Hi all,

For a period of several years the Canberra ARHS (Australian Railway Historical Society) group  have been quietly working away to return the former New South Wales Government  Railways AD60 class Garratt locomotive 6029 to service.  The AD60 class were the largest standard-gauge Garratt locomotives ever built, with a 4-8-4+4-8-4 wheel arrangement. Only 4 of the 42 of these locomotives built remain in existence, and Canberra ARHS has their 6029 moving under its own power again. 

I enjoyed Joe's article on pg 157 in the July issue.  I have use DC since the 60's for my HO trains.  Many of our club members in Charlotte have DCC on their layouts.  I have tried several and observed them to be somewhat complicated, cumbersome to operate and therefore chose not to switch to DCC.  But after reviewing the RailPro website on MRHM three years ago, I called and talked with the Rail Pro people and a hobby store operator who sold RailPro.  

I enjoy imagining what kind of a layout I can build whenever I take control of a space. Even when I’ve worked in office cubicles I didn’t hesitate to sketch up ideas for shelf layouts that I could fit in, even though it might have been bad for office morale to slack off of work so brazenly. But I seem to be ensconced in my current classroom for the foreseeable future and the Inglenook convinced me that a model railroad would be a legitimate and appropriate educational tool. For some kids, maybe better than just appropriate.