Slow coming

Work has been very slow on the layout as of late... mostly for funding reasons. But even more roadblocks may be in the way...

New acquisitions to the Great Falls Railroad have been sparse since last time...but a few prize peices have shown up.

The Heavy Mountain from Bachman Spectrum finally made its way to the PGR engine facility. It's been months since it was ordered, but its here!

Big problem with the 4-8-2 though and it's Vandy Tender... the coupler is mounted too low! and now I gotta wait on some Microtrains couplers to arrive to see fi they will help out. I've e-mailed bachman and never got a reply... I also noticed that this loco does not have a Bell. Musta fallen off during packing? Very disapointed. But it runs quiet, smooth, and has incredible low speed stability.

The J-Class 4-8-4 from Bachmann also arrived. I wired it up with a Digitrax DZ143 for now. I'll be doing a sound install on it when the money is available. The DZ143 will then go into my Model Power Pacific. The J is an amazing puller and is very well built. It navigates the layout quite well for it's large size, but I think my curves may be borderline too tight. It seems to have guidence issues at the overpass. But most of my locos do due to the lack of bridge support there.

My big prize was an Atlas 2T Shay! This is an amazing little beast of a loco. It's SO SMALL! Really...you have no idea how tiny this loco is until you see it sitting beside the J-Class...or even the Challeneger. It runs very smoothly and has been able to take a 5 car train all the way around the layout in both directions without problems. DCC install has roadblocked me due to how small it is and how fragile it is. I pretty much gave up once I noticed I had to start cutting...then during reassembly the coupler fell apart. So I'll be shipping it off for a proper install. The fully detailed and animated gear-work on the side is amazing and intoxicating to watch. This is an AMAZING loco, I hope it gets reissued so I can buy a couple more.

I got 5 CN beer can cars, 2 CN Baggage Express, a BC Rail caboose, a CN caboose, and a couple of other rolling stock items as well.

More on the big roadblocks later!