Branchline kits are very well engineered in terms of building. They
can appear daunting at first, due to the number of parts, but if you
follow the instructions, they come out looking very nice. There are
a number of tip sheets available in various places, among them at the
Pullman Project web site and at the PCL (Passenger Car List Yahoo)
Group file section.
Branchline will be making its line available in RTR versions, given
the demise of the modeler. You'll have to pay for the privilege, the
MRSP is about $54. Given that you can get Branchline kits from $10
and up it's up to you to decide if its worth it.
The number one thing to remember, is that in contrast to the NKP Kits
- there is no dissimilar material construction - it's all styrene to
styrene joints. Some are involved, butt f you take your time a
moderately skilled modeler will find them easy. If you have
finished the NKP Kits, the Branchline kits will be welcome relief.
And, I should mention, that is NOT meant as a slam on the NKP kits -
they are extremely useful for what they are - limited run versions of
models we won't get anywhere else, except, perhaps in brass. If
10,000 models of a given prototype could be sold, they could be done
all in styrene, but I don't think that 10,000 CB&Q diners could be
sold - or 10K Q baggage cars, or parlors, etc. If they could, you
could bet Walthers or Branchline would do them. NKP puts out a fine
kit - and the only accurate version of a Q baggage car available
without going into brass (HW that is). The ends of the Trainline
cars are all wrong, as are the sides. They can be nice stand ins as
we've seen - but the NKP sides are correct as are the cast ends.
Rob: How much work are the Branchline kits? I built several NKP cars from
kits, and Frankly i'm not looking for anymore challenges like that. Can you
tell me about Branchline's ready-to-runs? Dale Reeves
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