UP's 1952-1954 Los Angeles Limited Train & Gluing Down Tracks in the Left Half of the A Yard

 

This time we'll cover the Union Pacific's Los Angeles Limited passenger train in Victorville from l952 through early 1954, and then we'll look at four weeks of work on gluing down flextracks to form the rest of the 10-track A Yard, where the tracks continue around the big curve at the end of the peninsula and then fill most of the other side of the peninsula.

For this fourth report on the LA Limited passenger train, I'll be using information kindly supplied again by UP researcher Jeff Koeller, as follows:

Los Angeles Limited 1952-1954

 

Passenger Equipment Paint Scheme Changes

 

After the new passenger cars delivered for upgrading the “Cities” trains arrived in 1949-1950, the Los Angeles Limited began to see more Armour Yellow cars mixed in with its regular Two-Tone Gray paint schemes, along with heavyweight sleepers in Pullman Green and Pennsy Tuscan Red. These yellow cars included new cars assigned on a temporary basis, but also included hand-me-down equipment from the “Cities” trains, some of which were repainted in TTG, but others, such as the C&NW coach-lounge cars, stayed in the yellow ”Cities” scheme. 

 

WB LA Limited at Salt Lake City

 

Train No.1, the westbound LA Limited, is shown approaching the 1st North Street grade crossing in Salt Lake City on April 12, 1952. At mid-train is the overhead conveyer bridge that carried block ice from the Utah Ice & Storage Company to the Pacific Fruit Express refrigerator car icing dock (out of the picture to the left). 

Today’s train is headed up by Fairbanks-Morse engine 701 (renumbered from 50-M-2A in 3-48), along with F-Ms 706B and 704B. On the head-end is a UP express box car in Two-Tone Gray and a Pullman Green 5000-series heavyweight dormitory car. 

 

These are followed by several Armour Yellow cars, including a pair of UP 5300-series coaches, a C&NW 3416-series coach-lounge, a UP articulated dormitory-kitchen/diner (DK/Diner), a UP 1516-series club-lounge, an Imperial-class sleeper, and a Western-class sleeper. 

 

Next is a NYC River-class sleeper in “eastern” Two-Tone Gray. Unidentifiable cars would include a UP Pacific-class sleeper in Coast-to-Coast service, an American-class sleeper from Minneapolis-St. Paul, and a Pullman heavyweight 14 section sleeper from Chicago. RH Kindig Photo.

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As a result of the continual mixing of paint schemes, Union Pacific decided in 1952 that Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray with red separation stripes and lettering, previously used exclusively on the “Cities” streamliners, would become the standard colors for all its passenger equipment. 

Naturally, the changeover didn’t take place overnight, but by mid-1953 the LA Limited had become almost entirely Armour Yellow, except for the daily heavyweight Pullman Green 14 section sleeper on the rear, and the occasional appearance of a lightweight Coast-to-Coast sleeper in New York Central “eastern” Two-Tone Gray or Pennsy Tuscan Red. Although the train continued to handle a heavyweight car or two, the consists appeared in mostly matching yellow colors, perhaps the Limited’s finest hour. 

 

 

WB LA Limited near Granite Canyon

 

Few photos have been located of the LA Limited running between Cheyenne and Green River during its last few years of operation, and this Otto Perry photo taken near Granite Canon on June 15, 1952 is a gem because it shows that EMD diesels were still the predominant form of road engines in this area. Here is train No. 1 ascending the east slope of Sherman Hill with Mountain-type engine 7039 as the head end helper, with three UP diesels including E7 998 (ex 959A), an F3 B-unit, and an E6A. 

This interesting 5,500 hp lashup has a lengthy 18-car consist in tow that has acquired four non-regularly-assigned heavyweight sleepers, perhaps for some special event. The first car is a UP horse-baggage-automobile car, followed by a pair of UP 5300-series coaches, a C&NW 3416-series coach-lounge, a UP heavyweight coffee shop diner (for coach passengers), a UP two-unit dorm-kitchen/diner, a UP 1516-series club-lounge, with an Imperial-class sleeper and a Western-class sleeper ahead of the four heavyweight Pullmans. All cars preceding the Pullman Green heavyweights are in Armour Yellow. Otto Perry Photo, OP-18986. 

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Motive Power

 

Although ALCo PA or PB passenger units were often mixed in, by 1952, 6,000 hp three-unit sets of Fairbanks-Morse “Erie-built” diesels had become the standard form of motive power on the LA Limited between Los Angeles and Green River, Wyoming, partly due to their tractive effort superiority over the EMD E6s and E7s, but also because they had dynamic brakes, which the E-units lacked. 

EMD’s new 2,250 hp model E8, introduced in 1949, was designed to overcome these deficiencies with high-output traction motors and dynamic braking. UP took delivery of five AB sets of E8s in 1950, but these ten units were prioritized for the “Cities” streamliners. In 1952-1953, UP acquired 36 more E8s, some of which could be found operating on the LA Limited in late 1953. 

East of Green River, the LA Limited was dominated by UP E-unit combinations, while on the C&NW’s relatively flat Chicago to Omaha main line, North Western E-units were the primary type of power units, usually operating in two-unit E8A-E7A 4,250 hp lashups. 

 

EB LA Limited at East Los Angeles Station

 

Train No. 2, the eastbound LA Limited, is shown pulling up to its East Los Angeles station stop on December 16, 1952. This three-unit set of Fairbanks-Morse diesels is headed up by engine 703 (ex 985A, renumbered in March 1948).

 

Except for the heavyweight Pullman Green 14 section sleeper barely visible on the rear end, the rest of the train is impressive in its matching Armour Yellow colors, which includes C&NW baggage-dorm 9301 (ex CP-101), a pair of UP 5300-series coaches, a C&NW 3416-series coach-lounge, a C&NW two-unit coffee shop-kitchen/diner (6960 Presidio/6696 Mission Dolores), and a UP 1516-series club-lounge, followed by five yellow lightweight sleepers and the heavyweight Pullman. Robert Peterson Photo.

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EB LA Limited Near Pine Lodge in 1953

 

Ascending the eastward track on Cajon Pass, the LA Limited is shown near Pine Lodge just above Sullivan’s Curve. Motive power consists of a Fairbanks-Morse AB diesel set with an ALCo PA unit trailing. The lead unit is F-M 650, which was renumbered from 981A in February 1953 (ex 50-M-1A). 

The train includes a UP express box car, two UP 5300-series coaches, a C&NW 3416-series coach-lounge, a UP DK/Diner, a UP 1516-series club-lounge, and a Western-class sleeper. Breaking up the otherwise all-yellow consist is a NYC River-class sleeper in “eastern” Two-Tone Gray, followed two more yellow cars, a Pacific-class sleeper and an Imperial-class sleeper. Donald Duke photo. 

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EB LA Limited 1st Photo Along the Weber River

 

The LA Limited is shown heading upgrade along the Weber River reservoir at about mile 980.5 on June 21, 1953. The eastbound train is led by ALCo PA 602 (ex 996A) with ALCo PB 605B and F-M 654 (ex 704) trailing. Behind the engines is a UP Harriman-roof storage-mail car (ex RPO), followed by a UP 5300-series coach with its vestibule adjacent to another 5300 coach.

This reservoir was created by building a dam, spillway, and penstock to provide water for generating electricity at the Utah Power & Light Company’s Weber Station power house a mile and three-quarters down-river from here (the dam is just out of the picture to the right). Although this location on the UP is sometimes referred to as “Strawberry,” it’s really a just a half-mile east of Devil’s Gate, where twin UP bridges span the Weber River and US South 30. 

 

EB LA Limited 2nd Photo Along the Weber River

 

This second view is helpful for identifying several of the train’s Armour Yellow cars. Starting at the signal bridge in the left distance, the consist has three UP 5300-series coaches, a C&NW 3416-series coach-lounge, a UP heavyweight coffee shop diner (for coach passengers), a UP two-unit DK/Diner, followed by a UP 1516-series club-lounge, then an Imperial-class sleeper, and (part of) a Western-class sleeper. Emil Albrecht Photos (from utahrails.net). 

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Epilogue — A New Los Angeles Limited Streamliner 

 

The first of 38 new 5450-5487 series coaches began arriving from AC&F in November 1953. These 44-seat leg-rest coaches were the same type as used on the “Cities” trains, and their delivery would enable UP to finally replace the LA Limited’s outdated 1937-built coaches and help upgrade the train to full streamliner status — essentially an improved “new” Los Angeles Limited. 

At this time the traveling trend of first class businessmen was rapidly changing from trains to airlines, therefore the new streamliner would feature more coaches and fewer sleeping cars. Accordingly, the heavyweight 14 section sleeper from Chicago would be dropped, and the New York to Los Angeles Coast-to-Coast sleepers would be transferred to the City of Los Angeles: the Line 4048 sleeper via the NYC on August 1, 1953, and the Line 4049 sleeper via the PRR, effective January 10, 1954. 

Also, the Minneapolis-St Paul to Los Angeles Line 4349 American-class sleeper would be re-assigned to the COLA on January 10, 1954, leaving the LA Limited with only the two Chicago to Los Angeles cars: the Line 4345 Imperial-class sleeper and the Line 4346 Western-class sleeper. 

In order to make the train ultra-competitive with Santa Fe’s faster, all-lightweight Chief, the new LA Limited streamliner would operate on a "One Night" en route schedule and on the same 39 3/4 hours timing as UPs Pacific Coast “Cities” trains. Along with the introduction of a re-equipped “new” streamliner City of Denver, all these goals would be accomplished beginning on January 10, 1954. 

However, in a marketing move designed to attract more customers, the name of the new train was changed on that date from the illustrious but decades-old Los Angeles Limited moniker to the Challenger Streamliner, but that’s another story to be addressed in the next installment.  

Thanks to Jeff Koeller for all of the above text, photos with captions, and consist table!

 

I always like to look up what the train times through Victorville were.  Starting on Sep. 30, 1951,  the westbound LA Limited (Train 201 in the Santa Fe employee timetable) still came through town without stopping at 7:07 a.m., while Train 202 came through at 3:08 p.m.  To be continued.

 

These were daytime train times, meaning that I should model and operate this train.  We're still working on a list of HO models that could be used for this train.  These will be added here later.

 

As for layout progress since last time, on May 10 I wrote this first bi-weekly report:

 

When we left off two weeks ago, I had pinned down the flextracks for Tracks A1 though A10 on the left part of the A Yard, and I had loosely placed the turnouts that will bring these ten tracks together into the throat.

My next steps were to cut and fit short pieces of flextracks to fit between all the turnouts of the left throat of the A Yard.  When all of this work was done, I shot a photo of the yard throat from the wide part of the A Yard, as seen here:

 

 

I also shot a photo of the connected yard throat from the narrow end:
 

On the left side of the above photo, you can see that I had located where the tracks and turnouts of the seven-track D Yard could fit in.  The D Yard will be for storing more diesel sets between runs.

The next step was to start gluing down the A Yard tracks on this side of the layout, one by one.  Here's a view of the caulk after it was spread for the curving part of Track A1:

 

Here's a view after the curve of Track A1 had been glued down, and the first Track A1 straight section had been glued, and the curving sections of Track A2 had also been glued down, and the water bottles had been placed on top while the caulk dries:

 

 

I will continue with this process of gluing down the A Yard tracks in the days to come.

Now let's look at some progress my friends have been making with structures for my layout.  Last Friday (May 8) I met with Bill Messecar for lunch, and he gave me his completed model of the Victorville stock pen, which he had scratch-built according to standard Santa Fe plans and Victorville building records.  My space for the pen is limited, so he built a version with two sections instead of three.  I was blown away with how beautiful it is!

When I got home, I placed ten Hereford cattle (from Woodland Scenics) into one of the sections and shot two photos.  Here's a trackside view from the left:

 

 

And here's a view from the right:

 

Many thanks to Bill for his amazing work on this model!

My friend Colin Kikawa, an expert passenger car modeler, had sold me two of this Pullman heavyweight sleepers with interiors (a 12-1 and a 6-3), and Bill passed those along to me, so I put them onto a staging track for a photo:

 

Thanks to Colin for h is fine work on these!

During the past two weeks I exchanged a lot of emails with my newest friend, Jon McWhirter, about what kits and parts he might be able to use to construct a compressed model of the electrical Switching Station just outside Victorville.  You saw some initial ideas last time, and here are a couple of newer ideas.  One is to use a do-it-yourself substation kit like this one he found online:

Then he had the idea to buy some plans for 3D printing, and have them printed locally, producing parts like these:

We are looking for parts like these to construct the tall gantry structures that we see in the photos, such as in this 1953 USGS aerial photo of the area:

 

Notice how small the Control House is (at lower left) compared to the entire area, but in my compressed layout space, it will occupy quite a bit of the available space.

I visited Jon at his home for the first time on Saturday (May 9), where I got to see his L-shaped switching layout, and we discussed more ideas for modeling the Switching Station in my relatively limited space.  Here is Jon's latest idea for how to use the available space:

We decided that we could move the Control House a bit to the left to better equalize the space on each side of it (that move is not shown in this plan).  Jon will keep me updated on his latest ideas for building the large gantries that fill the area.  We also wondered whether we should string actual wires between the gantries or just leave the wires invisible, but I think I'd prefer invisible wires.

 

Then on May 24 I sent out my next bi-weekly report:

 

When we left off two weeks ago, I had glued down the first two staging yard tracks (A1 and A2) in the left half of the 10-track A Yard.  I continued attaching the rest of the tracks, usually one per day, during the next two weeks.

Here we see Track A2 after it had been glued and pinned in place, before the water bottles were placed on top:

 

And here is the bead of glue (caulk) in place to start on Track A3, which is lying loose off to the left side:

 

Proceeding to Track A4, it has now been glued and pinned and weighted down with water bottles while the glue dries overnight:

 

 

After doing it this way for the first five tracks, I discovered that it was easier to glue and pin just one flextrack section at a time, before moving along to the next flextrack.  There were three or four flextracks to glue down along the length of each yard track.  

The most important part is to ensure that the rails meet smoothly inside the rail joiners at each joint.  Then about four loose ties have to be filed down and slipped under the rail joiner areas.  But they can't hold the rails in a smooth curve, so little kinks appear at these points, and they will have to be corrected later with some sort of spikes or nails.

Meanwhile, my new friend Jon McWhirter had to give up on the 3D printing of the tall gantry parts for the Switching Station, so he will look for some other solution.  He sent me this nice photo of the Substation model he had built for his own switching layout:

 

And my local friend Bill Messecar, who recently finished his beautiful scratch-built model of the Victorville Stock Pen, which you saw last time, has volunteered to build something else for me, and we settled on parts of the large Southwestern Portland Cement Plant that will occupy a lot of space around the corner from the Victorville town scene.

Years ago I had bought the large Walthers Valley Cement kit to supply some of the needed parts:

 

Here's a side view of the actual cement plant back in the 1940s, with the Santa Fe mainlines in the foreground:

 

Here's my track plan for the area.  I outlined several of the buildings with red ink to show Bill which parts of the Walthers kit should go where:

The parts in red ink are the kiln and the buildings at the top and bottom of the kiln, and the limestone storage building.  Since that time I've learned that this larger 1949 kiln had the top part on the left and the bottom on the right, so we'll install it that way on the layout (someday).  By the way, I had some great discussions with an AI agent about many features of this particular cement plant!

Getting back now to the staging yard, this week I was able to add one more track each day, so all ten tracks are now glued down, except for the parts that enter the yard throat turnouts.

Here's a view of the completed yard, with water bottles on Tracks A9 and A10:

 

Here's a view of the yard from the throat end, where the turnouts and connecting tracks are waiting to be glued down next:

 

On the far side of the bottles are the seven tracks of the D Yard (for storing diesels between runs), so that will be my next project after the A Yard throat.

If you can help me in any way, in person or by building models remotely, please let me know.