UP's 1954-1955 Challenger Train & More Buildings for the Victorville Layout

This time we'll cover the Union Pacific's Challenger passenger train in Victorville from l954 through 1955, and then we'll look at four weeks of work on Victorville buildings and yard tracks.

In this fifth report on the LA Limited passenger train, the UP has now changed the train's name to the Challenger passenger train.  I'll be using information kindly supplied again by UP researcher Jeff Koeller, as follows:

To be added in a day or so. ...

 

Checking my Santa Fe Employee Timetables for 1954-55, I find that the train came westbound through Victorville (without stopping) at xxx., and it returned eastbound through town at xxx  So this was a daylight train that I should try to model in HO. 

Here now is my bi-weekly layout progress report from July 5, 2026: 

Now that I'm back home from Minneapolis, I thought that I'd jump right in with more work on the layout tracks, but that hasn't happened yet.  But I did do some studying of the A Yard throat tracks and found that I need to cut and fit some slightly longer filler tracks to close some gaps in the rails.

Here's a new photo of the side of the throat, with lots of markers where fixes need to be made for Tracks A1 through A10:

 

 

And here's a view from the narrow part of the yard throat, leading into Tracks A1 through A10: 

 

I hope to make all these corrections and connections in the coming week.

In other news, I visited my friend Bill Messecar on Friday and got a shot of the row of cement silos he has built, which will be front and center at the cement plant scene.  He did some beautiful work on creating a headhouse over the tops of the silos, using the conveyor pieces from the big cement plant kit and adding windows in them:

 

 

 

To the left of the silos will stand the Packing House, which our friend Don Hubbard has been busy constructing from the Walthers Red Wing Milling kit, which looks like this in the cover photo:

 

 

Craig Wisch in Victorville has been busy building me a cardstock model to represent the building of the Shell Oil dealer.  Here is the only ground-level photo we have, showing part of the building with its loading dock:

 

 

 

Here is the cardstock kit that Craig is using as a starting point:

 

 

I have space for an 11" x 11" lot at the front of my layout scene, as shown with the white paper square here (to the left of the Standard Oil lot):

 

 

Moving along to Jon McWhirter and his Switching Station scene with the tall gantry towers, here's his photo from two weeks ago, showing two versions of the gantry towers standing on the cutout of the available space:

 

 

 

But he's thinking that these models are too expensive and too laborious to build, so now he's considering getting simpler gantries from a kit like this on eBay:

 

 

 

He says, "The two existing gantries (in the first photo) may be usable in some fashion on the layout.  This is the last attempt at a truly prototypical look, and then the plan is to 'punt' and use the ones from eBay (above)."   So we'll see what happens next.

Last Wednesday I made my first trip in months to visit my brass painter, Gary Jordan, up in Mukilteo.  I asked him to pose by his beautiful double-deck layout again:

 

I picked up the loco he had painted and repaired for me some months earlier, the Hallmark model of the Santa Fe's big 2-10-4 #5000, nicknamed "Madame Queen."  Here's his photo of the completed model:

 

 

Another steam loco I acquired recently was the new BLI model of a postwar UP 2-8-8-0 "Bull Moose," as seen here, posed by the model of the cement plant kiln that Bill Messecar had built for me recently:

 

 

That's all I have for this time.  As I said, I need to get back to work on the yard tracks and turnouts every day from now on. 

 

And here now is my bi-weekly layout progress report from July 20, 2026: 

I was finally able to get back to work on the throat tracks at the left end of my 10-track staging yard, called the A Yard.  I thought I would have to cut some longer tracks to reach all the turnouts, but I was able to make the existing tracks fit well enough.  I used my putty knife to spread a little caulk under each loose section of track, and under all the loose ties I needed to file down and slide under the rail joiners where the track sections meet.

Here's a photo I shot while Track A4 was being glued down, before I added the water bottles as weights:

 

 

I was able to connect all ten tracks to their turnouts at the yard throat, as seen here, looking from the throat to the ten tracks (ignore the loose D Yard tracks off to the left -- I still need to work on those):

 

 

Here's a view of the completed A Yard throat, looking from the other direction:

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I received a box from Craig Wisch in Victorville, with his completed cardstock model of the cement plant's Warehouse, and the large Sign Board that was outside the plant.  I placed them in front of my growing cement plant scene (on the A Yard tracks):

 

 

They look wonderful!

Last Wednesday I attended another op session at Bill Messecar's beautiful Santa Fe layout, along with Don Hubbard and Colin Kikawa.  Here we see Don and Colin working on switching the Santa Fe's "Bull Dog" freight train at Corona, on its way from LA to San Bernardino:

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Bill and I were switching cars in the San Bernardino yard, and we posed by the Precooler there (on the left), along with Don (on the right):

 

Speaking of Don, he's been working hard on building the Packing House for the cement plant scene, using the Red Wing Milling kit (I showed the cover of the kit last time).  He sent me a couple of photos, first showing the kit's front side, with a loading dock:

 

And then showing the back side: 

 

 

I think the back side looks closer to the real Packing House, as it has more windows, so I've asked if he can turn it around and put the loading dock on this side.  He's also working with Bill to have the Head House (which is on top of of Bill's row of silos, as pictured here last time) connect with the top of the Packing House.

Returning now to Victorville, Craig Wisch has been completing his cardstock model that will stand in for the Shell Oil dealer's building, which we only have partial photos of.  Here's his recent photo of the front of the model:

 

 

Here we see the rear, which will face the tracks: 

 

 

 

And here is the front and the right side:

 

 

 

This will be another beautiful addition to my Victorville scene!  I plan to build some plastic oil tanks from the Walthers Trackside Oil Dealer kit to stand to the left of this building.

My local friend Jon McWhirter is still trying out various kits that he could use to model the tall gantries at the Victorville Switching Station.  Here's his latest photo showing two of the gantries that look the most like the real thing:

 

I'm very thankful for all the work he's been doing on that project.

My final topic this time is the steam train ride I went on yesterday (Sunday), to celebrate my birthday (which is today).  My wife Diane and son Steven rode along with me down to Elbe, WA, which is about a 95-minute drive, to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway.  My daughter Cyndi and her partner Tim met us there, and we all rode the 3:30 p.m. train east to Mineral and back (a round trip on the train of an hour and 15 minutes).

When we arrived at Elbe, we saw the steam loco, Polson Logging Co. 2-8-2 #70, backing toward its train:

 

 

 

I got another shot after it had coupled on:

 

 

 

Here's an action shot as it chugs across the road and up to the depot for passenger loading:

 

 

We had planned to ride standing up in the open car behind the loco, as usual, but that car had a problem and had been removed from the train, so we stood in the baggage car instead, looking out the open baggage doors.  Here are Diane and me:

 

 

 

And on the other side of the car, here are Steven, Cyndi, and Tim:

 

 

 

It was fun to hold on to the door frames as the car was rocking back and forth!  At one point we got a good view of Mount Rainer behind the hills:

 

 

 

After about 30 minutes, we arrived at Mineral, where the railroad's shops are located:

 

 

 

 

This is where the loco uncouples from the train and pulls ahead, as seen here from the front door of our baggage car: 

 

 

 

Then it backs around the train, as seen here from a side door: 

 

 

 

 

And then it pulls the train backwards on the return trip to Elbe.  Here we see it rounding a curve: 

 

 

 

Here's a view of the end of the depot at Elbe, after we deboarded:

 

 

 

Here's one final shot, showing the Heisler logging loco #10 on display at the other end of the depot: 

 

 

We had a great time, and then we drove back home, stopping for dinner along the way.

 

 

 

John