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, and 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 Vandervere 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!