Straight up, since getting into S scale my attraction to brass has been viewed as my way to get the nicest models quickly. Starting with the American Models freight cars and since SHS did not exist, I thought I would not live long enough to bring a fleet of cars up the detail level of an average out of the box brass car. Since Dick and other have mentioned the X29 this is a good example. I tried for years to get John Verser to consider making it. It was my first major "I want" in S. At that time I was also becoming more aware of the evolution of the X29 with the MANY detail differences as it was shopped. In the end John was not interested and I was sort of relieved because I knew I would get one version at best. That is when I decided to make them myself which we did 6 variations. Again 1 plastic version back then would have been a project per car to make it into the many versions even if you just were making the X29 - not any subclasses. I wound up with a sizable number of them in the end.
Dick was mentioning his thoughts about the justification of buying brass cars and other materials. You can't really compare brass and their costs to kits and their cost 20 years ago or even now. The most obvious reason is brass cars are assembled! Any kit is not really useful for anything until you assemble it. Do you put value on your time when you are working on your trains? If not you sort of should. You can "lie" to yourself by saying it is a part of the "fun of things" which there is truth to it but your time has value even for yourself. Do you put value in someone else's labor? I may have a different outlook on such things. I don't necessarily think an $80.00 kit as "cheaper" than a brass car. If someone were to offer a brass freight car kit it would likely be as much or more. Yes the upfront cash outlay for the kit is less but again it has to be assembled. If I would to buy such a kit assembled & RTR I would value it at $250.00+. How many hours would it take for assembly and paint? What is a fair hourly wage for such skills? There are guys out there that will assemble your kits as a service. But ask them - they have a year back log because the mind is willing but the body is not! Finally I am not suggesting that brass rolling stock is better than other materials. It just happens to be my favorite material to work with. In the end the idea is to have all the cars on the layout with a matching high detail of level that fools the visitor. I get "is that brass" all the time. For now it is probably yes but I have to get my other cars out too! Thank You, Bill Lane Modeling the Mighty Pennsy & PRSL in 1957 in S Scale since 1988 See my finished models at: <http://www.lanestrains.com/> http://www.lanestrains.com Look at what has been made in PRR in S Scale! See my layout progess at: <http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Layout.htm> http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Layout.htm Custom Train Parts Design <http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm> http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm PRR Builders Photos Bought, Sold & Traded (Trading is MUCH preferred) <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls> http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls ***Join the PRR T&HS*** The other members are not ALL like me! <http://www.prrths.com/> http://www.prrths.com <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf> http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf Join the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society It's FREE to join! <http://www.prslhs.com/> http://www.prslhs.com Preserving The Memory Of The PRSL
