1. Hallelujah! Yes, there's the birth of a certain Christ child to celebrate, but also, there's the publication of the first-ever Penn Central Railroad Historical Society calendar. I know what's going to be on my wall in the coming year. That, and the two Norfolk and Western Historical Society calendars for 2005. Hooray for calendar proliferation.
2. Living in Virginia can occasionally complicate finding Penn Central things, especially when there's a lack of local hobby shops. I had to be in the City of Richmond before I found a Penn Central boxcar, and I had to go over the border into North Carolina to find the next step in my ever-so-slight move towards having a model railroad collection: An Athearn HO-scale wide vision cabin painted and lettered for the Penn Central. The livery calls it an "N9", but the N9 series on the Penn Central (and later Conrail) were converted boxcars, so that's inaccurate. However, who cares? I'm not a rivet counter, and seven bucks for a caboose from one of my favorite fallen flags can't be passed up.
3. At the one local hobby shop I've got, I did manage to find a Norfolk Southern three-bay open hopper, complete with coal load. Now to find a Penn Central Alco C630 to pull this odd-looking train now assembled on a shelf over my computer. Er, those aren't cheap, are they?
Posted by Country Pundit at December 18, 2004 12:35 PM