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.