Bill and Tom,
I am pretty happy that we got the ******* finally. As you may know Seal Team VI got him, and although I don't know if 160th SOAR had any hand in the matter one of the guys I go to church with (a Navy fellow) knew a few of the guys on that team. Osama supposedly made a quick stop here (probably to verify that it was him) at BAF before he went to sleep with the fishes.
Currently I'm in the process of finding a decoder that should have all the bells and whistles (literally) that should either be spot on or a close match for the #261. As popular as it is I'm surprised that MTH, Athearn, or Broadway Limited hasn't produced this model let alone sell a decoder with similar functions. I'm guessing a SP GS4 decoder should do the trick, as it was similar in size and had the Mars light which I'd like to function as well.
On another note, my wife surprised me with three awesome books. The first one is on the beginning of railroads in Wisconsin, called Steam and Cinders: The Advent of Railroads in Wisconsin, the second is The North Woods Hiawatha, which explains the former Milwaukee sub that ran near where my wife's from (her town was serviced by the Soo Line and the station downtown still stands), and the third one is Wisconsin Shortlines and Logging Railroads. Now I knew Wisconsin used Shays and Heislers back when logging was handled by rail but not to the extent covered in the book, even the Milwaukee Road had a Shay that they used on the rail line covered in the North Woods Hiawatha book... maybe a sign I need to buy a Shay and haul some logs.
Tyler