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.

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.

March in Review

Let’s get straight to the point; I spent a lot of money this month. Even though I’d planned on spending a good deal of money on models this month, my actual total greatly exceeds my anticipation (and this doesn’t even cover routine things like food and bills). I had a number of other projects (not model related) that also cost more than expected, so April will almost certainly be a very quiet month around here.

With that said, it seems like a good time to stop and reflect on a very expensive (but good) month. March is the month of the Chicago O Scale Meet (also known as the March Meet) and associated open houses at various trolley layouts. Preparation for these two prompted me to get back in gear and begin working on the 3D model of CTA’s form 5 coupler.

Ultimately this design wasn’t finalized in time for the open houses (I was only able to attend one) and the design work is still ongoing. The continuation of this project should be a nice one to carry on into April.

Before the meet I was able to get my hands on a Clouser North Shore steel coach. Although it did not come with trucks, I did get a good deal on it and am very happy with my purchase. The following week was the March Meet and there I bought a brass North Shore 170-182 series coach. Acquisition of this car has enabled me to outline and define my projects for the North Shore Line. I’d already decided on modeling the North Shore circa 1952/1953 (the same years for the CA&E) and the addition of these two older steel cars has led me to separate my efforts into the creation of two trains: Chicago-Milwaukee via Skokie Valley (the combine and upper 700) and a Chicago-Waukegan Shore Line train (the “older” coaches).

I have already ordered a motor truck set that would be applicable to either car on the Skokie Valley train, so I’m waiting for that to arrive. I’ll have to construct a test track pretty soon, which I suppose will be the very beginnings of my layout.

Also at the O Scale Meet I bought a pair of pantographs to turn into sausage. The shoes on these will be cut apart, to produce four “single” pantograph shoes. Each of these will be mounted at the end of a pair of four-spring horizontal trolley poles. I still need to buy a total of eight trolley poles for car 2 (the 1-50) and car 52 (the 5000) to make this. As a result of... overspending... I probably won’t begin this phase of that project in April.

After the March Meet I went back and made complete 3D models of the 3200-series snowplows. After increasing the size of the nuts so that they would register at Shapeways, these were sent off to the printer. They arrived on Monday and I am extremely pleased with the results. I’ve already made these available via the Ravenston Car Company at Shapeways. (Shameless self promotion!)

In continuing work on the 3200s, I ordered a set of wheels from NorthWest Short Line. I had planned on mounting these inside of cheap, temporary trucks (shop trucks) but I’ve abandoned this idea in favor of 3D printing my own set of “test trucks” which will enable me to try a few things out and see how well this will actually work. Unfortunately, 30” wheels are on backorder for about a month, so this particular project will probably have to wait for a while. In the meantime I’ll see if I can gather some pictures of the Duewag trucks with which the cars are equipped.

I know someone who claims (strong emphasis on “claims”) that he has access to equipment to make metal casts and, if all goes well, I should be able to make molds of the 3D prints and produce a series of metal trucks.

Even after the end of the March Meet March continued to be a money spender! I found another brass 1-50 series car and didn’t hesitate to grab it. To model the four basic iterations of Skokie Swift equipment as planned, I need a total of three of these cars: one as for a single-unit 1-50 and two for a double-unit 60. I now have two.

My first 1-50 has a dent on one end which I should be able to hammer and fill back into shape. Regardless of how well this turns out, the original (dented) 1-50 will now be used as part of the 60 pair with the dented face being positioned between the cars to minimize its visibility. The new car will now be the single and will get the CTA designed trolley-pans.

I also started work on a 3D model of the resistor grids for the 3200 series. This model uses measurements taken from the pair of 2400-series cars at the Illinois Railway Museum. There are subtle differences between the 2400 and 3200-series equipment that I have to account for and I’m currently working with the design to get it right.

The benefit of creating this model in full scale and then reducing it is that it can effectively be used to create specific models for the 2400, 2600, and 3200-series cars with only minor variations in each and scaled appropriately to 1:45 for the 3200s and to 1:48 for my planned 2400s and 2600s.

The 2200-series cars (which I have already started designing) used a resistor set that was substantially different than those used on the later cars. During my last trip out to IRM, I didn’t take underbody measurements for the 2200s, so I won’t be able to continue work on that particular set until I make another trip out to Union.

Finally (my wallet has its fingers crossed that this really is finally) I found a power truck set that would be appropriate for either car in the Skokie Valley train. It matches the truck I ordered from NorthWest Short Line, although at present I don’t know if the motors are Magic Carpet IIs or IIIs. The main impetus for getting this truck was the fact that I was able to get it for a substantially lower price than normal.

Moving forward into April my projects are most likely going to be all 3D modeling as this can be done at no cost. I plan to finish the form 5 coupler, work out the kinks with the resistors, and begin creation of an underbody set for a 2400-series pair (since I have photos and measurements on hand for that). I’ll also be continuing to fabricate the replacement car floor for the second 3200-series car.

CTA's Form 5

I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth! (Not yet. Give me time.) There are still a number of issues that continue to plague me with the seats for the 3200 series and I haven’t yet decided on the course of action to take in that direction.

Instead I’ve refocused my efforts into another part of this project which will affect additional projects that I have planned. In CERA Bulletin 115 are plans for the Form 5 coupler. This coupler (with slight modifications) has been used on every series of “L” car from the original 5000 series onward.

Once the grounds at the Illinois Railway Museum open, I’ll make a trip out there to continue gathering measurements for the 2200 series cars. Once I have the appropriate numbers, I’ll finish the 3D model I’ve created and produce a 2200 in true O scale. (Island Model Works produced a rehabbed 2200 series shell that was designed to fit onto the MTH 3200 series chassis. The MTH cars are oversized and are closer to 1:45 scale than 1:48.)

Since the Form 5 is used on both the 3200 series and on the 2200 series, this seemed like a logical place to go.

The MU connections haven’t been added yet, and as you can see, there are other details that haven’t yet been modeled. My goal is to have this printed and in my hands in time for the O Scale Meet (March 14) although I’m beginning to suspect that this might not happen.

The 3D model pictured above represents a departure from my previous models in that it is designed in full scale. This has the advantage of being easier to work with (Sketchup doesn’t like small numbers) and easier to rescale at will. The initial print will be in 1:45 scale so it will be suitable for the MTH 3200s and the Island Model Works 2200s. Once I’m satisfied with that, the plan is to produce a set in 1:48.

Virtually Completed

No pun intended.

Work on the interior of the 3200s has progressed and I have, at last, acquired all the necessary measurements to build the center section of the car to my satisfaction. Once again, to assure proper alignment in the car (and to make sure they don't fall over in the process) I've designed the seats to be affixed to a thin "finished floor" which will be mounted on top of the real car floor. The car is then divided into three sections: front, middle, and rear. My efforts have been focused on the middle section and it's almost ready to be sent off to the printer.

Shapeways digital preview of the middle section

This seating configuration is for an odd numbered car. The even numbered cars have a box next to the single seat by the windbreak.

The view down the aisle toward the front of the car.

There are holes or reductions through the floor and behind the door pockets. These serve not only to reduce the material needed (and thus the cost) but also to allow multiple points to hide wires to and from the roof.

The thickness of the floor here is not final. It will be reduced sometime in the (hopefully near) future once I determine what material I'll be using for the car floor and how thick that material is. I also have to figure out how wide the floor grooves are in the aisle of the car so that the proportions will look right. Some will say, "But you won't see the floor grooves in the model!" My response to that is simply that I don't care. (It will satisfy my brain to know that they're present.)

Lest things turn out to be too easy, there, of course, have to be some problems. In this case there are three. The first problem is that while all of the components individually check out for printing, the combined object somehow fails the wall thickness checks. (Don't ask me to figure out how that makes sense. As far as I am aware, my 3D models are not on any kind of exercise/diet regimen.) This is easily overcome by the "print it anyway" option.

The second problem is that whenever I upload or modify the file, it keeps registering as being a two part object by Shapeways. At first it registered as a four part object, then I discovered that two of the seats were actually hovering about 1/20 of a millimeter above the finished floor. I have looked and looked, but for the life of me, I cannot find the remaining "separate" piece and I'd really rather not print this thing off, only to have it come back with something integral rattling around in the box.

The third, and most predictable, problem is cost. As of right now I'm looking at about $108 to have this thing printed. (And this is only the middle section. For one car.) Yes, the price will drop once I reduce the thickness of the floor, but not by that much. This price pretty much killed what little hope I had for selling these to other people interested in making their 3200s look better.

A cage will eventually be added to protect the poles from snapping off in shipping.

Time to Focus

In the past two months I've continued working in Sketchup on a number of the projects outlined previously. None of them are, as of yet, finished. I was trying to take care of a few other things at the same time, but that cannot completely account for the lack of progress. After some consideration I've come to the conclusion that I've been trying to work on too many things at once. A distinct lack of focus has been a chronic problem of mine and this jumping from project to project has not helped the situation at all.

In order to get back on track, I'm going to work on one project at a time. The first order of business is getting back to the interior of the 3200-series cars. The last time I discussed this, I had recently gotten the prototype seat back from Shapeways and was relatively pleased with the result. That didn't last. As I discussed in that post, I left the possibility open that I might try my hand at making the scoop in the seats. Lo and belold! I did just that. (This is the hazard of never being satisfied with your own work.)

They aren't "perfect," but I am satisfied with how they look. (For now.) I haven't printed this design yet, although it did pass Shapeways' file initial and wall thickness checks when uploaded. That's good enough for me and I've gone ahead and begun designing the different types of seats found in the 3200-series. These are (from memory) as follows:

• Single seat with handhold (pole on left)
• Single seat with handhold (pole on right)
• Single seat without handhold
• Double seat with handhold
• Double seat with handhold and ventilation box
• Double seat without handhold
• Wheelchair position double seat (flips up)
• Longitudinal double seat with windbreak on left
• Longitudinal double seat with windbreak on right

Shapeways digital preview of some of the pieces to be made. The scoops are more evident in this rendering than they would be in a screenshot from Google Sketchup.

The problem with simply printing the chairs is that a fair number of them are not self-supporting. They are (naturally) small and somewhat fragile. Trying to accurately mount something of this type to the floor of a model sounds like a chore and a half. I've thought about this for some time and eventually came up with something I'm willing to try.

The obvious answer is to print them as part of the car floor and be done with it. Unfortunately, this would be expensive to do (still earning vet tech wages) and the product is too large to be produced by the Frosted Ultra Detail printers. (The details are too fine to be printed in anything else.) My solution is a sort of compromise on this idea. I plan on dividing the car into three sections (front, middle rear) and designing the interiors in these sets. Each set will have all of its "furniture" (chairs, windbreaks, door pockets, etc.) created together and mounted onto a thin "surface floor." The three sections would then be placed end to end and mounted onto the real car floor (made of an inexpensive, but durable, material) and slid into the car body as one piece. Doing it this way solves the problem of mounting the chairs properly (without damaging them!), positioning them correctly, and also will allow me to make the grooves in the floor fairly easily. The grooves can also help to hide the separation lines between the three segments. We'll have to see how well this works and how expensive it turns out to be...

There has been a definite success with the printing. I sent off the updated version of the snowplow frames and received the finished product days later. These are a resounding success. I just have to fit them with the blades (to be made from index cards) and paint them.

These are remarkably crappy photos, but they do illustrate the point. This is a pair of snowplow frames, held back to back by sprues. They have a good amount of detail (which probably won't even be seen) and are decently strong. They're also reasonably flexible so they shouldn't break too easily.

I also have some new acquisitions to report: CA&E car 500 and a section of the Lake Street "L" structure. Both of these come to the Dunsel Line via the Chicago, Wheaton & Western (my father). He's beginning to focus on some other things and has come to the conclusion that he won't be doing anything with either of these, so he gave them to me.

The 500 (which could also be built into a North Shore Line 350-series streetcar—yeah right) is from a kit produced by Greg King. Currently it is completely unassembled, although it did come with a Q car power and trailer truck set. The downside is that the power truck is only set up for overhead operation. This will pose a slight problem as my (eventual) layout will be two rail, but for the time being it doesn't matter. (I'll probably also change out the power truck later.)

The Lake Street "L" structure is from a portion of the line with provision for only two tracks and the majority of support columns in the street and not anchored at the curb. The structure is somewhat old and slightly brittle. When removing it from my father's basement, I accidentally slightly tapped one of the columns against a wall and it broke off. (Apparently this has happened before.) I believe it is still structurally sound, so I'll fix it and post photos of it at a later date.

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.