This time we'll cover the Santa Fe's Scout passenger train in
Victorville during 1948-1949, and then we'll look at several weeks of initial progress on laying out the main staging yards on my layout.
Let's start with a painting by Jim Jordan of the Scout train about to leave Dearborn Station in Chicago behind the "Blue Goose" 4-6-4 #3460:
To cover the train in 1948-49, I'll be using more of the slides from my 2017 presentation. Last time I listed some non-Scout-painted cars that were added during the 1940s, and here are more of them:
There were also more changes to the train's paint scheme:
Here's a photo of the westbound Scout (Train #1) on Curtis Hill, OK, in May 1947, behind 4-8-4 #2926, thanks to Preston George:
Next is some info on the changes to the train during 1948, including the end of steam power in mid-November:
I haven't found any photos of the Scout behind diesels in this time period, but here's an interesting shot showing Santa Fe's early diesels in front of a steam loco, somewhere back east in 1948:
But the Scout stopped running all the way to Los Angeles in early 1949, as described in this slide:
I was curious whether it would be possible for me to model the Scout in 1948 on Cajon Pass with none of the special Scout markings on the cars, and I decided that it could work on certain days:
Here's the standard Scout consist for Cajon Pass in the postwar years, with some HO model passenger cars that could be used:
Luckily
for me, both the westbound and the eastbound trains came through
Victorville in the middle of the night, so I can omit this train.
During most of 1948, Train #1 came through at 2:58 A.M, and Train #2 came
through at 11:41 P.M. In Dec. 1948 until the final trip on Feb. 19, 1949, the train times in Victorville were 2:39 A.M. and 11:39 P.M.
In conclusion, here's the tail sign for the Scout train:
Now it's time to review my two bi-weekly layout progress reports of the past month.
On Sep. 8 I wrote the following:
I ended my Aug. 24 layout progress report by writing:
"There are lots of things that I should be doing next on the layout, but
the one I plan to start with is to clear all the models and tools off
one half of the lower deck and then draw the center-lines for all the A
Yard tracks on that side and all the B yard tracks (the B Yard is
stub-ended and does not wrap around the layout like the A Yard does)."
So,
I actually did get started on this task. First I moved all the tools
and structures that were stored on one side of the main peninsula to the
other side. Here's a view of many of the Victorville structures, all
crammed together on the other side of the layout:
With the space on the other side of the layout now clear, I laid
out all the #6 Atlas turnouts and some of the flextracks, which will be
spaced on 2 1/8" inch centers. Here's a view from the throat, looking
into the yards (10 tracks of the A Yard on the left, and 8 tracks of the
B Yard on the right):
I was excited to see all these tracks taking shape, temporarily.
Here's a view looking back at the throat from the mid-point of the
yards. The Post-It notes were to help me keep track of the all the
track numbers:
I shot one more photo from the left end of the yards, with the
paper track plan in the foreground. I had to refer to the track plan
often to figure out where all the tracks and turnouts should go:
Then I decided to make a 4' long strip of poster board with all
the track locations marked on 2 1/8" centers, with the edges of the ties
marked for each track. My track spacing for the rest of the layout has
been 2 1/4", but I had to squeeze it down a bit in the yards, because I
forgot to allow for the posts along the far side when I drew the
trackplan:
I will move the flextracks out of the way when I
use this template to mark the exact locations of the 18 tracks on the
cork roadbed surface, at several locations along the track lengths.
My
next step was to make photocopies of my #6 Atlas turnouts and lay them
out on the cork in place of the real turnouts, to see how well they will
fit with a powered switch machine attached beside each one:
Right away I found that the problem will be that
some of the powered switch machines will get in the way of some of the
adjacent turnouts. I tried to solve this by changing two of the
right-hand turnouts into left-hand ones, but then there are problems
with the smooth flow through the turnouts. I will have to keep working
on this problem. I've heard that Atlas under-table switch machines are a
nightmare to install, so I'm trying hard to avoid that.
Then
on Thursday, Sep. 4, it was time for my wife and me to leave town on
our 49th honeymoon. As usual, we sailed off to beautiful Victoria, BC,
Canada. There is no longer any rail line in town, but we saw some model
trains when we visited Miniature World for the 2nd year in a row. Here
are a few token photos.
First, a beautiful logging scene:
Here is one of their small town scenes along the Canadian rail lines:
One of my favorite scenes shows a circus train unloading (on the left) and a circus parade into town (along the bottom):While we were gone, my friend Craig Wisch in Victorville completed the first version of his cardstock model of the Standard Oil truck garage that will sit beside the rest of
the Standard Oil dealer scene that Don Hubbard has been working to
complete. Craig added a sign on the side of the garage that will face
the street (the edge of the layout):
And here is the other side of this very nice model:
Now that I'm back home, I'll get back to work on those tracks and turnouts for the A and B yards.
My next bi-weekly report was on Sep. 21, and I had this to say:
When we left off two weeks ago, you saw how I was laying
out some flextracks and Atlas #6 turnouts to form the 10 staging tracks
of the A Yard and the 8 staging tracks of the B Yard, and all the
turnouts needed in the yard throat to reach them.
I
decided that my next step should be to move all those tracks aside for a
while, so I could draw the outlines of the tracks in pencil on the cork
surface. I marked the edges of each track at several points, using my
poster-board template, and then I used a 48" ruler to draw the parallel
edges of each track (the edges of the ties), as seen here:
Then I placed the flextracks at the ends of the straight, parallel parts
of the tracks and curved and angled them to connect to the turnouts in
the yard throat, as seen here:
As I said last time, I learned that the switch motor
beside each turnout will require some changes to the yard throat design,
as they tend to get in the way of the adjacent tracks. For example,
the turnout leading into tracks B7 and B8 had to moved around the curve
leading into those tracks, making those tracks shorter than planned.
In
the view below, you can see an example of this, where the turnouts into
the B Yard did not line up with where I initially had them placed (in
the middle of the photo):
So, I had to re-work the turnout locations until there was a smooth flow
through each track and turnout, and so that none of the switch machines
were in the way of the adjacent tracks, as seen here from a different
angle:
The final step, not shown here. was to use a pencil to
trace the outline of each track and turnout, and then to remove all the
tracks and turnouts to see that all the outlines were in place.
My
next step will be to start cutting and fitting the tracks and turnouts
to connect together, remembering that some rail joiners will be
insulated to create all the blocks needed in the yards. But now
football season is in full swing, so that takes some hours from my
progress each week.
And
since the yard throats have been modified, I will need to go back to the
control panel drawings for these yard throats and change them to match
the new reality.
In other
news, my loco-painting expert up in Mukilteo, Gary Jordan, sent me a
photo of my old PFM ATSF 3800-class brass 2-10-2 that he had completed
testing and painting for me (as #3895):
Also, my friend in Victorville, Craig Wisch, has been
corresponding with me daily about the final touches on his cardstock
model of the Standard Oil dealer's truck garage. He wanted to make a new, improved rooftop, so he did, and I requested a sign board to be added to
the front of the garage, where the garage doors are, and he has
done that.
Here's a photo he sent me of the revised front (with sign board) and the left side:
Here's a new photo of the front and right sides:
And here we see the right and rear sides:
Many thanks to Craig for all of his work on this fine model. He will be mailing it to me before long.
I'm enjoying working on the trackwork into the A and B yards, so I will continue with that.
If you can visit me or help with any of my projects, please let me know.
