My model railroad loosely represents the Santa Fe Railroad in western Kansas or Colorado. All locomotives and most of the rolling stock are that of the Santa Fe Railroad. I have some close friends who come to my home and they are also serious Santa Fe modelers. Because we all enjoy the Santa Fe railroad of the golden steam era, and also today's modern and efficient railroad, we have decided to operate this railroad in two different eras.
Six months of the year, October through March, we operate as though we are in the early to mid 1950's when Santa Fe had begun dieselization but still had steam locomotives on occasional trains. Steam locomotives include Mikados, Berkshires, and Northerns. Diesels include FT's, F7's, E8's, Alco PA's, GP7's, and RS1's. We have enjoyed replicating some of the reefer unit trains that Santa Fe operated running from Coast to Chicago, and beyond. Also some of the Santa Fe passenger operation. The pictures included here are strictly of the 1950's era as that is what is on the layout at this time. Pictures of modern operation will have to wait until the summer time.
There is no image more representative of the Santa Fe Railroad than that of a Warbonnet locomotive. This is E-8 #81 coming across a grade crossing in a somewhat mountain area. This part of the layout is quite close to the basement wall where I have tried to blend the scenery into the cinderblock basement wall. Most of the layout has scenery and ballasted track. The crossbucks at this grade crossing are typical of crossbucks where the above ground pole was bolted to a separate piece placed in the ground.
Here is the same train now crossing a bridge over a small wash. This bridge is not typical of most Santa Fe bridges.
This photo shows the same passenger train on double track entering a small yard on the layout. Here again is a place where the scenery is blended into the wall. These locomotives are Proto 2000 E-8's.
Here is a shot of a Santa Fe Reefer train. The photographer just missed the locomotive, maybe because it was going so fast, and maybe because steam locomotives are so dark, they do not photograph well. This reefer train has about 20 cars which is average for trains operated on the layout. My friends and I all keep track of reefer cars as we are building and painting them, to be sure to always use different numbers for each car. Santa Fe had thousands of these cars and there were many different versions which we are working to represent with the different versions possible with the Intermountain, CB&T, and Sunshine kits.
One of the neat things about a digital camera, is the ability to set it down inside the layout to show a view that is not normally available to anyone standing alongside the layout. This is a shot where the camera was set in the layout, while a reefer train is coming under an underpass and through another grade crossing. The men in this scene are reinstalling the cross buck which guards this crossing.
This last picture shows the end of a freight leaving a commercial area where a reefer has been set out at a local business. This caboose is an Athearn model with grab irons, roof grabs, and marker lights added. The building is a Details Preservation kit. The gas tank in the background is a Woodland Scenics kit.
