Last night was op session night on the Siskiyou Line (sorry, no photos from me) - April 14th, 1989. The SP has been bought out by the Rio Grande... and survives as the SP. Speedlettering is making an appearance. D&RGW locomotives (in this case two lovely Atlas GP40-2's of Ron Smith's) are showing up on the Siskiyou Line. Even had a set of Cascade Green BN power including a B30-7B(?) unit. Wish I'd had my camera - the GP40-2s ended up as helper power and I set the BN set as the head end power for the Seagull West out of Roseburg.

MRH sponsoring advertiser BLMA is releasing a model of the Norfolk Southern G-85R class Top Gon in HO and N scale. Expected to arrive in early 2009, the first photos of the models (12 road numbers times 3 paint jobs in each scale) are now at the BLMA website.

HO Scale Top Gon  - $25.95 ea or 12 for the price of 11.

A question was sent to MRH recently asking how to add photos to a blog entry. I decided this was a topic that deserved it's own blog entry.  I personally think trying to explain this without having access to the images would be futile.

NOTE: Since Jeff posted this, we've added a newer, simpler method for posting images, and we demonstrate it in this video.

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=50577

Cars include the basic flatcar, and both short and tall bulkhead models. The Straight car is 68' internal length and the bulkhead cars are 62' internal length.

Gotta admit, they look pretty good - and if they're Trainman they'll probably come in at under $15.

Okay, this one is kind of significant. Atlas is producing, as part of their Trainman line, the Phase 1 GP39-2 that forms the backbone of my prototype railroad, the Portland & Western (in it's former name of Willamette & Pacific). It will initially be available in two road numbers each of the following railroads: CSX (in YN3), Delaware & Hudson (Blue & Yellow), Portland & Western (Black and Orange) and Santa Fe (Bluebonnet) as well as undecorated.

As predicted by MRH (or at least me, with MRH at the National Train Show in Anaheim), Atlas is releasing the Dapol(UK) track cleaning car under their own brand: http://www.atlasrr.com/HOFreight/hotrackcleaningcar.htm

Model Railroad Hobbyist's video coverage of Dapol at the National Train Show can be found

here

.

Personally... I think I'm adding it to my Christmas List.

Athearn has announced several new paint schemes in both HO and N Scale for delivery in early 2009.

Genesis

Athearn is releasing their EMD F2A and F2B diesel in the black and yellow Atlantic Coast Line Scheme. Solo F2A's without sound will are MSRP $139.98, F2A+B consists without sound will be $279.98. With sound, the solo F2A will be $209.98 and the A+B consists will be $419.98.

Remember - this is from 2008!

AtlasO has several announcements for this month, including new paint schemes, road numbers, and models.

Atlas O 40' Airslide Hoppers
http://www.atlaso.com/oairslide4.htm

Remember - this is from 2008!

NEW PAINT SCHEMES & NEW MODEL!
Atlas N 2-Bay Offset Side Hopper
http://www.atlasrr.com/NFreight/n2bayoffsethopper1.htm

Remember - this is from 2008!

Atlas Model Railroad Co. has announced new roadnumbers and paint jobs for their HO Scale Fairbanks-Morse H15-44/16-44 model. 

This model comes in several cab, body and handrail combinations with undecorated models available for each combination. Expected availablity is in April of 2009 and the retail price is $169.95. The models come equipped with a 4-function DCC decoder which will also operate with DC systems.