Dashing through the Christmas post...

My newest engine arrived this morning, after languishing in a delivery office somewhere for the festive season.

It's an Atlas master series Dash 8-40C spartan cab in Norfolk Southern livery, my second of the superb Atlas GE units and just as detailed as the Conrail 8-40B I bought last year.

 The locomotive comes complete with factory fitted DCC decoder and is ready to hit the rails.  I bought it secondhand from ebay, but it looks as though this particular unit has seen minimal use if any at all.  The detail parts have been fitted, but the wheel treads are clean and there is no handling damage.

As you can see from the photos below, the amount of detail on these Atlas units is incredible, with truck air hoses, sanding lines, chains, grab irons, etched grilles... the list goes on and on.  Other than an airconditioner it's hard to see what would need to be added to the model.