Richard wrote... Yup, that combo of peripherals was carefully chosen to help support other machines in the collection, and the /34 was the least powerhungry, etc. Ask Tom U. about it ;) He donated the top panel. Actually, it was for my /45's 2nd bay. But then later I found a header panel without the digital logo, which was more appropriate for the 2nd bay I thought. So this one migrated to the /34. The apple sticker had been removed before I got the panel. It appears to be sun fading, I don't think it will come out. It adds character ;) Jay

Antonio wrote... I had to move a bunch of things so that I could wrangle the /34 cpu onto the rails. Plus the photo is very carefully framed. I have NO room ;) Jay

Brad wrote... Thanks, and yes it was. Instead of running systems exactly as I get them, I tend to derack everything I get. So there is a section of the basement full of disk drives, a section full of tape drives, a section for cpu's, etc. Then when it's time to build a working system I pick and choose what devices to rack up. This is also because I tend to get peripherals more often than complete systems. I enjoy this more than just flipping on a system as I got it. This way I get to learn all the oddities about how a certain peripheral was racked or cabled in different situations, and I also get a system with exactly the configuration I want. It also teaches one that when walking through the basement and you see a odd bolt or nut on the floor, which ones to dive across the room to grab cause it's that rare needed part versus one you can just walk by ;) But it is a lot of extra work. It always *SEEMS* to me that all the other collectors seem to get hardware that is in presentable (cosmetic) shape. I seem to frequently get hardware that is in really poor shape (rust, faded, hit by a truck, bent up, mouse infested, scratched...). My /34 backplane was originally packed with acorns and mouse "leavings" (It's pristine and shiny now). So out of necessity probably most of my time in restoration is spent on cosmetic issues. Ah well, good practice I guess :) I have 3 of the 1.5" thick silver inner rails, and only one outer rail. I also have 2 of the (approx.) 3.5" thick grey inner rails, and no outer rails. In my case, I got lucky and found a source just a week or two ago that has a few of the complete inner & outer tilting railsets for an attractive price. I'm sure he has a few more. Email me offlist and I'll get you the contact information. Well speaking of which... On the /34 front, see above. On the /44 front, I have available two racks which may be of interest. They are those (approx.) 42" tall white dec corp cabs. These are the ones where the /44 goes at the very top of the rack. Instead of sliding out forward on slides, it tilts upwards on gas pistons. One of the racks has no side panels or back door (I was going to use it to make my 11X44-CA into a dual bay system, but then got a TU81+ cabinet instead). This rack does have the cpu mounting hardware & pistons with it. The other is the same height, has both side panels and rear door, is about 7 inches deeper than the other cabinet, and has an 11/44 cpu carcass in it. The 11/44 carcass has no power supply, and just a few really oddball cards in it (this is just as I got it). Both of these racks (and /44 carcass) are available to whoever will take them. Quickly. Please :) I also have a metric buttload of RA81 parts available (so far all HDA's are dead). I have an absolute truckload of complete rack slide sets for RL01/RL02/RA81 drives. I also have available one of the tall white dec corp cabs in good condition with side panels (it was full of RA81's), as well as tons of those "rectangular" SDI cables and ancilliary bulkhead connectors. All the above is available in exchange for a unibus KLESI card & cable, perhaps an H960 back door panel & various H960 hardware associated with the back door, or one of those round hex key door locks with retainer ring! Jay West