Adrian, don't worry about the overhang rule...it's a good one and I need limits or I just go crazy.
The swap meet was a bust. The one cute little switcher I spotted on my scouting circle was gone by the time I got back to buy it.
So I went over to one of the local hobby shops I had yet to visit and found a few bits to keep me busy. They had better prices on used stuff than the swap meet!
I picked up one of these switchers (don't know who makes it) which runs fairly smoothly;
Then I got an old Athearn diesel chassis and converted the drive unit to be self powered. It's big and ugly, but for someone like me who builds things that are well, big and ugly, it should find a use. I just couldn't pass it up for $.99 (no tax in this state, either!) Runs very smoothly at slow speed.
The oddest bit was a track cleaning thing made by Bachmann. The drive was obviously designed to have two powered axles, but for this unit they pulled one driver and added these two tiny pick-up axles;
It runs well and should be good for something odd along the way?
I also picked up a Bachmann Gandy dancer for half what I would normally pay, so although the swap meet was a bomb, the day turned out just fine. I'm not sure any of these are the power unit for this layout, but I'll definitely have fun with them at some point.
After fiddling with the new units, I had a go at the mountain and got it covered with Paper mache'. I used a product called Celluclay because I had some laying around. I hate the stuff, it's like working in oatmeal, but it's covered! It should take a few days to a week to dry. Plenty of time to start thinking about everything else for the layout.
