Well, I have added a few new faces to my fleet. I was able to find probably the last 3 MRL Athearn SD45 out there. They were very hard to find but I did it. I was also able to get my hands on the four new SD70Ace's. I have a friend out here by the name of Josh Mader of Mader Trains who hooked me up. He is a cool kid that gave me such a great deal. The only bummer was that his rep told him some false info about Athearn only coming up with 3 Aces and not 4. So I ended up with two 4306 units. This is fine because I can convert one into another number or just dump it and find myself a 4313.
The layout is still at a stand still. I have only cleaned it up. I broke down and orded myself the whole works of Fast Tracks hand laid turnouts. Since this is only a branch switching layout I felt that just going with the #6 would suit me fine. Eventually I will get the #8 and maybe if I ever have my dream layout of Mullan Pass, then I will think about #10 or something.
So once I have received the turnout kit, and built them I will start the track laying process. The electrical will go at the same time. I'm thinking of starting the process of getting the backdrop ready to paint. I just picked up Pelle Soeborg's new book about his new layout. In there he did a didgital background. I would love to do that so much but I feel that cost and time might play against me. I feel that I can do a good enough paint job that I can pull off the Logan and Three Forks scenery.
Anyway, here are photos of most of my new toys. The last photo has Jak in the shot. Jak is my 4 year old middle son who loves trains. That boy will be a future model railroader though he is one already. I have high hopes for him.
Sorry once again for my lighting. As you can tell I do not have any mounted yet.
