Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 38°, going back into the mid 50's again today; and for the next two days after that. Warmer weather returns Tuesday, thunderstorms possible Thursday, but mostly warmer and settled weather for the coming week.
The new garden tractor arrived yesterday and works as expected. It was late so I didn't give it a real workout and don't really have anyplace that actually needs mowing enough to have to use it yet. It's not quite as big as my old Craftsman, and it also has a much smaller turning radius which should allow easier operation and a smaller parking space!
I have no experience with pre-ordering any manufacturer's rolling stock except for ScaleTrains engines. So I can't really comment about them. I have always liked to have a product in my hands before purchasing anything. I made an exception for ScaleTrains about 5 years ago and despite the original order being a bit delayed by a few months, I have been satisfied enough to have made three additional purchases totaling 13 locomotives in all. While none have been according to their original projection, all but the first one came within 45 days of the schedule. One nice thing about doing business with them, is no money changes hands until they actually ship the product from Tennessee. No prepayment necessary and you can cancel at any time. I don't know if this is the case with other manufacturers or not. I'd like to try some of their freight cars, but they haven't made anything that I just had to have, and I have no room for any more anyway.
Can the other guys move away from China? Probably yes if needed, but the logistics, expense and time needed would be too much for many of these manufacturers to handle. As someone pointed out, if the government in China gets knowledge that you are considering relocation, your workers quit showing up, tooling disappears, etc.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I made some progress with ground cover. I managed to fill in some ground foam between the road and Ethanol refinery; and along part of the ROW. Then I added a gravel parking lot to the grocery store, and a side entrance to the refinery.
Next up (maybe) is a chain link fence next to the road. More to come.
Hughie - Clark's Wood Products looks like a real fun build. Should be interesting to do in N scale. Downtown Garage also looks like an interesting build, but it only works for an era much earlier than mine. Good luck with both, I'm sure that we'll be seeing more of them soon.
Chrιstιαη - Where's the damn caboose?
Joe - You mentioned "outcast royal Harry and spouse Meghan" yesterday. Did anyone here know that Meghan appeared in Married with Children back in '95?
Great picture of that BR&W GP9 still working today after at least 65 years of service.
Today is National Sloppy Joe Day. I'm sure most of us went through that time of life when it was a staple. I did immediately after college when we first got married.
Everybody have a wonderful day.