Oh no! I'm Having THOSE Kinds of Thoughts Again!

[davefoxx]

Only the vaguest stand-in, the prototype is built by Evans:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ar1031&o=ar

That's okay.  I got it on clearance from MBK for only $8.99!  I can live with it for a while at that price.  But, thanks for the link to the photo.  At least I know that the paint is reasonably close enough that the car is a decent stand-in until something better and more accurate comes along.

Well, the one thing I've got going for me is that most people don't know a thing about the A&R, so they won't have a clue as to the accuracy of these models.

[davefoxx]

Now I'm really excited for your layout too. Get building Dave!

I'm going to design the plan first before I start junking up the basement.  But, that hopefully won't take too long, because I'm really excited to move forward.

Last night, I ordered the two A&R GP38s and a GP7 that I found online.  I haven't heard from the dealers whether they actually have these in stock yet or if they have shipped.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I also ordered the two A&R gons and the boxcar from MBK.  The gons were only $7.99 and the box car was only $8.99!  Nice.

By the way, to pay homage to my old door layout, I also bought an Athearn 50' Berwick box car decorated for the "Virginia Central Ry."  Perfect!

[choochin3]

Hey Dave,good luck on your new layout,I like shortlines also.
If you need to find a home for your SD35s,I'd be interested in at least one.

[davefoxx]

Hey Dave,good luck on your new layout,I like shortlines also.
If you need to find a home for your SD35s,I'd be interested in at least one.

Hey, Carl!

Let me run over to my other house in the next few days, and I'll take an inventory of everything that I want to consider selling.  You'll get dibs on at least one C&O SD35.  I want to check, because I'm pretty sure it's missing a DCC decoder.  I think I have saved some Atlas (non-DCC) boards, so I can put one of those back in to test and provide with the locomotive, if you want it.  These locos are in excellent shape and do not have a lot of run time on them.

DFF

[Bob Bufkin]

Not to worry Dave, Carl doesn't use DCC.  He's still running in the Stone Age. 

[choochin3]

Dave,no decoder is fine as I have no DCC.So that works out perfectly.
And keep me in mind on some rolling stock also.Thanks

[Dave Schneider]

Dave,

I believe that there is an article on the A&R in "Railroads You Can Model" by Mike Schaefer
http://www.amazon.com/Railroads-you-model-Schafer-Mike/dp/0890245266/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287682944&sr=1-1

I used to have a copy of this (years ago) but no clue where it went. The trackplans in these old Kalmbach series aren't quite up to modern standards, but the historical information is usually pretty well written. The photos tend to be a bit small, but the printing is done well.

Hope this helps.
Best wishes, Dave

[davefoxx]

Dave,

I believe that there is an article on the A&R in "Railroads You Can Model" by Mike Schaefer
http://www.amazon.com/Railroads-you-model-Schafer-Mike/dp/0890245266/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287682944&sr=1-1

I used to have a copy of this (years ago) but no clue where it went. The trackplans in these old Kalmbach series aren't quite up to modern standards, but the historical information is usually pretty well written. The photos tend to be a bit small, but the printing is done well.

Hope this helps.
Best wishes, Dave

D'oh!  I used to have that book years ago!  Thanks for the heads-up, though.  I'll be on the look out for a copy.

[davefoxx]

Dave,no decoder is fine as I have no DCC.So that works out perfectly.
And keep me in mind on some rolling stock also.Thanks

Will do.

[RockGp40]

Dave, I am a huge fan of this guy. You'll need one of those Randgust shell's though:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2196915

[davefoxx]

I will get one of the A&R GP38s (#405) I ordered from BLW, but the other one was out of stock.  Sure hope I get lucky with the GP7, which I had to order from another vendor (I haven't heard from them yet).  I also received an email from MBK, and the A&R boxcar is also out of stock.  I assume this means that the two gons are shipping.  Will have to keep searching for the other GP38 (#400).  Grr!

[davefoxx]

Dave, I am a huge fan of this guy. You'll need one of those Randgust shell's though:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2196915

Brian,

What an awesome picture!  That's the best-looking CF7 I've ever seen.  Thanks for sharing!

Dave

[RockGp40]

Your welcome. Its actually new to the A&R, it was in ratty Pee Dee River colors and just repainted this year, but its plausible for your time frame. Plus, I am a big fan of those things. Its like a GP30's half brother to me.

[sirenwerks]

Dave,

If you can find the shell, I've got undec 38s up for grabs.

[davefoxx]

Dave,

If you can find the shell, I've got undec 38s up for grabs.

Thanks for the offer, Bryan.  I was hoping to just find A&R shells at Atlas' store but struck out, because I wouldn't mind just swapping out the shells on my C&O GP38s.  That would have saved me the cost of the frames, which I can recycle from the ones I already I own.  In fact, one of my C&O GP9s was created that way.  It had started life as Chessie System (C&O) GP7.  That shell went to a good home.