I'm very excited...I just ordered this MTH O-Scale Premier Lehigh Valley RS-11 High Hood Diesel Engine from The Model Railroad Shop in Piscataway, NJ. It's a 2019 model with expected delivery in April 2019. I'm getting back into the hobby (with O-guage, where I started) for the first time since I was 12 or 13. Not that I ever had any serious layouts...just an old Lionel passenger platform with working lights that my Dad gave me from his train set (a Lionel Hiawatha set) from the 1930's. I plan on building a layout with a 1950's era small town center built around the railroad, with a couple of rail yards and even an old (semi-abandoned) siding that used to be part of a main line. A section of the historic South Branch Railroad at 3 Bridges in Raritan Township, NJ near me (what's left is now the Black River & Western) is my inspiration for that idea. My inspiration for the Lehigh Valley Railroad is that my Dad went to Lehigh University and I've been researching and photographing South Bethlehem and old Union Station there. It's where he came and went from school, traveling from Philadelphia on the Reading RR.
This is my first piece!
Cheers -
James
