Corrections by Computer

The recent purchase of the St. Petersburg 2000-series cars has left me a little low on funds for the month and, as such, I have refrained from spending money on any of my projects. (More delays...)

I have, however, been pushing forward with work on the 3200-series cars. (The best part is that it doesn't cost a dime.) Taking a page from CTA O Scale L Layout I've been doing some 3D modeling with the intent of having them 3D printed by Shapeways. While the 3200s generally look good, MTH made some rather glaring (to my eyes) errors with these cars and I intend to fix as many of them as I can. Some changes I intend to make are to modify the cars with appropriate Skokie equipment and 3D printing should work nicely for all aspects.

One of the first things I'm going to tackle are the snowplows. As seen in the photo, the cars as built come equipped with snowplows. They actually don't look terrible, but they do have drawbacks. For starters, the snowplow is mounted to the truck instead of the car body. This was done to accommodate the tight turns the cars are built for (they're tighter than the 90-foot radius curves the prototype can take). Also they've got to be able to work with the gargantuan knuckle coupler that the cars are fitted with. Convinced that I could do a decent job, I took some measurements from the preserved 2200-series cars at the Illinois Railway Museum on a recent trip with my father.

This was the result. I think it looks pretty good. Better, in fact, than I had anticipated and so I started adding details I hadn't originally planned on. This, unfortunately, left me with a few missing dimensions that I'll have to get on my next trip out there.

The vertical and angled pieces are actually "L" shaped on the prototype. I haven't attempted to duplicate that in the 3D model for strength concerns on the printed product. If everything goes well, I may try to fix this. What had been designed is just the frame. The snowplow blades themselves will actually be two pieces of cut card stock which will be glued to the frame and then a strip of styrene (or a 3D printed piece) will go over the front. Once painted it should look pretty close this.

Another thing I've been working on are the seats. Just about everything under the floor of the car is wrong (the third rail equipment is actually really good aside from the fact that both trucks have provision for sleet scrapers) so my plan is to replace all of it. The model is equipped with seats in a pretty accurate arrangement, however, this is what they look like.

Doesn't seem like it could be possible, but they're worse than the seats in the bowling alleys! Since they're attached to the floor, they'll get replaced when everything else does.

I think what I've come up with looks pretty good, however, I'm not totally satisfied. I think the angle of the back is a little too shallow (I eyeballed it). The next time I'm on the "L" I'll have to take a protractor out and get the exact angle. Work continues!

Project Overview: Skokie Swift

The primary focus of my efforts has been modeling equipment from the Skokie Swift. This project actually predates any conception of building a layout (or even doing anything in O scale) by several years. The idea first came to me while riding home from Columbia College on the Red Line in 2005.

Growing up in Southwestern Evanston I was always aware of the Skokie Swift. I did not ride the line much, though a trip with my father shortly after the arrival of the 3200-series in the early 1990s did have a lasting impact. Still, the Skokie Swift was always present, acting at the very least as a distant portion of the soundtrack to a quiet evening. The line and it's unique catanary operation stayed with me through high school and on into college.

I started attending Columbia College Chicago in October 2004. Once I had gotten back into the swing of riding the "L" but before I had developed any real enthusiasm for it, I became vaguely aware that the "Yellow Line" (the Skokie Swift) no longer used the overhead wire and that the pantographs would be removed sometime in the near future. I felt that this passing should be commemorated in some small way (by me) and, on a whim one spring day, drew a crude rendering of a pair of Skokie-equipped 3200-series cars intended to be operated on LGB track.

This little project simmered in the back of my mind for a few years. Eventually I got into traction modeling in O scale. MTH released a series of O gauge (3-rail) 3200-series cars and eventually I acquired a few of these. By this time I had decided on moving forward with the Skokie concept (but in O scale) and, as I learned about the history of the operation, expanded the scope a bit.

The Skokie Swift Project

In my expanded version of the project, I have decided to model four different "sets" of equipment used on the Swift: a 1-50 series, a 5000-series, a "60" pair, and, of course, a 3200-series pair.

1-50 series

Experimental high-speed cars 1-4 were the first equipment rebuilt and assigned to the Skokie Swift.

Several years ago the Dunsel Line acquired an unused CTA 1-50 series car from the Chicago & Utopia Ry (Ed Halstead of Modeling Insull's Empire). This car will have its roof boards removed and replaced and will be equipped with CTA-designed trolley pans.

This car was previously owned by the late Dave of Dave's Rail Pix who equipped with car with CA&E trolley beams and sleet scrapers.

5000-series (as 51-54)

The second unit to be modeled is one of the most unique cars ever acquired by the rapid transit lines: the experimental 3-part articulated 5000-series cars. Like the 1-50, this car will also be equipped with trolley-pans. These four cars wandered the "L" system, not finding a permanent assignment due to some of the drawbacks of their design. They finally found a home on the Skokie Swift where their single unit, high capacity nature made them extremely useful. Once assigned, these cars remained in Skokie service for two decades before being retired.

61-65 series

The next set represented the first instance of a pair of cars being assigned to the line. In reality, the 60s were little more than pairs of rebuilt 5-50s that had been semi-permanently coupled and equipped with single-arm pantographs. I have yet to acquire a two more 1-50s, but I'm always looking.

3200-series

The 3200-series represents the last set of Skokie Equipment. These cars came equipped with pantographs for operation on the Swift.

For this, I'll be extensively rebuilding a pair of MTH 3200-series cars. The only downside here is that while the cars operate on O gauge track, they aren't O scale. MTH did a pretty good (not great, but far from terrible) job with the detail put into the cars, but unfortunately they didn't scale them properly for 1:48. Instead of being 12 inches long, the cars are 12 3/4 inches long from anticlimber to anciclimber. This is, however, fortunate as the cars are then the proper length for 17/64 (Q) scale, or approximately 1:45. This means they're correct for the track gauge.

The scale difference between the 3200s (left) and the other two cars (both O scale) is evident.

In addition to the addition of roof boards and pantographs, these cars will have to be entirely rebuilt from the floor down and be outfitted with new interiors.

Lots to do!

Patience Pays Off: New Equipment!

On Thursday I acquired a pair of St. Petersburg Tram Collection 2000-series "L" cars. The particular pair is 2153-2154. (Initially I liked the random numbers for the set, then later realized that there was nothing random about that pair at all.)

I first laid eyes on these cars about eight years ago as they sat illuminated behind protective glass on the shelves of Chicagoland Hobbies. At the time I was an unemployed college student trying to squeeze pocket lint into pennies so that I could actually eat after buying textbooks. The $800+ price tag meant that, while extremely beautiful, these particular cars were not in my future. Someone else would buy them and that would be that.

Fast forward about seven and a half years. While doing a casual run-through of my usual search terms on eBay I happened to see a pair of SPTC 2000-series cars for sale. Lo and behold! they were the same cars I'd seen years earlier in the store. They were still to expensive for me so I let them be. They continually popped up in my eBay runs for the next few months but never thought about them until earlier this week when I noticed that the price had dropped to the upper limits of what I'd be willing to spend. I quickly conferred with my father (who also has a pair of SPTC 2000s) and determined that the two sets had different car numbers and were both signed "Lake B." With the possibility of some day running a four car train now on the table, I wasted no time in acquiring them. (So much for getting that electrical outlet fixed!)

The cars came with a Wagner power truck and trailer for a PCC. I almost certainly won't use this to power the 2000s, but I may use it on some PCC that crosses my path down the line. It is also entirely possible that I will sell or trade them for something else.

These cars will be 2-railed and equipped with a DCC decoder. Unlike their full scale versions, they will not be equipped with trolley poles.

What is the Dunsel Line?

The Dunsel Line is a planned O scale/O gauge electric traction model railroad layout. I have some pretty interesting ideas for the layout, but like so many little interurban companies of the early 1900s, there are big ideas but not much construction. A number of factors still stand in the way including space, an unmade decision of whether to power by overhead trolley wire or to use two-rail with dummy third rail, and capitalization. (While working as a vet tech does provide one with all the doggies and kitties one might wish to see in a day, it does not provide one with large or even—in all honesty—decent pay. If only there was a way in which I could convert cat hair into legal tender...)

As (eventually) built, the layout will be primarily (or entirely) 1/48 with accommodation for at least one 1/45 scale railcar set. In an ideal world there would be sections with trolley/cantanary and an elevated section with third rail. The reason for this is that my primary interests are the Chicagoland electric lines, specifically the Chicago Aurora and Elgin, the Chicago "L", and the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee. All three lines used both overhead wire and third rail. The former two lines were primarily powered through third rail (making dummy third rail a very legitimate option for this layout).

And while I haven't made any progress on construction of said layout, I have been slowly acquiring some O scale (and some O gauge) rolling stock for the line. The intention is to set up each car with capabilities for 2-rail and overhead operation (where applicable) and to have them capable of DC and DCC operation.

What will follow will be the chronicle of the building of the Dunsel Line and its fleet.