New Locomotives Added to the Roster!

Hi again! Yes, its been over a month since my last post and (as some of you have noticed!) my frequency of posting has slowed down a bit since the Summer.  As I've mentioned in some previous posts, I am reconsidering new layout options and have been taking a slight break from the hobby while I seek inspiration.

Today was part of that inspiration! I attended the Great Train Expo in Puyallup Washington (about 20 miles south of Seattle) and did some casual browsing of both dealer sales and layouts (I've posted overviews of these train shows in the past if you are interested in what you would typically see).

I made a great find!  After watching eBay for a chance to capture one of the rare occurrence of a Lima D.341 in decent condition, I happened to find one sitting on a dealer's table with other older N gauge material!  Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to pick this up for $25 USD!

Its certainly NOT a locomotive that I would convert to DCC or even consider operating (I haven't tested it yet, but it does seem nearly unused!), but rather I like the older styling of these first generation Italian diesels (I think some of these models were built by Fiat, which is pretty cool!).  The brown and green livery with the red highlights are really interesting too!

This is actually a little bit of some of the 'sidetracks' I've been taking with the hobby in the past several months.  A couple of months back I picked up a brand new, mint, Bachmann E60.

What a brute this model is! Yes, its the odd American locomotive in my fleet, but the fact that its probably the last American attempt at building a mainline, electric locomotive, has signifiant heft and raw power in its looks (it was designed to replace the GG1 after all), and was also something of a commercial failure (giving it a sort of romantic industrial tragedy) made me interested in this locomotive.

Besides acquiring the 'odd locomotive' here and there, I do have some other mini-projects in the works:

• I am working on a modernization scheme for the Earth Defense Organization (remember them? No, its still not safe and Earth still needs them!).
• I was inspired by some of the 4dNtrak clubs Ntrack modular system - after watching what they have done, I am getting more ideas for "Quinntopia 5" - or whatever I call it!
• I have some other projects that are a bit, well, crazy.  More to come!I still update my Flickr account with new photos here and there....please feel free to visit my Flickr site to see photos of my layout and other stuff....here's a sample!

That's it for now! Hopefully it won't be ANOTHER month before my next post, but don't worry, I'm still here! Just 'regrouping' as they say!