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:
Here we see FT diesels, newly-converted to passenger service, pulling the train around a curve in 1946:
Next, let's go through the 1946 consist of the train, starting at the front:
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 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:
Let's end this first presentation about the postwar Chief with this color ad, showing one of its observation cars during boarding:
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.
