From the Shameless Plug Dep't, for those of you who haven't seen it (a "must-have") I highly recommend the 2011 Friends of the Valley Railroad commemorative 40th anniversary calendar. It is a delightful step back in time of old b&w and color steam and diesel images on the tourist-hauling Valley from its earliest years in 1971 onward to the present, featuring Nos. 103, 40, 97, 0400, 0900, et al. The carefully crafted photo captions also make it a pleasure to read.

This perfect stocking stuffer may be purchased for $14 + $2 s/h from the Friends of the Valley RR, P.O. Box 383, Centerbrook, CT 06409. Funds benefit the Friends of the Valley RR's various restoration projects so it is for a good cause.

My only other wish from Santa is an updated Valley RR Story by Tom Nelligan, that brings the VRR story from 1983 (when it was last updated) to the present!

~K.R. Bell