HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The new year is almost upon us, and hopefully will bring all that you wish for. I'm not going to make any new year resolutions as they're hard to keep, I find. (still trying to lose a few pounds gained on the christmas dinner). However, I will try and keep the frequency of blog updates up a bit better than I managed during this year, particularly sept and oct were slow, but that was due to work commitments.

At present, it looks like a good year for model railroaders. Several new products, have been announced by the leading manufacturers . Just to name a few:
Athearn announced the GE U50 locomotives, SD45's in the Genesis range, as well as trucks with UPS paint schemes etc.
Exactrail has announced a great looking model of the C50-7 caboose (so has Athearn). I've ordered an Exactrail version, and as soon as I take delivery I will post a review of the model on this blog.
Walthers is shipping it's series of kits and railroad cars for their scrapyard theme, of which I also ordered some parts, including two gondola's in their Platinum range, which are their highest detailed cars yet, look out for a review on those too.
Overland models will be shipping beautiful  (but pricey) models of the NRE genset locomotives, they're outside my price range, but they are beautiful nonetheless.
Rapido trains should be very close in shipping their Canadian F9's, as well as re-engineered  Fairbank Morse C-liners.
Atlas is announcing the GP39-2 model in HO in various paint schemes, as well as several freight cars in both HO and N.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Wishes I have too, personally top of the list for me would be a release of the Athearn GP15-1 in California Northern livery. All it takes is a paint job, the correct loco is already in their production in the form of the CN&W shell with the correct nose gong bell. Let's hope someone from Athearn is reading this :-)
Let's also keep fingers crossed for more (affordable) steam loco models, and a personal wish is more US sedan car and pick up truck models in HO and N of the 70's, 80's and 90's, or re-releases of them. (Chevy Caprice Classic, Saturns, Chrysler Neons etc etc). I particularly like the 'ordinary' models, the one you'd see on the streets every day, not just some exotic dream car or classic. Adding more of the ordinary, will make your model railroad look much more realistic.

In any case, Happy New Year, and happy 'model' railroading!

 PS: If you're a manufacturer or suppliers and would like to have a model/product reviewed on this blog, feel free to write me, or send me a sample (I will return them of course, should you require that). :-)