Hello, I'm a new member to the forums, as well as a newbie to the hobby. If you couldn't tell by the title and my location, I'm a fan of the Santa Fe, but more specifically the San Diegans. I'm planning to model Southern Californian Santa Fe trains in HO Scale set in the 1950's (oh boy, domes and trans-con sleepers!), and maybe modern Amtrak California trains. I'm primarily focusing the San Diegans, but I'm also planning on working on my own original train with an unoriginal consist the "San Diego Chief", the southern San Fran. Chief. I'm kinda in high school, so progress is slow, but I'm trying my hardest. I'm excited to see where I'll go!
Welcome, fellow Santa Fe man! No shame in starting with the old 4x8 oval for the immediate future. That doesn't leave much margin with 22" radius curves, but if you lay the track well and don't go too fast, you should be all right. Anything less than 22 won't allow you to run most proper-length passenger equipment. You make me a mite jealous in one respect. The San Diegan ran ALCOs during that era (which is the same as my era). While the EMD E-units that hauled The Tulsan are awfully, awfully nice, I do love those PA-1s!
Welcome aboard, and oh the fun you have in store! You're a step up on where most of us (I believe) started, as you have a focus for your modelling. Good luck!
Welcome aboard, Jet. There's lots to learn and many skilled teachers in TrainBoard. Don't hesitate to ask questions; and good luck with your new project(s).
Welcome aboard, Jet Clipper. Surely the Santa Fe must have had a few remaining steam locomotives running back in the 50's. Maybe a 2900 would complement your plans.
Like the Tulsa line, that's more locomotive than was typically seen on the San Diego line--but it was not unheard of late in the steam era. More likely candidates are 1337 and 3500 class light Pacifics and 3700 class Mountains very early in the decade, and the handful of 3400 class Pacifics and 3450 class Hudsons which migrated to the Coast lines as reserve power later.
If I really wanted, I could recreate the last steam-powered San Diegan with 3751. It'll be a pain to find someone who's willing to give up their Broadway Limited (every brass locomotive feels like it costs the GDP of the US for me) 3751.
Welcome to Trainboard The Jet Clipper. You will find just about everything you need to get started on modeling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk