Santa Fe's 1946-49 Chief Train in Victorville & Slow Work on Staging Yards

 

This time we'll cover the Santa Fe's Chief passenger train in Victorville during 1946-1949, and then we'll look at several more weeks of slow progress on laying out the main staging yards on my layout.

Let's start with the Chief passenger train, using slides and photos from my 2010 clinic about the Postwar Chief.  Here's an opening image I used, showing a color Santa Fe ad for their Chief train:

 

 

Here's the introductory text slide, giving the basics about the train:

 And here's some general info about the train's postwar consist:
 

Here's some of the postwar history of the train, up to 1950:

Let's look at a photo of the first half of the train in 1949, with the transcontinental sleepers mixed in:

 

And here's the 2nd half of the Chief, including more sleepers and the observation car:

Here's some information about the locomotives that pulled the postwar train:

 

Here we see Santa Fe 4-6-2 #3427 pulling the Chief in 1945, somewhere in the eastern half of the system:

Robert Rogers reports that the 4-8-4's used on the Chief west of La Junta were normally from the 3765 class.   Here's a Donald Duke photo of #3770 with the eastbound Chief at Pine Lodge in Cajon Pass:

Here's a rare color photo of the Chief while it was powered by 4-8-4s:

Next, let's go through the 1946 consist of the train, starting at the front:

Here we see FT diesels, newly-converted to passenger service, pulling the train around the curve at Ribera, NM, in 1946: 

Here's a slide about the second part of the consist, with the transcontinental sleepers from three eastern railroads:

 

Here's a photo showing the transcontinental sleepers in the train:

 Now let's look at the third part of the train's consist:

 

Here's a color photo of the interior of a lounge car on the Chief: 

 Here's the final part of the train's consist:

Here we see the observation car "Coconino" at the rear of the train:

Here's a detailed table of all the cars in the 1946-48 consist, along with the HO models available as of 2010:

Here we see the eastbound Chief climbing Cajon Pass in Sep., 1947, thanks to Robert F. Collins:

Here are some changes to the consist that took place at the end of February, 1948:

And here's a table of all the cars in the consist during 1948-49, and the HO models available as of 2010: 

Richard Steinheimer shot this photo of Chard Walker waving at the eastbound Chief as it passed through Victorville in the late 1940s: 

Let's end this first presentation about the postwar Chief with this color ad, showing one of its observation cars during boarding:

It has been my habit to report on the times of day when the train traveled through Victorville (without stopping), so here are the times during 1946-49.

On June 2, 1946, Train 19 came through at 6:43 a.m. and Train 20 came through at 3:04 p.m.  On Sep. 29, 1946, Train 19 changed to 6:35 a.m.  On Nov. 10. 1946, Train 20 changed to 3:05 p.m.  On June 8, 1947, Train 19's time was 5:00 a.m. and Train 20's time was 3:48 p.m.  On Dec. 14, 1947, Train 19 changed to 5:10 a.m.  No further changes were made until 1950.

I will want to model this train in HO, so I will check the spreadsheet data given above for the available models.  Robert Rogers informs me that the only two HO models for this train added since 2010 are the Walthers 8-2-2 without skirts (but they can be added) and the Walthers Budd diner.

Our next topic will be two layout progress reports, as usual.  On Nov. 10, 2025, I wrote this report:

Back on Oct. 30, while still working on how to best arrange all the turnouts in the throat to the A and B staging yards, I realized that it might be possible to get rid of the two double-slip switches leading into the A Yard, including one on the inner mainline.  So I laid out some paper templates for regular turnouts to replace the double-slips.  Here's a photo showing the new crossover I'd need to add upstream between the two mainlines and they enter a curve: 

And here's a photo showing how the yard throat turnouts would be arranged, still with the turnout from track B7 into track B8 down around the curve, making tracks B7 and B8 shorter than the others (in the upper right part of the yard in this view):

 

I sent these photos to my advisors Tim Fisher and Don Borden, and Tim was okay with the new crossovers (instead of the double-slips) but didn't like tracks B7 and B8 being so short.  He suggested eliminating track B8, which would also allow the rest of the tracks to be spaced at my standard of 2 1/4" instead of the 2 1/8" inches I was using to fit all 18 tracks in.  This weekend I worked on that new arrangement -- see the results at the end of this report.

On Oct. 31 I visited Bill Messecar and brought home the model of the Victorville boiler house that he had scratch-built for me.  Here's a photo of it posed on the staging deck, showing the side that will face the mainlines:

 

Here's the other side of the boiler house model, which is the side facing the wye and the layout aisle:

 

Note how a stove pipe came out of one of the windows.  Many thanks to Bill for his excellent work on this!

Then on Nov. 5 I attended another op session at Bill's wonderful Santa Fe layout.  Here we see Colin Kikawa and Dave Peck bringing the Placentia Turn through the Corona area after completing their work:

 

Here we see me and Norm Bruce working on the Riverside Turn (with Bill in the background):

 

 

And here we see Bill Messecar bringing the Corona Turn back to the San Bernardino yard:

 

We had a good time that morning, and then we all went out to lunch together.

The next event was on Nov. 8, when the Boeing Employees Model Railroad Club hosted their annual Swap Meet in Kent, which fills a large gymnasium and another room across the hall.  As usual, my job was to check the vendors into the smaller room, and then later to sell tickets at the entrance.  Here's a photo showing several club members working at the club tables, including club president Byron Osborn on the left:

 

During my lunch break, I met with UP researcher Jeff Koeller, who had just completed an excellent article about the UP's short-lived Transcon passenger train of 1946, which I had published in my Victorville layout blog the night before.  We had a good discussion about the article, and then I asked him to pose beside a large-scale layout there:

 

Many thanks to Jeff for all his work on the Transcon article!  His next project is to write about the UP's Los Angeles Limited of 1946.

My project yesterday and today was to try out the new yard track arrangement, with the tracks spaced on 2 1/4" centers and with track B8 eliminated.  I had high hopes for this, but as I re-spaced all the tracks and rearranged all the turnouts into them, I found that now tracks B6 and B7 became shorter, despite losing track B8.

Here's a current view into the rearranged turnouts at the yard throat:

 

 

And here's a view from the far end of the yards:

 

The turnout into tracks B6 and B7 was now at the far left in this photo, but both tracks were now shorter than the others, and I've lost track B8, so I saw this as a setback.  I wondered if I should go back to the 2 1/8" track spacing and add track B8 beck into the yard.  I'll see whether my advisors agree or not.

 

On Nov. 30 I wrote my next report:

 

I'm a week late with this report, due to life and family events taking up my time, plus I'm slowing down in my old age!

When we left off, I had found that spacing the A and B Yard tracks 2 1/4" apart, instead of 2 1/8", caused me to lose Track B8.  But my advisors told me that this was okay, and they liked the normal 2 1/4" spacing, which is used everywhere else in my trackwork.  So I agreed with them, and I will follow their advice.  No more Track B8.

The new yard design gets rid of the two double-slip switches and replaces them with regular crossovers, as discussed last time.  I worked a little on inserting the first crossover between the two mainlines, near where the turnout to the future helix is located in the outer main.  

I began by removing the #8 turnout to the helix, and I trimmed and inserted a #6 turnout in its place, but farther to the right.  I'm trying to leave 12" of straight track between the points of the nearby turnouts, so there will be no S-curve derailments by long passenger cars there.

I also cut and fit and glued down some upside-down cork roadbed to fill the gap between the mainlines, as seen here under the loose crossover turnouts in the lower right:

After I painted the new cork roadbed, I shot another view from the other end of the developing scene:

 

The new #6 turnout to the helix is in the lower left, and the newly-painted cork is under the loose crossover between the main lines in the upper left.  My next step will be to remove parts of the inner and outer mains to make room for the new crossover.  Revising the trackwork is a fussy job and no fun at all.

Meanwhile, I've been corresponding with my architect friend Jim Coady, who hopes to find time to make some scale drawings of the Victorville sand house and its attached sand bin.  My friend Bill Messecar plans to build the models for me, when the drawings are ready.

We have no close-ups of the sand house and bin.  Here's the best view I could find, cropped from a larger photo of the local switcher (Santa Fe 2-8-2 #3134) parked by the boiler house and the elevated fuel oil tank, inside the wye:

 

 

The Santa Fe's fuel service records include this drawing of the area, with the sand house and bin on the right:

 

The Victorville building records list the sand house and bin as "wood, 44.8' x 11.5', erected 6-1945."

I'll report back when we have some drawings to work from.

In other structure news, Craig Wisch in Victorville may be interested in building a cardstock model of the Union Oil bulk dealer that was on the far side of the wye.  I have sent him the drawings that Jim Coady made for me some years ago, so I'm hoping that Craig will be inspired to use them.

I volunteered to support the Boeing Employee Model Railroad Club's open house, which was open to the public on Friday and Saturday of this past week.  I was there, running a train around, for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, until the crowds died down.  Here's a photo I shot of some of the visitors (mostly parents with excited children) filling one of the aisles:

 

Here's some of the scenery along this same aisle, with the railroad and a highway going through the mountains:

 

Here's the train I was running, with four blue Seattle & North Cascades F-units and a long freight, passing a GN freight stopped on a siding:

 

 

Here's the newly-completed roundhouse and turntable scene (part of our Everett yard):

 

Back along the main aisle, here is some more scenery with a steep rock cliff beside a small town:

 

My final photo shows a US Army train in action, pulling some flatcars loaded with tanks:

 

Everyone there had a fun time, so the open house was a big success!

 

Please contact me if you can help with my layout in any way. 

John