After befriending an old trainmaster for the Arizona & California Railroad and seeing the exceptional work here at The Railwire, I wanted to try my hand at modeling with more of a prototype focus.  I've always been a fan of GP35's and the A&C has one particular locomotive that is an ex-SP unit that has some neat detail that would push my modeling skills and hopefully teach me some things. I decided to build two of these locomotives so I would have the extra practice and two unique pieces of equipment.  The prototype is ARZC 3503, ex-SP 6356.

Since Athearn just announced the SD60E with all new tooling, I am hoping that maybe, just maybe they will also do a Genesis standard cab variation.  Has anybody heard anything?  

So, I have a request for anyone at the National Train Show.  Would anyone of you ask the Athearn reps if that is in the cards?  

I've had an MDC boxcab laying around for many years.  I was going to re-motor it, but the chassis design was such a bear, I couldn't come up with a plan.  Quite some time ago I ran on to this article on how to use a Bachmann 44-ton chassis to accomplish this:

http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/2009_09_26_archive.html

These long lead times for loco pre-orders combined with me getting older makes for model railroading fun.