That Was Fast...

So, after only having her for a few days, the Electroliner is out of commission!

A bit enamored with my recent acquisition, I've been checking in on the 'Liner frequently at home to either admire its beauty, assure myself that it is in fact in my possession and not some elaborate dream, or—most frequently—to develop a plan of attack as to how to effect repairs and upgrades. Today I was checking out the tavern-lounge section and wondering about the windows. The booklet that came says: " The 2nd car is the diner with all the electronics and sound, the windows have been frosted to simulate pulled shades." This intrigued me as from what I had seen, my windows did not appear to be frosted and I went in for a closer look.

The floors and interior of each section is held to the body by four screws. For the tavern-lounge, three of these are easily accessible and are removed with minimal effort. If the section is held upside down with the truck at the bottom the fourth screw is in the lower right-hand corner, situated to the right of the truck. This screw has obscured access due to the shape of the sideframes. (The screw on the left side of the truck does not have this issue.) To access the screw, I removed the truck and then the screw came out without difficulty.

Upon opening the model, I discovered that indeed, the windows in my model are not frosted. After getting a good look inside and how the windows are constructed (2 "single" panes which go outside of a double pane and a triple pane for the opposite side) I put the section back together starting with the screws. The truck is mounted to the body by a screw which passes through a spring and the bolster. The screw connects with a short threaded tube which is part of the underframe. The threaded tube is also the mounting point for the next section.

When reattaching the truck, I applied too much force to the screw (all I was trying to do was make it snug) and the threaded cylinder came off of the underframe. This is very unfortunate (to put it mildly).

The cylinder (in black) is still attached to the screw for the truck.

As I see it, I have two options. 1) Attempt to solder the cylinder back onto the underframe or if that doesn't work, 2) contact Sunset and see if I can get a replacement underframe for the lounge section.

Either way, the 'Liner is going to look a little funny for a while.

I Won't be Eating Any Time Soon

So I went to a model railroad/railroadiana show today with my father. This was a last minute affair and I had precisely zero expectation of finding anything of interest. For the most part the show lived up to my expectations, but toward the end I saw something and the more I looked, and the more I asked, the higher my interest became. I'll admit it: I actually became light-headed for a while. Then I walked away and finished the show. Upon completion, I promptly came back and bought it.

Now arriving at Adams & Wabash...

At this length, I won't be running her on the North Side embankment any time soon.

This is a two-rail Sunset Electroliner 803-804. (My father has the 801-802—and, as he pointed out, the substitute liner—so now we have a "complete set.") I don't think she was ever taken out of the box. Apparently, she garnered some attention at the show, but kept getting passed up because she isn't the three-rail version. So much the better.

She does have some problems. Almost all of the window glasses have fallen out or are on the verge of falling out. I knocked a few out myself when my fingers barely brushed up against them. The grab irons on one unit are also bent inward. Neither is a major issue. And for $600 I'm in absolutely no position to complain!

The window on the left is still in place, while the two on the right have fallen into the car.

Not a Pulitzer caliber photograph, but it will do to get the point across. The hazy lines running between window openings are the tops of the window glasses which have fallen out. The passenger seated here doesn't seem to have noticed.

The bent grabirons should be easily fixed by teasing them into place with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Now I've got to get her set up for DCC and overhead operation.

Interesting Article

734 Electric Railway Journal Vol. 154, No. 20

Construction Begins on Dunsel Line

Sources close to the company have reported that construction has begun on the Dunsel Line. The company has acquired a right-of-way 60 ft. wide through Edgewater. The 0.05-mile line now under construction will have four tracks elevated approximately twelve feet above ground. These will rest on a solid-fill embankment with concrete retaining walls.

Chief Engineer Leif DeFurst has said that no special track work will be required at present. Mr. DeFurst went on to say that tracks and ties will be ordered as soon as possible. These are expected to be of the prefabricated type utilizing code 125 rails of nickel-sliver. In all, there will be four tracks such that when the line is completed, there will be dedicated local and express tracks in each direction over this segment of the line.

Plans for the new road call for third rail electrification along its lines. Code 100 nickel-silver rails of the standard type will be employed. The top of the third rail will be situated 6-½" above the top of the running rails and the center line of this rail will be 20-1/8" from the inside of the running rail so as to be of the same type currently employed on all the rapid transit lines in Chicago. This means that upon completion, the new road will be unable to host cars from other roads not so equipped. Chief Engineer DeFurst has stated that erection of standard trolley wire over the westernmost track is being considered, but is not an immediate goal.

Arches

I've been behind on updates since July and now I've got to try to catch up.

In addition to beginning work on the 5000, I also acquired new project. Back in October 2014, I purchased a set of Walthers North Shore ends on a whim. I had no plans for them and figured they might be useful down the road for trading or something. Later I was able to acquire a Walthers arched roof and mats. Again, purchased them only because they were available and decently inexpensive. (It should be obvious where this is going.) A few months ago I found a pair of Walthers “interurban sides” that were appropriate for a North Shore car. My new project is to assemble and complete this Walther’s North Shore kit. The car sides (specifically the window arrangement) put this car in the high 700s. I haven’t decided whether or not this car will be powered or even if it will be part of the Skokie Valley or Shore Line trains. It’s a low priority project; something for the backburner. In an email blast a while back, I saw a picture of a North Shore car built from a Walthers kit on the Salt Creek Lines. I’ve forgotten who built it, but it looked superb and betrayed nothing of its rather average beginnings. With the right amount of effort, I have high hopes that my planned car will look as good.

I've also done some 3D modeling. I went back and decided on a shape for the arches atop the support columns under the viaduct. I settled on useing a circle to create the curve of the arch although the shape of the actual arch is closer to a vertically squashed semicircle. The idea here is to make a mold of a 3D printed master since I’ll need fifteen middle columns and six end columns for the viaduct. I am yet to determine a method of actually doing this and I’ve also yet to select a material.

Circular arches. The green is simply a marker for how high the curb/sidewalks need to be and is not part of the model.

Once a suitable interior shape was developed to make the structure hollow (done to keep costs low[er]) I had it uploaded to Shapeways and printed. As soon as this went through, I suddenly realized a miraculously simple way of producing the "squashed semicircle" shape for the arches that I wanted. All that's required is drawing a circle and then rescaling it vertically, but not horizontally. The result is an oval.

"Squashed" arches. The difference is subtle, but the arches are a much closer match.

Meanwhile, the original design was printed and shipped out. The results were... less than optimal.

Looks okay so far.

Oh. That's not right.

Not sure where the surface stuff came from, but that should be easily sanded off.

It's difficult to see, but the piece is actually slightly curled.

I'm actually not too worried about it since the arches need to be redone anyway.

Beginning on the 5000

Over the past few months I've been doing a bit of project hopping.

I stepped away from 3D modeling to do some “real” modeling. This has focused on the 5000 series Skokie Car. I’ve had this thing for several years and I finally started doing something with it. Prior to painting (which would be done best with an airbrush—a tool not currently within the Dunsel Line shops) the car needs to be primed.

Brass models often come with a protective coating so that they arrive in the eager hands of the modeler with a crisp, glossy luster. While this coating keeps the brass free of surface imperfections, it impedes the painting process and therefore needs to be removed.

My 5000 no longer had the glimmering brilliance it must have had when it was new and had developed a few tarnish spots in. As such, I wasn’t sure if the brass had the protective clear coat on it. Going the safe route, I “removed” it anyway. The method here was a breadbox filled with thinner. (I actually got this breadbox while on the IRM Highliner fundraiser. It’s officially traction related!) I started with the middle section as this requires no prep work, unlike the ends. The body and underbody/floor were soaked separately in the bath for 24 hours before being brushed off and cleaned. Interestingly, there was no gel coating left on the parts after the bath (as I was expecting) however there was a distinct color change in the thinner, so I’m left to assume that there was a coating on the brass.

Dis is what happens when you displeases da boss, see? You sleep wit da lacquer thinner fishes, chump!

Before I repeat this process with the ends, I need to remove the trolley pole shrouds and roof boards. This will require a soldering iron which will be acquired in the immediate future.

Once both pieces of the middle section were dry, they were primed with Tamiya light gray primer.

I also ordered the replacement wheels for the unpowered trucks. As delivered, these cars came with resilient wheels but by the time they were assigned to the Skokie Swift, these wheels had been replaced. (Since I need the car to be 2-rail operable, the wheels have to be insulated and therefore replaced anyway.) A quick search of Chicago-L.org shows that the 5000-series were equipped with 26” wheels so I acquired a set of 26” flush axle wheels from NorthWest Short Line.

I quickly installed them on the two trailer trucks and (aside from the faces needing to be painted silver) they look great. There is, however, one problem. The wheels supplied with the model aren’t the same size as the NorthWest Short Line wheels. They’re slightly larger, a difference which is only really noticeable when you have both sets in hand. The new, smaller wheels cause the truck to sit marginally lower. Unfortunately, this is just enough to cause the “hanging” track brake to rub against the rails. Other than switching to 28” wheels, I don’t have a solution at present.

A front truck with original wheels and tread-gap as seen under poor lighting conditions

A middle truck with replacement wheels and no tread-gap under the same poor lighting conditions

With an unusual bit of forethought on my part, shortly after buying the model, I ordered an interior kit from Q Car. The seats have all been cleaned and primed. I tested one seat with a can of Rustoleum chrome for the metal parts and I find it passable. Only this one seat has been done in this way since I haven’t been bothered to start the tedious process of masking all the other seats yet.

Pantographs and Trolley Beams

Strap in! It’s a long one.

Since May I’ve made some headway on a number of projects. 3D modeling continues as always and on July 9, I received the first print of the experimental roof walks for the 3200 series cars. The walks in question are only the rear half, the portion that is only half-width. This was done as a cost saving measure for the test article.

The plan was to see how these came out and then work on and produce the front half which supported the pantograph. The two sections will line up and be glued together to form one complete piece. Instead of attempting to match the curve of the MTH roofs, I made the support brackets slightly longer than needed. Once glued together, I’ll place a piece of sandpaper on the roof and then gently rub the roof walks back and forth on top until they conform to the shape of the roof.

Unfortunately, after looking at the piece and being wholly satisfied with it, I began work on the forward portion only to discover that it would be visibly too wide for the car. To fix it, I needed to reduce the gaps between the horizontal members by 0.2mm each. Since the rear portion and the front portion have to line up, this meant that the rear portion needed to be narrowed as well, rendering the original one unusable.

I was able to make the rather tedious corrections relatively quickly and sent off for an updated version. Thankfully Shapeways was having a short term deal where shipping is free.

The narrowed rear portion of the roof walks arrived on the 16th and it definitely looks better than the original. The downside is that this was the first piece that I’ve gotten with some kind of a printing error. It arrived with a globule of “white stuff” which went across and between the slats in one section.

This didn’t come off while soaking in Bestine but did come off afterward after being cleaned with an old toothbrush under running water. Some of the slats were damaged (either in production or during cleaning—impossible to tell which) and from certain angles this shows. This end also has a strong odor of cherry syrup, which is highly unusual since 1) none of the other pieces have had this smell and 2) I can actually smell this with my barely functional nose! (The fact that I can smell it really attests to the strength of the smell.)

Otherwise, the piece came out well.

The damaged area is slightly visible from this angle. It is between the first and second supports on the left. In removing it, some of the top portion of the walk was damaged.

The original is at top. The newer one has been soaked in Bestine, giving a clear demonstration of what the agent does to Frosted Ultra Detail. Again, damage is visible here.

Tying in with the roof boards, my father and I took a trip out to the Illinois Railway Museum on Wednesday, July 8. While there, I was able to locate the pantographs from the 3200s and get some preliminary measurements. Now that I know where they are, I’ll be sure to acquire a very detailed set of measurements to be able to build the correct ones myself.

Progress has also been made on a new set of trolley beams for the same cars. I’m still working on perfecting the design of the third rail shoes themselves, but the equipment supporting the shoe has been designed and printed. This is a test to see how Frosted Ultra Detail handles separate-but-interlocking parts. (I would feel immensely satisfied if I could manage to produce dangling third rail shoes that could also glide on top of a rail.) If this fails, I can at least manufacture a set of trolley beams for the 3200s that don’t have provision for sleet scrapers on the rear trucks, as is prototypical.

The test piece also arrived on the same day as the narrowed roof walks. The two loops which hang down and connect to the third rail shoe do dangle, but not as freely as I’d hoped. Soaking them in a bath of Bestine did help, as did working them a bit, but they still don’t swing completely freely. I’m hoping there’s some kind of lubricant I can try to make them work better. I’d rather not resize the parts to improve “functionality” as areas on this piece are already pushing the limits of Frosted Ultra Detail in terms of minimum width and also because this would alter the look of the piece.

Perhaps it’ll work better once the shoe itself is added. Fingers crossed.

I actually printed this piece in Frosted Extreme Detail (which is the same material as FUD, but printed with thinner layers). The difference in cost for such a small piece ended up being 10¢ and I figured a dime was worth the expense of finding out what the big deal was.

Ultimately I don’t see too much of a difference and it certainly doesn’t seem to be worth the extra cost for larger pieces.

Additionally, I purchased a pair of Japanese pantographs from the East Gary Car Company. These pans are supposed to be junk, but as it’s the shoes I’m interested in, that doesn’t matter. I am fortunate enough to know someone who has a small, but overfilled workshop. He had a spare rotary tool (Ryobi, not Dremmel) that he didn’t want taking up space and he gave it to me. (One tool down that I don’t have to purchase!) Using this, I have already cut apart the shoes on one of the pans. (So far no complaints about the Ryobi.) These shoes (of which there will be four in total) will be for the 1-50 and 5000 series trolley pans. I still need to gather more information on the trolley pans before continuing much further down this road.

One of the big things holding me back on the 1-50 (car 2) and the 5000 (car 52) is my lack of a soldering iron. I’ll need this not only for the construction of the trolley pans, but also to remove the existing roof boards on both cars. I’m already stretching money a bit so this isn’t something I’ll be purchasing in the immediate future.

A tase of things to come

Still, progress continues. The middle section of car 52 doesn’t (and never did) have roof boards since there never was any trolley equipment located there. This makes the middle section an ideal place to start. I’ll prime this section as soon as possible.

The wheels on the 52 are another issue. As built, the 5000 series cars were equipped with resilient wheels. By the time the cars were assigned to the Skokie Swift and rebuilt, these wheels had been replaced with standard equipment.

The trucks supplied with the car are correct in appearance (they’re actually a fair sight better than the CTA 6000/1-50 Clark B3 trucks from Q Car) so I’ll be keeping these and replacing the resilient wheels currently on the model with “regular” 26” flush wheels from NorthWest Short Line. I haven’t decided on what to do with the power trucks yet. (I’m not even sure that the wheels are insulated. I have a strong doubt that they are.)

Overdue update

After a long wait the, trucks for one of the Skokie Valley cars came in. (Both cars had the same trucks.) While I’m happy to have finally gotten these, they did not arrive without a small bit of frustration. The order was for a power truck with two Magic Carpets and a trailer truck. What I received was a pair of power trucks, each with one axle powered. I could alter the trucks to my original specifications, but I’ll probably just leave them as they are and go from there.

These are NorthWest Short Line Magic Carpet IIIs installed in Q Car Baldwin 8430AA sideframes. I opted not to get the sideframes with North Shore trolley beams so that I could devise and 3D print my own insane trolley beams with free hanging third rail shoes. If this fails, I'll acquire the appropriate Q Car trolley beams and attach them myself.

I took the opportunity of having a day off for Memorial Day to head out to the Illinois Railway Museum. They had (I believe) five trains in operation: a pair of CA&E woods, a pair of 4000 series “L” cars, the Zephyr, a steam train, and the CTA’s 2200 series cars. The 2200s were on town shuttle duty, operating on a short trip from 50th Avenue to Jefferson Street (the western end of the line) and back.

While I did take the opportunity to ride some trains, I was primarily there to complete and expand the measurements I took back in October.

In addition to more CA&E and North Shore equipment, one of the things I really want in O scale is a pair of 2400 series cars. Unfortunately, their numerous compound curves are fairly daunting and I haven’t yet conceived of a method to reproduce them properly.

Instead of attempting to tackle this task outright, I decided to try something “similar,” but with a much simpler design. The 2200 series, with its rectilinear forms and multitude of sharp angles was the clear and obvious choice. Drawings for the 2200 series were already available in CERA bulletin 115, Chicago’s Rapid Transit Volume II: Rolling Stock/1947-1976. I started with these drawings and then moved to taking field measurements at IRM. The plan was to do this at the end of the season in October and work on them over the winter, but the museum threw a monkey wrench into the works by moving the 22s away from the 50th Avenue station with its high-level platform. Here was the chance to rectify the situation.

I arrived on site around 9:30 and wasted no time in getting to business.

For the moment, the aim isn’t to produce a whole car. (That is, of course, the eventual goal.) I want to see how well I can produce a car side and then improve the design or (if satisfactory) continue the car to completion. To this end, my efforts were on filling in the missing measurements on the car sides and things couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

I have no idea what led me to believe that this would be a relatively simple “warm up” project. There are so many “minor” details which (if ignored) would end up drastically changing the shape—and therefore the look—of the model. Even without complete measurements, the car is definitely beginning to take shape.

Due to the costs involved, I’ll print a test “strip” to determine how well things are coming out and if there is anything that needs to be fixed. (Shapeways gave me a warning about the grill for the vent at the bottom of the car and I want to see how well this comes out before shelling out for the whole side.)

Ultimately the kit will be made of 5 parts per car, with the sides of the cars being produced as one long piece. Fortunately the car sides are just short enough in 1:48 that they barely meet the length limitation for Frosted Ultra Detail. As of right now, each side will cost just under $100 to make, but this doesn’t factor in the reduction in wall thickness at the doors or several other details that (when finished) will reduce the total material used.

I also got a few measurements for the Form 5 coupler. (I’d been having some difficulty with one particular area which I couldn’t get to look right.) With any luck I should be able to have a pair of 1:45.2 scale couplers for the 3200s rather soon. Once successful, O scale couplers will follow.

Dagwood and the Embankment

On Tuesday night I came to a conclusion: my conceptualization for the Dunsel Line is all wrong. For the longest time I have visualized building a simple two track layout at grade level with a small clapboard station set between the tracks. This was “the plan.” And yet, whenever I thought about some nebulous future where I had a fully fledged layout with scenery and whatnot, I kept picturing the North Side “L” in Edgewater with the backs of apartment buildings and the briefest of glimpses into the lives of the people who lived there.

In my mind’s eye, this was what I would build. The neighborhood seemed “right.” Yet the two concepts of this thing I was to build clashed. The thing I was planning to constructing didn’t match the thing that my future self had already built. I was aware of the conflict but disregarded it.

Until Tuesday night.

While lying awake in bed waiting to fall asleep, I finally came to my senses and decided to scrap (or at least postpone) the at-grade portion in favor of the four track main line on the embankment. I began to see the possibility of a simple method of construction and how it (theoretically) could be easily taken apart for transport. Everything started to make sense and I was excited!

Wednesday was my day off, which was fortunate since that gave me ample time to go out and take some general measurements of things I had questions about while I was still in the “hot” phase of my enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, when I finally rolled out of bed and made it to the living room, it became rapidly apparent that something was very wrong. Dagwood, one of my three birds, was sitting on the bottom of the cage puffed up and breathing heavily. None of these things was usual and I knew an emergency trip to the vet was in prime order. All else was on hold.

I rushed Dagwood to Animal House of Chicago expecting a number of things to happen (labwork not the least of them). They took him in back to perform an examination and draw some blood (apparently they only need 0.3ml for an avian CBC—which was expected but still a shockingly small amount) but before they could begin, Dagwood passed away.

Dagwood was one of three very special birds from a flock of eleven. Woodstock (who had lived with Dagwood) left us in February of 2014. I watched both of them grow from the time their eggs were laid. Needless to say, I was hit very hard by this death and the hopeful concern I’d had that morning had soured to grief. I returned home and spent the next two and half hours in bed.

When I woke up I was still exceptionally sad (and feeling a little guilty for not having recognized any potential signs earlier) but decided that I couldn’t stay in bed forever and even though Dagwood was gone, I was still here and needed to act like it. The best way to do this was to carry out my plans for the day.

I had decided that the embankment shouldn’t just be a big box with tracks, so I added a viaduct in the middle. I toyed with the idea of putting a station in, but later simplified it to be just a street overpass. I chose Catalpa Avenue to represent the average side street crossing I intend to build and made my way out there. With Dagwood’s unexpected death the fire that I had been experiencing was extinguished, but I still got my measurements. (Most of them anyway. Someday I’ll actually get this right.)

The Catalpa Avenue viaduct and surrounding embankment as seen looking northwest. A third set of support columns is out of frame to the left.

Back at home I began scaling the numbers down to a close approximation of exact O scale and then began producing a 3D model of this section. This model is a digital mockup to enable me to see the “completed” project before I begin and to store the numerical values in their proper locations without needing pages and pages of scattered notes for me to lose.

The green pieces are sidewalk (or sidewalk level elements above the roadway in the case of the columns in the center of the street) while the black is, of course, the street.

An angle similar to that of the location shot. The columns are still being finalized.

As I currently see it, the embankment will consist of a long tray on top of two inverted boxes. All of this will be made from thin plywood. The plywood will then have styrene added for detail. A 13-1/2” gap between the boxes will form the opening for the street.

The problem, at present, is making the three rows of pillars which support the viaduct. I could attempt to make these from wood or styrene but I seriously doubt my ability to make these uniform enough to not look absolutely terrible. I am considering 3D printing one end column and one middle column from which I could theoretically make casts, but this sounds potentially expensive.

The other obstacle is creating the texture of the concrete. If there are large sheets of styrene with this texture, then all is easy, otherwise I’ll have to resort to some kind of trickery, probably with paint.

Note: yesterday’s post was actually written several days ago.

Step right up

The steps arrived from Shapweays a few days ago and (in spite of my initial misgivings) I’m completely satisfied with the results. They don’t look bulky at all and should look very good once applied to the cars.

The one downside to the 3D printing process at Shapeways is that they don’t give the designer control over the print orientation. This is of vital importance to the final product as the print orientation determines which face will ultimately show the layers of the printing process. With control over this, a designer could specify a particular face to be “up” or “down” in the process and thus eliminate printing lines on surfaces that are intended to be seen.

Unfortunately, Shapeways will not relinquish this control to individual designers as they print orders on a tray en masse and each part on that tray is supposedly oriented in a position to optimize use of the wax support material for production. (This waxy support material is the substance that’s usually stuck to parts once they come from the printer.)

I’m not sure how this was “optimized” for the steps as they seem to have been printed on a diagonal. (Picture a cube balancing on one edge instead of sitting on a side.) This has left some very small (but still visible) jagged edges that I will have to very carefully sand smooth. This was my fourth printed piece and so far none of them have returned with any visible amounts of residual wax (this may be due in part to the fact that all of my pieces to date have been rather small) but I went through the process of wax removal anyway just to be safe for priming and painting.

The tried and true method for dewaxing Frosted Ultra Detail is to soak the part in a bath of Bestine. Bestine is a solvent and thinner for rubber cement. It can be purchased online or at art supply stores. In the Chicago area both Blick’s and Utrecht carry it. I used an old glass jar to facilitate the process.

How they appeared prior to wax removal. (It was exceptionally difficult to get these even remotely in focus.)

The imaginary minced garlic in this container contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer.

I submerged the set in the Bestine for ten minutes before returning the solvent back to its container. Visibly there was no outward change that any wax had been removed, but the surfaces of the piece had turned white. This is normal for the chemical wax removal process.

Some of the jagged edges can be seen here.

After setting the piece on a paper towel to dry, I carefully separated each set of steps from the sprues. In order to save on cost, I went the minimal approach and spaced each piece very closely to keep the amount of material used as low as possible. The downside to this was that in some cases there wasn’t much space available to cut. Fortunately they all separated cleanly. The part that really had me worried was cutting the remaining sprue pieces off since the ladders are angled and in many cases could not be put on their flat sides to make the necessary cuts. Frosted Ultra Detail, it turns out, is flexible enough and strong enough. Even when printed at its minimums, each part took the cuts with no damage. This was followed by a bit of light sanding with 800 grit sand paper and they were ready to prime.

After separation, but before sprue removal.

Since ventilation in my house isn’t generally good (and by “generally” I mean ever) and since I have several small birds that would be extremely susceptible to fumes, all of this has to be done outside. This also means that work is dependent on the weather. I liberated a cardboard box from my job to serve as a hood. Because these pieces are so small and light, a gentle zephyr could take them away. To solve this they’ll be stuck to loops of tape which will be taped to the back of the box. Once the weather cooperates they’ll be primed.

No, not this kind of Zephyr.

Since Memorial Day is coming up, my family and I will be taking a trek out to the Illinois Railway Museum and I’ll finally be able to get the remaining measurements I need for the 2200 series and hopefully I’ll have time to take a crack at the 2400 series. (With my luck they’ll both be in operation and I won’t get at them.) I do have a new “secret” project that this visit may certainly help. Keep an eye out for it!