me on Friday morning, March 7, and he soldered most of the feeders to the rails and some of the rails together at the rail joiners.  I forgot to shoot a photo of Bill, but he said I should just use an old photo, so here's one from last year, when he was busy soldering feeders in the same area:

While Bill was doing that, I was making a red-ink drawing of where each feeder was attached to the rails and where it ran to the layout's nearest edge, along with its label:

I may add to this diagram later, showing where all the rail gaps are (or will be, as I still need to cut a lot of rail gaps to make the sub-blocks for the diesel loco parking spots).

Meanwhile, my architect friend Jim Coady sent me his final drawings of all four sides of the Victorville Boiler House, per my red-ink mark-ups from last time.  Here is one page of his file, showing all four sides in one view:

Many thanks to Jim for all his work on this over several years.  If I'm lucky, Bill Messecar may want to scratch-build a model of this for me.

Another helper over the years has been Don Borden, who recently made some changes I requested to the control panels I will want to build first.  Here is the latest view of the C Tower panel, which will control the mainlines in that one area, plus a few C Yard tracks that are adjacent to them:

And here's the other panel he updated, where most the C Yard tracks are located:

Craig Wisch in Victorville has continued to work on his S-scale model of the Vandever Building, which included Bowers Drugs before and during WW2.  The model is nearly finished now, but it still needs some final touches, he says:

Craig plans to model some of the other buildings that were along D Street, on the side opposite from the tracks.

That's all I have for now.  I still have more projects to do in the C Yard, so I will keep working there.

If you are in the area, please visit me and the layout when you can.