If anyone's seen Branchline's Blueprint Series 80-foot coach kit for Seaboard (numbered 843), I'd be interested in your opinion(s) with regards to its realtive accuracy and quality. I believe these may have been the coaches SAL bought from the C&O. IMHO, the kit looks nice. The Blueprint Series also includes many HW Pullmans lettered for SAL and ACL. Thanks.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), April 08, 2004

Answers

I am currently building one of these kits - it's a "close-but no cigar" model. There is one more window on each side than the actual SAL coaches. The kits build well, but there are some glitches - go to the Passenger Car List on Yahoo e-Groups and search for some of the reviews - things like the car is a little tall, and the roof doesn't fit well unless the seat strip is filed down in width a little bit. Also, you'll need to add air conditioning compressor and roof ducts (NERS parts work). Finally, it appears the trucks will need to be changed out...

Paul

-- Paul Bizier (pa.bizier@verizon.net), April 09, 2004.