Victorville Layout: Santa Fe's 1946 El Tovar Passenger Train & My Visit to Minneapolis

This time I had planned to cover the Union Pacific's Los Angeles Limited passenger train in 1954-1956 (when it became the new Challenger), but that report from Jeff Koeller won't be ready until next month, so I'm filling in with an easy Santa Fe passenger train, the El Tovar of 1946.

And instead of more layout progress, I'll share two bi-weekly layout reports that include my annual visit to my home town of Minneapolis.

The El Tovar (Train 123/124) was a short-lived, summer-only supplement to the Grand Canyon Limited (Train 23/24), and unlike the Grand Canyon Limited, the El Tovar actually ran up the branch from Williams, AZ to the south rim of the Grand Canyon

Not a lot is written about the train, but the 2nd Quarter 1998 issue of The Warbonnet (p.12), Fred Frailey's A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists (p.120), and Gordon Bassett's chapter in Santa Fe in the Intermountain West (p.236) each devote a paragraph to it (Frailey also includes a table with the 1946 consist). More recently, the train is also covered briefly on page 183 of the Santa Fe Passenger Train Compendium by Michael Flick and John Signor.

All four sources say that the El Tovar was inaugurated in 1940, running between Los Angeles and Kansas City, with a side trip up the branch to the canyon. For the 1941 season, the train was cut back to just Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon, and then it was cut from the timetable altogether for the duration of WWII, until 1946.

Frank Peterson got a shot of the westbound El Tovar climbing the grade at Frost, just outside Victorville, in July 1941, behind 4-8-2 #3722:

From Williams to the Grand Canyon was 3.3% grade, so the train needed a helper there, as seen in this photo by D.L. Ingersoll of Train 124 arriving at the Grand Canyon station yard in June 1941, with 4-6-2 #1379 helping 4-8-2 #3722:

Besides being the name of the Train, El Tovar was also the name of the Santa Fe’s hotel at the rim of the Grand Canyon, very close to the depot.

The train reappeared for one summer season after the war, June 1 to September 13, 1946, then disappeared for good. The equipment was heavyweight, including the last open-platform Pullman observations assigned regularly to Santa Fe trains.

Here we see Train 123 with nine cars (two more than usual) climbing the grade at Frost (near Victorville) in June 1946, behind 4-8-2 #3747, thanks to Richard Kindig:

Here are the seven types of cars the train normally carried between LA and the Grand Canyon in 1946:

Baggage-Express

Chair

Tourist 14-Sec. Sleeper (to/from Chicago on 23/24)

Diner

Bar Lounge-Dormitory

8-1-2 Sleeper (to/from Chicago on 23/24)

10-Sec Sleeper-Lounge-Observation (with open platform!)

Note that the train included two through-service sleeping cars for the Grand Canyon Limited.

The power was normally a Santa Fe 3700-class 4-8-2.

It's disappointing that there seem to be no photos of the last operating open-platform observation car on a scheduled Santa Fe train, the El Tovar. As a substitute, here's a photo of such a car at the end of the Grand Canyon Limited in 1940:

Checking my Santa Fe Employee Timetable #127 for the summer of 1946, I find that the train came westbound through Victorville (without stopping) at 7:26 a.m., and it returned eastbound through town at 5:53 p.m. So this was a daylight train that I could try to model in HO.

I asked my friend Robert Rogers to send me some ideas for what to use for accurate models for each car, and here is his report:

The only Pullman-owned/operated cars were the 14 Sec, 8-1-2 and 10 Sec.Lounge-Obs. The rest of the consist would be Santa Fe-owned heavyweight cars, built by Pullman, but ALL the Santa Fe owned cars have a distinctive channel side sill at the base of the sides of the car.

For the locomotive, a 4-8-2, the best model is the late 1970's Korean brass Sunset model.

Baggage-Express: This was likely a Santa Fe owned car. There are very limited frugal model choices: Walthers metal (straight side sill and kit-bashed fishbelly side sills -- which were much more common on the Santa Fe). Of course Coach Yard does them accurately, for a price. In doing my research, when I kit-bashed the Rivarossi combine, I got two wide baggage doors, and those baggage cars were converted post-1950 on the Santa Fe, so do not fit 1946. Not really a lot of choices.

Chair car: Suydam and Lambert made this car as a brass shell. Walthers plastic includes an interior, and both models are correct.

Tourist 14 Section: Santa Fe had Steam Ejector A/C on the Pullman pool cars assigned to them. This car was likely off the Scout in Pullman Pool service, so had SE A/C. Bethlehem Car works once made a kit of this car; I have two, and it comes with the correct A/C. The Walthers car is nice, with interior, but does not have correct A/C system. Branchline also did this car, but with Pullman brine or ice A/C, not steam ejector. This is a BIG hole in the Santa Fe sleeper model inventory, and the roof hatches can be SEEN!

Diner: Least costly is the Rivarossi car with interior, then comes Suydam and Lambert (all these cars are slightly different). Walthers does NOT have any Santa Fe prototype heavyweight diner model.

Bar-Lounge-Dorm: Walthers metal side, and Suydam and Lambert do a nice job. Coach Yard is even nicer, but pricey.

8-1-2 Sleeper: I have a modified Lambert car with steam ejector A/C on roof and underfloor, built by Tom Madden, a former supplier to Bethlehem Car Works. Walthers plastic is next, but there is no easy parts source for the roof and underfloor A/C system. Branchline/Atlas does this basic car, but again no steam ejector A/C.

10-Sec-Lounge-Observation: I looked this car up in the Pullman Car Catalog. The 10 sections have a smaller forward restroom than a standard 10-1-2 (closer to a 10-1-1 -- which Branchline did make in plastic). The Lounge part uses three sets of closely paired windows across the rear of the car, with open rear platform. The CY car is correct, but pricey. What I don't know is if Walthers metal sides ever did this car (I don't have access to my old Walthers catalogs). I did get the Branchline 10-1-1 sides, and they do NOT fit the 10-1-2 interior, because the restroom size is different. So, the Branchline 10-1-1 may be a better start to kit-bash the 10-obs.

Many thanks to Robert Rogers for sharing his knowledge about all these models!

Here now is my bi-weekly layout progress report from June 7, 2026:

I'm afraid that I didn't make any progress in the last two weeks on gluing down the throat tracks of my 10-track A Yard, but I did spend a lot of time corresponding with Jeff Koeller about the LA Limited blog entry, and with other friends who are building more structures for my Victorville layout.

The new focus is on structures that were inside the large Southwestern Portland Cement Plant at the north end of town, circa 1950. The cement plant scene will take up a lot of space, and most of it will be set pretty far back from the mainlines at the aisle, so we're going for the generic look of something similar to the real one, not an exact copy.

Here's a color slide shot during a railfan tour of the new 1949 larger kiln at the cement plant in Jan. 1950 (they rode behind 4-8-4 #2903 to get there!):

My friend Bill Messecar took my large Walthers styrene kit for Valley Cement and worked on building a large rotating kiln (like the one seen in the 1950 photo above) and the kiln buildings at each end of it. The kit accidentally (and luckily) came with two very tall smokestacks (instead of the one intended), so he built both of them for me. He also built the kit's large limestone storage building, which is a stand-in for the even larger one at the plant.

When we met for lunch on Friday (June 5), he gave me these completed and weathered structures, and I gave him more Walthers kits to work on -- two of the Red Wing Milling kit, for building the Packing House, and two Medusa Cement kits, for building the rows of cement silos.

I set up his cement plant buildings on top of my new A Yard tracks and shot this photo from the left end of the scene:

Then I shot a photo from the right end, showing more of the limestone storage building, and showing more of the tall smokestacks by the kiln:

I also had a set of silos from an old Medusa Cement kit, which my friend Don Hubbard had built for me years ago, so I set that up too, along with the three new Walthers ATSF covered hoppers that just came out:

I'm very excited to see this large cement plant scene starting to take shape!

But wait, my friend in Victorville, Craig Wisch, has also been building some other parts of the cement plant for me, in cardstock.

Here's his new model of the large sign board that stood right outside the entrance to the plant:

He's now working on a cardstock model of the Warehouse building that was inside the plant. We only have partial photos of it, and we are not including the part that had cement silos sticking out of the roof, and we only have space for one loading dock, facing the mainline side of the plant. We chose this cardstock kit as the basis for our model:

Craig has been working on the long side and on the end, to make them similar to what we can see in photos like the one below, shot when the plant was still new. Part of the Warehouse can be seen in the lower right corner:

Here is his current pattern for the side of the building that will face the aisle, with the side of the loading dock along the bottom:

I'm excited to see this model starting to come together!

A third project in the works is being done by Jon McWirter, who has been exploring ways to build the tall gantries that supported all the transmission lines within the Switching Station north of Victorville. He found a 3D-printed water tower kit that happens to have parts he can use for making each leg of the gantries.

This photo shows one leg of a gantry partly built, with two sides already connected at right angles and two more in a jig:

When he puts all four parts together, he gets one leg of a gantry, which stands over 8" tall:

He writes, "There will be two circuit breakers on each side of the control house, and each circuit breaker requires 2 gantries, so that's 8 gantries. The bus will require 4 gantries, so I believe 12 is the total number of gantries." And we'll need three of those 8" long structures in the photo above to make each gantry -- two for the legs, and one for the horizontal connecting structure. It's quite a project!

Besides the new covered hoppers, my other recent acquisition is the BLI 5-car 1947 Freedom Train set. But I don't have the matching PA yet (I have the decals for it, but where are they?), so I set a Santa Fe PA at the front of the train for this photo:

I love special passenger trains like this!

If you can help me in any way, please get in touch.

Here is my next bi-weekly layout progress report, from June 21:

Most of this two-week period was taken up with my annual trip with my wife Diane to visit my siblings in the Minneapolis area, where I grew up. So, I made no layout progress, but some friends did make progress on various models for my Victorville scenes.

My cardstock-modeler friend living in Victorville, Craig Wisch, completed his model of the cement plant's Warehouse building (or the part of it that fits within my cement plant scene). Here's his photo of the completed model, showing the side that will face the aisle, and which includes a loading dock:

Many thanks to Craig for all his work on this! He'll be sending it to me soon, along with the cement plant sign board that you saw last time.

My local friend Bill Messecar has been working with two of the Walthers Red Wing Milling kits to create an approximate model of the Packing House that was front and center at the cement plant, but he has no photos to show us yet.

He has also been busy adding lettering and new trucks to the very rare Pecos River brass tank car, Santa Fe class Tk-J, which I finally found and won on eBay. He posed it on his layout, within his work train, and it will be running on his layout until my layout is ready to run it:

When it's on my layout, it will serve as the Domestic Water tank car that was filled in Victorville and taken to Summit periodically to provide water to the Summit residents.

Another local friend, Jon McWhirter, has continued to experiment with building electrical gantries as seen at the Victorville Switching Station that will be on my layout. He's been trying various 3D printed parts and assembling them into the shapes needed.

Here's one progress photo from a week ago:

And a 2nd photo from a week ago, using different parts:

Today he sent me this photo of two gantries standing up on the cardboard shape of the switching station area I will have on my layout:

It's exciting for me to see the good progress he's making with this!

Now let's look at some of the photos I shot while in Minneapolis. On the main "hobby shop day" with my brother-in-law Scott, we made our annual visit to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum, where they have a large O-scale layout running all the time.

Here we see a Great Northern passenger train passing a paddle-wheel boat along the river:

Here we see the same train curving around the roundhouse scene:

They have a nice model of the former GN Depot in Minneapolis. In this scene, a Milwaukee Road Hiawatha passenger train is parked there (at the wrong station):

They have another O-scale layout nearby, which does include the proper Milwaukee Road station in Minneapolis:

Back on the main layout, we see a GN freight on one of the bridges over the Mississippi River:

And now the GN passenger train crosses another one of those bridges:

Finally, we watch the GN passenger train round the curve at the left end of the river scene:

On a second "hobby shop day" with Scott, I visited his basement layout, with his interurban seaside layout with overhead wires. I asked Scott to pose by his waterfront car ferry scene:

And then I posed by his car barn, with many of his interurban locos outside:

On another day, my wife and I drove with Scott to Lake Harriet to ride the restored trolley car. Here we see the trolley after it pulled up to the station: