This
time we'll cover the Santa Fe's Chief passenger train in
Victorville during 1954-1956 (the final years of my time period), and then we'll look at several weeks
of work on connecting turnouts and flextracks to form the two throats of the 10-track A Yard in staging.
For this 3rd report on the Chief passenger train, I'll be using slides and photos again from my
2010 clinic about the Postwar Chief. Here's an opening image, showing a famous ad for the Chief train:
Here are the important changes that happened to the Chief in early 1954:
Here is the train's general consist from early 1954 through 1956:
Here's an undated photo of the eastbound Chief climbing Cajon Pass behind F7 #39:
Here are the changes to the Chief later in 1954:
Here are the details of the consist from early 1954 into April of 1955, along with some HO models as of 2010:
Here's an undated photo of the Chief at Fox, NM, behind F3 #28:
In 1955 there were more changes to the Chief:
Here we see the detailed Chief consist from April of 1955 until July of 1956, along with some HO models:
Here we see the eastbound and westbound Chiefs meeting in Raton Pass, NM, in 1956 (note the Big Dome lounge, recently acquired from the El Capitan):
Here are the additional changes to the Chief in July of 1956:
Now let's look at the detailed consist of the Chief in the six months after July of 1956, and some HO models:
Here's a photo of one of the Big Dome Lounges that joined the train in 1956:
Here's one of the chair-observation cars that also came from the El Capitan:
This observation is #3197 (for which Con-Cor made an HO styrene model).
Finally, here are some changes to the Chief that happened after 1956:
Here we see the Chief about to leave Dearborn Station in Chicago in 1957, behind F3 #29:
Here's a nice shot of the eastbound Chief behind F-units on Sullivan's Curve in 1965:
Here's another view of the 1960s Chief on Sullivan's Curve, this time from above:
As for motive power on the 1954-1956 Chief, it was all F3s and F7s, except that PA units pulled the train westbound from Barstow to LA only.
I like to report on the times of day when the train traveled through
Victorville (without stopping), so here are the times during 1954 through 1956: A radical schedule change came on Jan. 10, 1954, when Train 19 changed from 5:10 a.m. to 7:25 p.m. and
Train 20 changed from 3:41 p.m. to 6:53 p.m. in Victorville.
These times stayed the same until April 24, 1955, when Train 19 changed to 7:29 p.m. and Train 20 changed to 5:53 p.m. Then on Sep. 25, 1955, Train 20 returned to 6:53 p.m. On Oct. 30, 1955, Train 20 had a big change to 12:54 a.m. in Victorville.
On July 22, 1956, Train 19 changed slightly to 7:31 p.m., and on Sep. 30, 1956 it changed to 7:50 p.m., and on Nov. 25, 1956, it changed to 8:10 p.m., while Train 20 changed to 12:03 a.m. These times stayed the same through the end of 1956.
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 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.
In 2016 Walthers made four new HO model cars for the 1954 El Capitan, and three of them can be used in the 1956 Chief:
the 3246-3248 Chair-Observation cars;
the 1566-1577 Lunch Counter Diners;
the "Big Dome" Bar Lounge cars, #506-513.
My next topic today will be two more bi-weekly layout progress reports, as usual. On Jan. 11, 2026, I wrote this report:
OK, it's a new year, and I resolve to make better
progress on my layout than last year. My goal is still to complete the
lower deck trackage by the end of this year, so that I can then jump
ahead to my main goal of adding the upper deck, with all of its
Victorville buildings, scenery, and tracks. The lower deck control
panels and the helix to the upper deck can wait until later.
Looking
back a year, I see that I was just starting to lay the six stub tracks
of the C Yard, where diesel loco sets would be stored. When I finished
the C Yard, including all the feeder wires to all the blocks, I got
bogged down with the A and B yards.
I
tried laying out the 10 through tracks of the A Yard and the 8 adjacent
stub tracks of the B Yard, but I found that I couldn't place all the
turnouts in the throats of those yards the way my pencil track plan had
indicated, because the Atlas table-top switch motors got in the way of
many adjacent tracks. I tried a parallel track spacing of 2 1/8", but I
went back to my normal 2 1/4" spacing and had to drop Track B8 from the
plan.
The new
plan for the A and B Yard throats led to the idea of moving the
crossover between the main lines farther to the right, so the old
crossover could be removed, along with the double-slip switch that was
on the inner main. I recently completed that new mainline crossover,
partly on a curve, and I added the ties under the rail joiners and shot a
photo (it's at the lower right in this photo):
The next step was to remove the old crossover between the two
mainlines. Here we see it before it was removed, along the left edge of
this photo:
I used my Dremel tool to cut both turnouts loose from the adjacent
mainline tracks, and then I pried them up from the dried caulk. Here's a
photo showing the blank roadbed spots on the left, where the crossover
turnouts were, including the double-slip switch that was on the inner
main as part of the crossover:
I filled in the outer main with a section of flextrack cut to size,
glued down, and connected with rail joiners at each end. Then I cut out
sections of the inner main to allow me to fit in two #8 turnouts that
would lead into the A and B staging yard throats. (I could have used #6
turnouts, but I had some extra #8s to use up.) Here we see the blank
areas of the inner main roadbed where the two #8 turnouts will go:
I used some cork pieces to fill in the holes and painted them to match
the surrounding roadbed. Then I worked to get the rail joiners in place
before gluing down the non-moving parts of the two #8 turnouts. Here's
the result of all my work, as photographed today (Jan. 11):
I still need to add the ties under the rail joiners, and
probably straighten those wiggles in the inner main. Then I can dive
into the complex work of adding all the turnouts needed for the yard
throats. Yikes!
Meanwhile,
Craig Wisch is still doing some final work on his cardstock model of
the Union Oil bulk dealer. And Bill Messecar has been working on some
craftsman structure kits for his own enjoyment while he waited for some
final drawings of the Victorville sand house that was inside the Victorville wye.
My architect friend Jim Coady has now completed those drawings after one
round of revisions, so I'll share them here.
First, here's the main photo we used to help us with the drawings:
Here's the cover sheet of the drawings made by Jim Coady:
Here are his perspective views of the building and its sand bin:
And here are the end views:
Finally, here are the top (floor plan) views:
Many thanks to Jim Coady for these beautiful drawings! In the weeks since these were completed, we've decided to lower the posts and walls of the sand bin a bit, and to lower the top of the doorway from the sand house into the bin.
Here is my next progress report, from Jan. 26:
In
the last two weeks I've been working on getting the turnouts into the A
Yard tracks located and connected with one or two sections of flextrack
for each of the ten yard tracks, A1 through A10. But watching the
Seahawks' playoff victories over the 49ers and then the Rams has taken up some
of my time.
In
the last week I took my friend Tim Fisher's suggestion to keep a log of
how much time I spend working on the layout each day (about an hour),
and that has kept me moving ahead better than before.
When
we left off, I had inserted two #8 Atlas turnouts into the inner
mainline track -- one for entering yard Tracks A1-A5, and the other for
entering yard tracks A6-A10. When I had connected the ladder turnouts
into some flextracks for A1-A5, using rail joiners but not yet gluing
them down. I shot this photo of the new yard throat:
Then
I worked from the other mainline turnout (to the right of the A1-A5
turnout), connecting turnouts and flextracks for Tracks A6-A10. I was
happy with that until I discovered that there was not enough room for
the lead into the B Yard to pass between the A and C Yard tracks. So I
had to start over, rearranging the turnouts into A6-A10 so that lead
into the B Yard will be able to get through.
Here's a shot of the current arrangement, with A1-A5 in the distance on the left, and A6-A10 in the foreground in the middle:
I've
only begun to locate the turnouts into the B Yard (Tracks B1-B7) on the
right. Part of the goal is to allow space for the powered switch
machines to attach beside the turnouts. I had to send for more Atlas
left-hand powered switch machines, so I'm waiting for those.
The
biggest struggle has been trying to get the rails into the too-tight
rail joiners, after I snip off two of the ties at each end of each
flextrack. I use my handy track-spacer tool to keep the tracks on 2
1/4" inch centers.
On
Wednesday, Jan. 21, I got to attend another operating session at Bill
Messecar's wonderful Santa Fe layout. There were just four of us this
time. Here we see Don Hubbard (recently recovered from a hip
replacement) working with Bill to switch Train 43 (a local freight from
San Bernardino to LA) at Corona:
I worked with Colin Kikawa to assemble the Fast Mail and then run it
behind a sound-equipped Santa Fe 4-8-4 from San Bernardino through to LA
(lots of fun!). Our final job was to switch the reefer Precooler
tracks in the San Bernardino yard, and here we see Colin working on
that:
Meanwhile in Victorville, my friend Craig Wisch has been completing his
cardstock model of the Union Oil dealer building and adjacent oil
storage tanks. He sent me this photo:
Later he sent me this view of the opposite side (the track side, so ignore the location of the tanks, which should be in the foreground):
Let me know if you can help me with trackwork or wiring or building models of other Victorville buildings. I'm on a roll with the trackwork now.
