As a side note to this subject, you may be interested to know that Harter's Hobby Shop, where these were originally produced and sold from in Belleville, IL, is closing it's doors and the current owner retiring. The shop had been around for 70 years or so, and the current owner bought way back in the late 50's or early sixties, I think. I only had one opportunity to check out the place years ago, and it was all trains then and continued that way. Makes me wonder what might be in an attic or basement? There was a local TV news story about it that my older brother saw and told me about so I tried to find the video portion on line but no luck. Just FYI.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Dan McEntee