Hi Mike!
Good to see your message. Welcome to the Gauge
I do have a Proto 2K Mallet...VGN 737...joined my local HO club so I could buy it!!!LOL
I like it a lot, except it's too light , and not much room to add weight...I've put in a little, a lead block in the cab, and some solder fitted in along the space along the interior edge of the boiler seams...there are a couple of club members who have one, and we're all trying to come up with ways to weight them up to increase traction.
My dream is to 'represent' , as close to proto as possible, Roanoke to Blufield and up the Guyandotte to Mullens... (maybe the electrified line through Princeton to Mullens,if I can every find some of those ELCs!!!), 1950, through about '67. Still debating whether to give up the N scale and seriously look for a bigger space to build the layout in...hmmm, 20' by 40-60' should be a start.
I run the 'Lost Virginian Coal Train' ( I live in Northern California) on the HO club layout...in a room about that size.
I just received some sad news...the Train Museum in Mullens,WV was destroyed by a flood last Sunday.... I was planning a trip this fall. From what I know of it's location... the town must be devastated. :sad:
I didn't know Bachmann was planning to release a J...any more info??
Where do you live? I was born in Roanoke, lived there a few years of child hood, Mom and other family live there now...or at least in the Roanoke Valley...Salem, Hollins.
There is a fella lives in Arizona, Don Brown,(dbn160) who models N&W, N scale, posts here sometimes...he's turned me on to a lot of great sites and info. His posts are still on a few forums.
Well, hope to hear from you again.
VGN
[This message has been edited by Virginian (edited 07-15-2001).]