Embargoed for 1 Year, 31 days.............

        I know, I know, you probably left me for dead by now, or the layout ripped up, or some other calamity. Fortunately (unfortunately?) nothing of the sort has happened. Honestly, it was another round of general "model railroad malaise", coupled with my band taking off and gigging non-stop like crazy! And yes, while time can ALWAYS be made, I let the music take over and trains got pushed aside.

It's not to say that I haven't forgotten COMPLETELY about trains, I've bought some new equipment......

Gotta love those Bowser PRR covered hoppers!

My continuing effort to purchase cars lettered for New Jersey-based industries

A lucky train show find (the reefer, not the flat!)

And a "good buy" off eBay of a new Bowser LokSound-equipped Baldwin. I took off the CP shell and slapped it down on my custom painted Athearn S-12 shell (incorrect model, but I like the paint job), and the LokSound chip beats the s**t out of my Tsunami VO-1000, also from Bowser, so I'm keeping it!

I've also attended many an op session..............

Perry Squier's PS&N

 Jerry Dziedzic's NYS&W

 Dave Ramos' NYHRR

...and Steve Salotti's NYS&W (with four familiar "characters" from this very blog along with me)

Also, the "every other year" Valley Forge, PA RPM meet was attended, where I spoke about the possibility of a new layout (more on that in a minute), and the return of my pal "Scary" Ted DiIorio's presentation on his Ma & Pa layout (http://maparr1943.blogspot.com/), where we promised  we wouldn't heckle him (much).....

       So, about that "new layout" thingy.......Not long after the last op session in June 2013, I began thinking, "is this too much layout for me?" This is my first real layout, and maybe I did bite off a lot, but I did so out of love for the prototype, and the desire to do it justice. It wasn't necessarily because I had to "have it all", but I had the "problem", as most prototype modelers do, of knowing the real thing TOO well. I did a lot of research before I built, so I went in knowing what needed to be built (of course compromises were made). The layout, for those of you familir with it, isn't horribly big, but rather the operations scheme is complex. And that, quite frankly, is the "too much" part of it. So since procrastination is my friend (and I don't have the money or desire to start from scratch), I thought about what else I could do, while keeping equipemrnt and benchwork (relatively) intact, and make the operations plan more manageable. Enter a thread on the Lehigh Valley's Allentown, PA branchlines, along with an research article on the entire history of one branch in particular, the West End Branch. Having recently been inspired by the modeling work of Tom Johnson's L&IN............

 Visit http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/8934 for more info and pics

       I really wished for some "pretty" scenery, while keeping an industrial switching nature, and obviously, the LV as a prototype. Modeling this branch would give me that. As you can see in the following two images, the branch had a lot of industry, and that I can keep the existing benchwork, while also minimalizing it at the same time - 

       I did a presentation on the pros and cons of this at the aforementioned RPM meet, and the consensus at the end was keep it. But, that was at the end of March, and it's one day till June now. That's a lot of "model railroad" time to think and rethink. Bottom line is, I keep "hemming and hawing" on what to do. I need to decide, and soon, it's getting ridiculous, quite frankly! Since I could keeping going into detail about the pros and cons, I'm going to work on posting a PDF of the presentation, where all questions will be answered, but I'm gonna save that for another post (plus, it give me incentive to post regularly again!) So, until then, I'm back, y'all!...............................