It’s summer, and it is just about the time for my modeling to go on hiatus. As some of you know, I live in Central Arizona, and I have difficulty staying in my garage with this heat. Even as I write this at 8:15 at night, it is still 105°F. This time of year, I switch my free time to something that I can do in the cool, air conditioning.
Last month, my wife said that I could go out and buy a new loco for my birthday, and I knew that I wanted something that was tiger striped. I quickly found three candidates, an old brass Baldwin S12 like Wolf’s, a BLI NW2, and an Atlas VO-1000. After mulling it over for a week, asking friends for advice, I came to the decision that the VO-1000 was the best option for me.
Friday I placed an order for a new, 2003 run of an Atlas VO-1000 in SP tiger stripes. Talked to another friend and we are working on designing trolley pole stands, I still have Pacific Electric freight locomotive decals, and I am feeling like a kid waiting for Christmas.
I had the USPS text me all of the tracking of the package from the East Coast, and I got the text that my locomotive was sitting in the mailbox. As soon as I get home, I ran joyfully to the mailbox, came into the house, and started to open it up. At this point the antici….pation is killing me. Then my heart sunk, it was black and white, did the store send me the last run? Nope, it was a New York Central loco. My wife asked if I accidentally ordered the wrong loco, nope, the invoice clearly says Southern Pacific. So, I called the store, and they are sending me a call tag and they will be sending me the correct loco as soon as the NYC unit is returned.
I waited this long, what’s 2 more weeks?