Wednesday, September 25, 2013

BL-2: My strange fascination

Image: Contemplative Imaging
I have a strange fascination... when I was a kid I had a friend that lived about 2 miles away. On weekends either my mom would take me to his house or his mom would bring him to our house to play. We both had HO scale trains. Mine were for "real" railroads - Santa Fe and Southern Pacific. His were Pennsylvania Railroad (whatever the heck that is) and other eastern lines. He also had weird tastes in locomotives - his prized possession was a BL-2. Really. The ugliest American diesel locomotive ever made. He moved away in 3rd or 4th grade and I never saw him or a BL-2 again. Until this year. I didn't see my long lost friend, but I saw a BL-2 at a blowout price from Trainworld.It was painted in factory demo colors and it didn't look half bad. Besides, who can resist a brand new O Gauge locomotive for only $100, even if it IS a BL-2? Certainly not me... so I went ahead and ordered one. When it arrived it looked just as good as it did in that flyer. Maybe not the best looking diesel in the world, but also not as ugly as I remembered. So I put it on my oval of Fastrack... and a funny thing happened. I actually started to LIKE the thing. Sure it runs too fast, but that's how Williams engines roll:) Then last week Trainworld sent out another flyer. This time they had Rock Island BL-s on sale at blowout prices. So I ordered one. Along with an EF-4 painted for the Virginian. BL-2s??? Electrics??? Eastern roads??? SOmething is happening to me and I don't know what...