Another Year Has Come And Gone.

2024 is just about over.  I for one am glad of that fact.  No need for another year like the one we just finished to come around again. Too much bad blood and too much craziness on all sides for my tastes. That, plus a bad year for personal health issues has left a bad taste in ones mouth.

I'd drink maybe one or two cups of coffee each morning when the year began, and now I'm on my second pot of the day, that is how things are going lately. This year Christmas feels robotic, any joy is M.I.A., or at least being searched for.

Another thing just happened as well; a milestone of sorts has been achieved. Moloco's new waffle side cars hit $67 each plus shipping.  As gorgeous as they are, the inbred frugality in me just won't allow me to spend that much on a freight car.  I'd love a MoPac car and a C.E.I. to keep it company, but that would be close to the price of replacing my busted MRC DCC with a NCE Power Cab system, and that just won't fly. So, that's the name of that tune.

Oh, and since I seldom post here without at least one photo, let me add a picture of a corn oil tank car bought on sale to serve a local commercial bakery on the planned shelf layout. It's a Tangent car, and was only $34 at Lombard's; I like that store.

Well, that's all for now, write back or comment should the mood strike. Happy Holidays!

Best wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

New Power Has Arrived.

Early last year in 2023, Athearn announced another run of Genesis GP9E's. Being perfect for branchline work, plus a favorite prototype of yours truly, there was no choice but to add one to the three others on hand at the AZSO. Desiring another model with the Farr rooftop air filter box setup, SP GP9E 3777 was selected.

Well just moments ago, the the folks in brown, delivered said box containing said locomotive model. It looks great too.

It's been a while since I ordered our last GP9E and I note that this box mentions LED's in the model. I'll have to wait to see what the differences might look like; hopefully it will all work out with what's onhand.

Thanks for reading this far, leave a note or make a comment should the mood strike you.

Enjoy your trains,

John Huey 

CEO Arizona Southern RR

A N&W 60' Boxcar Joins the RR

 Greetings from October 2024, where the time goes I have no idea. Just celebrated the first anniversary of the heart event of 2023, and thought something very different from the usual fare to be in order.

The only equipment longer than 54' are the SP 60' flats and bulkheads, the current layout plan just works better with shorter cars, so 40 and 50 footers rule our roster. Every once in a while though, something comes along that causes the rules to be stretched a bit. Tangent recently released a 60' auto parts car in one of my favorite paint schemes, so it just had to head to Arizona.

I'll be removing the 'FORD' service code marking as the car has been put into a more general service by 1976, and that makes it perfect for AZSO. Attached is an image purloined from the TANGENT website, I'm too lazy to get out the camera and set up a background right now.

Just wanted to drop a short note to the list, and this was about all the time and material that I had.

Thanks for reading this far, write back if the mood strikes, we'd enjoy the conversation.

Best wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

A.I. may be the end of us all.

A.I. has its good side, and it has a neutral side, but what many miss is its more nefarious side; a side that can lead one into an addiction tailored just for one's own tastes.  Last week, I searched for a Brekina CL-9000 COE to round out the collection that at some point will grace the planned truck stop or back roads of the next layout. I found one that was a bit pricey, but then a discount coupon showed up and the rest is history. Ahh, both the good and the neutral sides of A.I. illustrated.

Next, allow a few days to pass, the shipping minions do their thing, and the new tractor arrives in perfect condition; it looks better in person than the photos indicated. One great tractor model!  But, almost without breaking stride, ad's begin to creep into the old online search results, ads for Brekina while searching for totally unrelated items. That aforementioned nefarious side begins to appear. Not only did the Ford CL-9000's show up, but the Mack RS-700's did as well. Nefarious!

If a second CL-9000 was not bad enough, another Mack RS-700, one in a pleasing paint scheme, showed up with the Ford. Who was I to argue with fate?  One can't have too many good looking truck tractors after all, right? So one more Mack is enroute to join the others already in hand.

Of course, all will need a little bit of help before being placed into service. The Mack might be turned into a shorter single screw, less sleeper, and used in gravel hauling service; only time will tell.

Thanks for reading this far, as always, feel free to write back or comment should that mood strike you. We'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

1978 Ford CL-9000's From Brekina

Just when I thought it would be safe to browse the old interwebs again, Brekina releases a tractor that not only fits my time period, but is one I actually sort of liked considering that it's not one of the BIG four; Pete, Mack, WFL, or KW. Most of the released paint jobs in this run are fairly boring, but one sort of pushed my color pallet button, so an order was placed, and it is on its way. This tan scheme just looked like it would work for an owner operator in the desert, or so I'm thinking.

Not much else to report right now. Still working on sorting out the train room's issues with space and layout area. I'll be in touch when there is something more to report. 

Thanks for reading this far, and feel free to write back should the mood strike you. Best wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

Loco For Moloco? Just Might Be The Case.

 Holy Lawn Sausages, this year is over half over and all I've gotten done is making payments towards the medical bills, and squirreling away a few freight cars wanted for the new shelf layout idea. Seems that my tastes have been looking into ever increasing quality and prices, yet I still have cars without all that jazz that are just as loved by yours truly. The latest "fancy" car is a BN 50' Boxcar from Moloco, and it's a real humdinger!  See:

Hard to believe HO freight cars are now costing more than the first Athearn engines purchased when entering the hobby fifty years back. Yet the details and the craftsmanship make paying those prices seem like a good return on investment. Considering the price of duplication, and the reality that doing it myself will never happen in the years remaining, it's money well spent.

Of course no 'off road' equipment seems to make it home without a little something for the SP as well, so these very modern (in my world) cars are making the trip as well as that BN car above. We've even ordered a couple of new kits from Walthers for a newly planned industry on the shelf layout; only time will tell that tale as I hope it all comes together sooner rather than later.

That is all for now, write back should the mood strike you. We'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes,

John Huey

Another Diesel Fuel Tank Car Joins The Group

Being a sucker for a sale, and considering the fact we purchased one of the American Limited ATSF diesel fuel tank cars about a year ago, when I saw a Memorial Day sale on one of the Athearn 20,900 Gallon General Service Tank Cars lettered for  ATSF Diesel Service, I had to jump.  Might not be perfect, but it looks good enough for the Arizona Southern.

Equipment that represents what a railroad needs to keep things running is just as important as the revenue equipment we all know and love. Here is an image showing our latest acquisition.

Happy Memorial Day,

Write back if the mood strikes you, but most of all, Enjoy Your Trains!

John Huey

Brekina Mack RS700 Comes To AZSO

Seems that my love of the 'over the road' trucker crowd knows no bounds. In fact there are probably a lot more tractor-trailer rigs floating about in the train room than there are railroad equipment. One thing that is a bit rare out west were the Mack Trucks, like Athearn made.  We do have a fair number of the older Mack's, but the latter "R" series just never got seen out west as much as the Pete's, KW's, and the WFL cabovers.  Athearn's Mack's have gotten super expensive on the secondary market and now enters Brekina.

We picked up two of the RS700's recently, one painted black, lettered for the "Rubber Duck" tractor of the film Convoy fame. The other is in a beautiful metallic blue specced out in a very similar manner to the Rubber Duck version.

I suppose I'm a fool for the trucking industry, but not all of the customers in Arizona Southern territory have rail access. Having the trucking industry represented makes everything seem a bit more realistic.

That's all for now, write if the mood strikes you.

Best wishes,

John Huey

Arizona Southern Takes The Plunge.

The original idea was to have a pair of C415's in Southern Pacific paint to handle transfer runs between these two railroads. However, as most of you know a good plan only lasts until its first contact with other team members or reality, and this plan was no exception to that fact of life.

Figuring our purchasing department had better strike while the ordering irons are hot, we added a DCC with sound unit in the Chehalis Western scheme to our order with Bowser.  The new plan is to simply patch that big yellow center cab over to the Arizona Southern as painting has become more of a chore as the years go by.

Not much else to mention at this time, seems that train parts are not the only thing around here starting to show signs of wear and tear. Still, the plan is to keep at it as long as possible; hopefully that will be many more years, but one never really knows about that sort of thing. 

Write if the mood strikes you.

Best wishes,

John Huey

Something New For March, well sort of?

Okay, not really new, well new to us, but an OLD car in and of itself.  Just trying to add a few better bits to the freight car roster as we're able to.  Seems things that fit our era are few and far between.  This one is a stretch as to the dating, but should look at home once twenty plus years of weathering is applied. It does feature the "C" word, and that helps the decision.

Kadee 40' XM new for March 2024; Copper Range works for AZSO.

Not much else to report this month, I am still alive and kicking for the most part. Hopefully this condition will continue for the foreseeable future. As always, we at AZSO hope things are going well in your space on the planet and we want to say, Enjoy Your Trains!

Write back if the mood strikes,

John Huey

Arizona Southern RR

February 2024

Talk about one crazy month, so far locally we've had morning frost, coupled with higher than normal temps, snow in our local mountains, floods, earthquakes, thunder storms, water spouts, heavy fog, landslides blocking main highways, and high winds blowing over massive trees, and the month is barely half over.

Not sure where things are headed, but the model trains are taking a back seat to this intense situation.  

The fact that Bowser announced the long awaited Alco C415's leaves only one "grail" engine on the old bucket list, now we just need an Alco S6 switcher and that would be about it.

Not much else to report, just checking in with followers and wishing to say Hello.

Best wishes,

John Huey