Modeling The Prototype

Until recently I wasn't really interested in building resin rolling stock kits. With the disappointing news of Athearn discontinuing their line of the famous blue box kits I had to turn to something else. As a model railroader I like to do just that... model. Now I have turned to building Funaro & Camerlengo, Sunshine, Wright Track, or Speedwitch Media. Not only do I like the kits because of the challenge, but also because of the great detail that you get out of the finished product. I used to think that it was a waste of time to worry about accurately detailing rolling stock, but now I have changed my tone on the issue. Think about it, a lot of us look to make our railorads more realistic by adding locomotives with sound and lighting effects. In my case I try to find Pennsylvania steam engines that have the correct belpaire boiler and top mounted headlight. We talk in operating about following the guidelines that the real railroad follows and try to mimic them. So why not make everything more realisic and detail our rolling stock to look like the prototype? Plus we'll have fun modeling it in the process.