Santa Fe's 1956 to 1958 El Capitan Train in Victorville & A Steam Train Ride

This time we'll cover the Santa Fe's all-coach Hi-Level El Capitan train in Victorville from mid-1956 into early 1958, and then we'll cover a bit of layout progress and a steam train ride.

Let's begin by looking at a photo of the 1956 El Capitan after it had acquired its innovative new Hi-Level cars.  Here it rounds a curve as it leaves Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal behind F3 set #33:

From my El Capitan clinic slides of 2009, here are the cars that were added to the consist for the time period of July 1956 through Jan. 1958:

Here's one of the Santa Fe ads from the time period:
 

And an ad for the interior of the new Hi-Level Lounge car:

 Here's the consist of this train, along with the HO models as of 2009:

Happily, in 2012 Walthers released a complete HO train set for this train, as seen in this ad:

 

The cars offered by Walthers in 2012 were:  the Baggage Car, Railway Post Office, Baggage-Dormitory "transition car", Hi-Level 68-Seat Step-Down Coach, Hi-Level 72-Seat Coach, Hi-Level "Sky Lounge", Hi-Level Diner, and Hi-Level 68-Seat Step-Down Coach with Tail Sign.

Here's a postcard view of the prototype train in Shoemaker Canyon, NM, in 1956:

 Here we see a rear view of the train, with a step-down coach at the end:

 

Here's a publicity photo showing passengers boarding one of the new Hi-Level coaches:

 

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.

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 Hi-Level cars to model the July 8, 1956 and later train.  

Now I'll include here my layout progress report from July 20:

I finally finished writing 47 trip reports with photos from our recent Mediterranean cruise, so I'm trying to get back into my layout work now.  This is my first layout report since June 1, when I had attended the local NMRA PNR 4th Division Spring Meet.

Craig Wisch, my favorite cardstock modeler in Victorville, has finished the final touch-ups on the five HO models of Barrio-type houses that he built for me.  He sent me this photo of two of them on his workbench:

 

He also sent me a photo of the other three houses:

 

 

They all arrived safely in a big box, and I set them up in a compressed E Street Barrio scene, along with the previously-received furniture store and church:

 

 

Here's another shot, looking down from the center of the scene:

 

Also in the box with the houses was the brand new book "Mohahve VII," published by the Mohahve Historical Society, led by Marcy Taylor.  Craig and I have been corresponding with Marcy, and Craig also meets with her in person in Apple Valley.  I've been collecting all of the society's books since the beginning, and they include lots of interviews with old-timers and photos of Victorville and the High Desert.  But right now they don't seem to have a website for ordering their books.

I decided that my first project for getting back into my layout work would be to cut the many rail gaps that are needed to separate loco parking spots on the loco storage tracks.  When I tried out my old Dremel tool, it wouldn't turn on, so I ordered a new one.  I also ordered a Dremel Flex Shaft with a thinner wand on the end, so the cuts can be made at 90 degrees to the rails.

I saw the recommendation for the Flex Shaft in a Ron's Trains 'N Things video, at 4:10 into this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0uUiVU1qB4

It took me quite a while to figure out how to connect the Flex Shaft to the Dremel Tool, and then how to attach a cutting disk to the end of the Flex Shaft.  Here's photo of the connected tools and the boxes they came in:

 

Once the set was working, I practiced a few cuts on a small test track, and then I got to work cutting all the rail gaps that I had previously marked with masking tape.  Here I am working on the gaps in the E Yard diesel loco storage tracks:

My next step was to fill all those gaps so they don't close up during heat expansion.

In another development, I bought a Spectrum US Army 44-Tonner from eBay and posed it along with the locos that will pull my trains of rock cars to the cement plant:

 

At about the same time, I tested all three of these Mojave Northern locos to verify that they can pull the train of six rock cars, at least on level track.

 

The big event on July 19, the day before my 80th birthday, was to make the annual road trip with my wife Diane down to Elbe, WA, to ride the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railway steam train.  It's almost a two-hour drive to get there, but we made it in time for the 3:00 p.m. departure.  We found the loco (Polson Logging #70, a 2-8-2) coupled in reverse to its five-car train, ready to run backwards:

 

We boarded the train and walked to the rear car, which has open windows and no seats, so that we can stand up and enjoy the rocking motions and move from the windows on one side to the other.  I posed by the open door at the rear of the car:

 

When the train was in motion, headed east to Mineral, it was blowing its whistle for a major highway grade crossing, as seen here:

 

We were enjoying all the sights from the open car.  Here's a view of the car's interior, with Diane in the blue shirt in the middle:

 

 

Later quite a few families with little kids found their way back to this car and had a lot of fun riding in there.

Here's a shot from an open window as the train curved to the right:

 

When we arrived at Mineral, the loco uncoupled and ran forward around the train to couple onto the rear car, where we were riding:

 

The loco was now facing forward for the return trip, but with our open car now at the front.  As we arrived back at the Elbe depot at 4:15 p.m., I shot this photo from a window of our open car:

 

After we got off the train, I walked to the front to get a shot of the loco and its train:

Then the train backed up past the depot and parked on a siding, as seen here: 

We walked back to our car and drove back home, but with a stop for dinner halfway home, in South Hill.  We got home at 7:20 p.m., very tired but very happy for a wonderful steam train ride, and a wonderful 80th birthday gift for me.