Genesee & Wyoming Industries purchased the stock of the Providence & Wooster Railroad for $125 million. At $25 per share, it was 53% over the closing bell price of P&W shares at Friday's closing bell. This purchase gives GWI the majority of the New England rail market. I would not be surprised to see Norfolk Southern take over Guilford Transportation/Pan Am Railways.

As promised, and that made me get it done, the photos show what I meant by an upgrade. Still not connected fully together yet, since I have to remove it again to do gardening work at the base and the road crew needs to finish up their area. Anyway, wood was nice, but brick is better for this soon to be a High Class place.

I’ve been a reader of MRH Magazine and its blogs for some time but this is my first time posting. 

I want to take this opportunity to share the progress of my scratch built Grain Elevator and receive your comments in the process.  I would like your thoughts especially in the realism aspect.    This is still a work-in-progress so I will be adding more stuff in the near future.    

It was another busy weekend on the layout. Several areas were worked on:

The most time was spent finishing the Alabama Hills. These iconic rocks were made from a custom mold that was made from rock samples from the hills and this weekend I finished painting and ballasting around them.  We picked up more ballast last weekend, which when sifted has a slight but noticeable contrast to the surrounding soil. The first test train is shown above. More: