Why a LaBelle model?

So this is the latest project I've managed to finish - a wooden LaBelle model of a circa-1902 Pullman observation car, painted and lettered as the Denver Northwestern and Pacific's "Marcia." Not a perfect model, alas: time constraints kept me from chopping it down from the actual length of 78 scale feet to the more prototypical 68 feet, and I couldn't add some of the "extras" that would have improved it. It's a presentation model for a friend who's retiring, and the overriding need was to get it finished on time. It took about a month of evenings, but it was time well spent.

Why bother with a wooden kit in this age of breathtaking resin-molded cars? It's a reasonable question. LaBelle kits have been around for a long time, and they look like it. They can be improved, sure, but it's hard to get the breathtaking perfection that's now available in a Westerfield kit, or even the better laser-cut wooden kits. They don't come with trucks or couplers, and when you open them, you're basically confronted with a sheet or two of plans, a handful of castings, and a big pile of sticks.

This is a real criticism in an age when you can easily get your hands on an easy-to-build and practically foolproof car kit, but it's also the secret to their appeal. A LaBelle kit is the perfect jumping-off point if you want to learn how to scratchbuild. There's no laser-cut built up core: you have to do it yourself, from the instructions they give you. That's a task, but it's not impossible, and once you're done, you have a very good idea of how you would go about building another car of the same type - or, if you felt like it, five of them, because a quick trip to the Northeastern website will get you much of what you need, and at an economical price. It's true that there are no tabs or prefabricated connections - but again, these are strengths, not weaknesses. These kits are forgiving of errors and do-overs in a way that a lot of plastic and resin kits are not, and the supply of stripwood is plainly calibrated for the needs of the ham-handed modeler.

They're great kits - and if, like me, you're interested in the wood coach era, you will quickly find that LaBelle basically owns the market. It's a niche, and very few kit manufacturers support or provide much passenger equipment for the 1890-1913 era - there are plenty of excellent open platform cars, and a few special-interest models of unique prototypes. But for the workaday wooden Pullman sleeping and parlor cars, coaches, baggage and RPO equipment, LaBelle is it - and I for one hope that they remain on the market for a long time to come.