SP Work Trains - Maintenance-in-the-Way

This post continues my series on SP's MoW (Maintenance-of-Way) posts.  Previous posts include SP Supply Trains (Part 1) and Modeling SPMW with Musical Part Kitbashing (Part 1).  Hopefully it will give those of you wanting to see something other than my 14 Parts of Modeling the Jawbone Branch something to see.

SP 3765 brings the Mountain Work Train down the mountain into Walong.

The lowly "work train" jobs were required to maintain the track and other support infrastructure in top condition, keeping the trains moving.  Improvements were also made to the track and related structures when practicable.

Ballast Cars - The Busy Beavers

SP 5235, an AS-616, prepares to go to work at Caliente with a long string of ballast cars.

Ballasting operations are critical to proper operations of railroads, especially on the high-use mainline routes, such as the Tehachapi Pass.  Our ballasting operations are usually a split responsibility between the Mountain Local (between Mojave and Bena), or which ever local is normally working in the area to supply the needed cars as close to the work site as possible, and the Work Train, which will actually do the work.

In the ballast operations, this usually means the local or a 'Shorts' train (see my Freight Symbols of Tehachapi index) will drop off the loaded ballast cars at the nearest easily accessible station where the cars will fit; Caliente or Tehachapi, possibly Bena.  The Work Train then returns the empties to the same areas or if it is going off-duty, then back to Mojave where the cars can be picked up by a 'Shorts' train for movement to the quarries for more ballast.

I'll be doing more on ballasting operations and modeling in a future post, but for now here's two common models which can be kitbashed into stand-ins for SP ballast cars.

SP 12022 - Ballast Hart Gondola

SP 12070, Hart Ballast Gondola kitbashed from TrainMiniture/Walthers model.

I kitbashed three stand-ins for W-50-3 Hart Gondolas, which were often used in earth moving and ballasting operations around 1900.  I cover fixing one of my removable ballast loads for the SP 12070 in my blog post Small Projects Around the Club (Part 2).

SP 45752 - Ballast Gondola

SP 45752, an ex-EPSW gondola with two-board side extensions used in ballast service.

Check out my very first blog post of a Ex-EPSW Ballast Car kitbashed from a Mantua 40ft gondola.  

A Home On Wheels

The SP's mobile crews and some crews that were stationed at locations without permanent company structures for lodging lived in 'outfit' cars.  These cars were usually older passenger cars which had been retired or in some cases older boxcars.  Often boxcars and flatcars were assigned for supporting tool cars and material cars specifically related to that outfit's assigned type of work.

The T&M Ballast Gang's outfit cars spread out at Walong between work assignments.

SPMW 5549, converted from an old 12-1 Pullman is now assigned to Bunk service as crew quarters.

SPMW 821 is a kitchen (and dining) car, obviously converted from a 72-D-series 1890's wooden diner.

SPMW 1616 assigned to a Bridge and Building outfit.

I'm hoping to be able to show heavier modifications to the SPMW 635 as I replace the doors with solid sides as the SP did on their bunk car conversions.

I'll probably be doing more on SPMW "Outfit" cars as I get into building a few more for the Jawbone Branch.

Support Cars in Lonely Places

SPMW 3605 a Track and Maintenance car sits rotting in the San Joaquin Valley sun and dust at Bena.

Some SPMW cars were assigned to local "section gangs" and crews to help them move company material around.

On a model railroad, I think it's good to model a bit of both the local Section Gangs out on the line between major yards and also, if there's a major yard modeled, not to forget that there were centralized supply yards, storehouses, and shops.  It's not like we have to model the Sacramento Shops's wheel casting foundry or the LA General Shops with 30+ cars upside down being rebuilt... leave those modeling scenes for your real work bench!

Here are a few examples of the modeled Section Gangs on the La Mesa Club's Tehachapi Pass and a few of the lonely spurs in the middle of nowhere.

Magunden - Wide Spot in the Road

Magunden's so small this is basically all that's there!

Starting simply, here's the small stack of materials at Magunden.  A station sign, a phonebooth, a hand car setout spot with a hand car trailer, a small stack of ties, and some sections of rail.  A PMT truck cruises by on the Edison Hwy in the backround past the orange groves.

Looking East at the Arvin Branch and packing shed at Algoso.

There is not really room to set out MW cars beside the 18 car setout track for the Arvin Branch.  Magunden is only three miles from Bakersfield, so not much is needed here.

Bena - Section Gang

Bena Train Order Office - Depot with the KI Local in town.

Bena is the east end of Double Track east of Bakersfield.  The Train Order Operator's main job is to report the movement of trains on and off the Double Track to the Dispatcher and write orders for eastward trains when needed.  -- When this station is put into effect, the operator will also be handling the Car Clerking duties at Edison and possibly Arvin as well.

Material Yard (Ties) and Pump House

The first large Section Gang we come to East of Bakersfield is Bena.  There's a number of company buildings here, including: Pump House, Operator's quarters, several bunk houses, a small depot with Train Order Office (depending on the year), several speeder sheds, and also a water tank.

Here's some additional material yard space and two old boxcar bodies which are used as storage sheds.

Looks like the signal crews have been working near here as there are some spare US&S signal parts and signal bases laying about on wood blocks.

Operator's house (old depot) and speeder sheds come next.  Looks like a large number of mechanized MW Gangs are based here.

Bena also is the home to a moderate length spur which crosses into the Tejon Ranch Company property across from the Company Village.

The spur at Bena drops down to plywood level in the "mud"

This spur is mostly used for agricultural shipments of grain, hay, and livestock seasonally.

Caliente - Outfit & Water Supply

Overview of Caliente with trains in town.

The next station is Caliente, which in earlier years was the main hub of stage coach travel before the railroad was completed.

Caliente - Depot & Town

The SP built a larger combined passenger and freight station at Caliente.  The freight platform can have two 40ft boxcars or ice reefers easily spotted for loading or unloading.

US Post Office and Hotel

After the SP completed the railroad to Los Angeles, Caliente continued to be a hub of activity with a wye for turning helper engines, a hotel, US Post Office, and Store-Gas Station.

Caliente Store and Gas Station

The Southern Pacific also spent a small fortune on the water system at Caliente, with underground pipes supplying three water columns along the siding from two tanks.

Empty ballast cars fill the setout track with outfit cars crammed into the House and Water tracks behind.

Operationally, Caliente is a hotbed of activity with a medium length siding for picking up and setting out cars from the Mojave Shorts East and West "Shorts" trains and being the regular west end point for the KI Local's daily trips out and back to Mojave.  In these two photos, the Mountain Work Train is in town for the night and has spotted its empty ballast cars on the setout track with two empty boxcars waiting for the next 'Shorts West' to pickup.

A burro crane unloads bridge timbers from a gondola, while a boxcar load of hay waits to be unloaded by local ranchers.

At the lower end of the House Track there is a corral for livestock to be loaded and unloaded, usually for seasonal pasture movements.

Bealville - Section Gang

Overview of Bealville's company village.

Bealville, named after General Beale, is the home of the next Section Gang.  There's not much to this village without the railroad, only one ranch house doesn't wear the yellow and brown with green roofs of the SP company buildings.

Bealville Company Village

Three ballast cars in the spur at Bealville waiting for the Work Train to come by and spread them on the line near by.

West of Bealville is the material yard and speeder sheds.

A spur is located here for the seasonal delivery of hay for the horses at the ranch and for the occasional carload of company materials.  One of Bealville's claims to fame was being next to the ground level fissure movement of the July 21st, 1952 7.5M earthquake that shook the Tehacahpi Mountains, and was felt as far away as Los Angeles and Colton.

SP 4253 drifts out of Tunnel 3.  About 100ft at the far end collapsed during the earthquake.

The earthquake caused heavy damage to Tunnels 3, 4, 5, and 6, and resulted in the railroad being out of service for 25 days while a shoe-fly was constructed.  It wasn't until October 26th that the railroad was able to reopen on the rebuilt alignment.  During the massive earthmoving that occured during the rebuilding, an early radio equipped caboose was spotted at Bealville spur to serve as a head quarters for the engineers.  Walkie-Talkie radio sets were used to direct the earth moving scrapers and bulldozers where the earth needed to go.

The upper end of the Bealville spur with a small 'Outfit' of living cars and a water car.

Cliff & Rowen - Spurs

Rowen under construction.  The spur is in the foreground.

Cliff and Rowen's one of the most unaccessible parts of the railroad over the Tehacahpi Pass.  Each station had a small setout spur for bad-order cars.  Not much else to say about them in terms of MW facilities.

Woodford - Section & Signal Gang

Woodford village and depot.

Woodford was a lovely little town.  Like Caliente it was home to a small store, some private ranches near by, a two track corral spur, and a one-spot material spur for the Signal Department.  A small section/signal gang was located here as well.  That's the signal maintainer's house in the left side of the photo with the company trucks parked next to it.  There were also several small storage sheds in the space left of the house.  The Station Agent/Operator's house was located next to the station.  The company bunk house is on the other side of the road from the station and on the small bluff.

Woodford was also the second major water stop on the North Slope of the Tehachapi's with four water tanks and columns supplying the road and helper engines spread out along the length of Woodford's long Siding No.1.  Today, over 70 years later, the SP water system at Woodford continues to supply the people around Woodford and Keen!

Walong - "The Loop" - Spur 

An overview of 4th Crossing all the way to Tunnel 10.  Walong Spur, emptied out after the Mt Work Train left on Jan 6, 1953.

As popular as Walong or as it's better known "The Loop", has only a single double-ended spur for setting out bad-orders and for company material cars, outfits, etc to be spotted.

Work equipment and MW Outfit cars split the private road at Walong on Jan 6, 1953.

Marcel & Cable - Spurs

The rolling hills of Tehacahpi, during a green spring time.

In the old days, Marcel had a train order office and depot.  The old depot will be modeled, but isn't complete at this point.

The setout spur at Marcel.

Overview from last year of the "upper Tunnels' - Hopefully the scenery will be finished up soon!

Between Marcel and Cable is one of the steeper parts of canyons on the Tehachapi Pass.  Tunnels 14-17 are located almost end-to-end in this area

West Portal - Tunnel 14 scenery coming along in June 2018.

Cable also has a small setout spur.  Here an SP G-50-22 has been set out.

SP 151379 rests in Cable Spur for the KI Local to pick it up.

Tehachapi - Water, Station, Section Gang

The company operations at Tehachapi will be pretty fun to see when we get a bit more modeling work done there.  (Thanks 2020!)  The general layout of all the buildings and layout has been agreed on, but I've not been able to really do any more on it since early 2020.  So we'll look at a few of the aerial photos and get the feel for what we have planned.

Green St. and Tehachapi Blvd just after the earthquake with water cars and ballast cars. Fairchild Aerial Survey

In this set of photos the water tank at Tehachapi has been knocked down by the earthquake a couple days before.  Note the five water cars which have been brought in to supply the town!  In this series of photos there are TONS of ballast cars jammed into Tehachapi for repair and earth moving operations.  a number of ballast cars will be used in about 20 days for ballasting the shoe-fly around Tunnels 4 & 5.

SP Company Village on the South side - Fairchild Aerial Survey

Compressed version of the LMRC Tehachapi Company Village (looking south)

The La Mesa Club version of Tehachapi is required to do a large amount of selective compression.  We're keeping the water tanks and dropping to only one bunk house in the section gang area.  The houses on the north side of the tracks are just slightly pressed together.  The civilian house between the water tanks and the company village is just removed, because of the trees separating the track and the house.

Tearing up the East end of Siding No. 2 & 3, ballast cars and outfit spotted for support operations.

The east end switches of the sidings at Tehachapi need to be moved a bit west to make room for the water column which should be just west of Green St.  The west end of No.3 siding will also be tied in as a switch, which was originally not planned to be needed, but the newer research has shown that it was still in place.

During the last TT/TO Op session we had taken out the switch around December 2019, and had the Nos 2 & 3 sidings out of service.  A fun part of the operating sessions is including construction and rebuilding operations to the layout.  We tear up a switch... send over the track gangs to that area before we actually tear it up.  Then if the construction continues over the time between ops sessions, then that will be included into the sessions.  After we're done with the construction, maybe the signal gang would show up or the B&B gang to do the water pipe installation for the water tanks, etc.

Summit Spur

We have a stub spur at Tehachapi Summit, which is probably most useful for setting out cars or MW outfit.

Eric

The 'old' wye at Eric is being removed during our 'modeling era' and there was a small water tank there.  Not much will be modeled at this station, other than it's a 'station point'.

Cameron

The 'station' point at Cameron has basically a westward set-out spur and (1967 installed) crossover for reverse running operations out of Mojave to Cameron, which sits at the top of the stiffest westward grade out of Mojave.

Mojave

Mojave MW and company needs mostly will revolve around the fueling operations at the engine house, company corrals at the east end of the yard, and other smaller material needs.  Operationally, it is a crew base and engine servicing point.  Our work trains often originate or terminate at Mojave or Bakersfield every 2-4 days so the engine can be refueled and serviced.

In Closing

SP 3765 leads a Work Train out of Bena with a couple of ballast cars and a company T&M Ballasting crew in their outfit cars.

I'll be coming back around to some of the MW Operations and Modeling in future posts, but for now I thought I'd get this one out here for a little diversity from my new home/shop layout post binge I've been on.

Back to work cutting benchwork!

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Supply Trains (Part 1)

Modeling SPMW with Musical Part Kitbashing (Part 1)

Small Projects Around the Club (Part 2) - Fixing a Ballast Load

Ex-EPSW Ballast Car - Kitbashing a Mantua 40ft Gondola

Freight Symbols of Tehachapi index

Modeling the Jawbone Branch Index