Brilliant stuff Pete, I've only just come across this. You've captured the essence of the 2BIL very well indeed. Most of the Kirk offerings that I've seen all seem to be a little wrong/heavy around the roof area. Could never really decide what was wrong!

 

What parts have you used from NNK? I was lucky to get the very last kit from Branchlines, so I'll be following this with great interest.

I've used their bogies (except for the motor bogie castings which are Branchlines), step boards and underframe trusses. I suspect that an easier route would be to use the complete underframe kits they now sell, but I'd already got a lot of the components from other sources.

All of the Kirk Southern coaches seem to suffer from dodgy roofs - the cantrail is always way too heavy and thick and this definitely spoils the overall look.

Dear Pete,

I've just seen your pictures of the 2 BIL's progress. It's very interesting to compare your kit with mine and how you are going about the detailing. I have detailed mine following the Andy Mullins drawings from Branchlines and some guess-work about the centre buffers etc.. You have just the one buffer. I have put one short buffer on each coach as per a PDH drawing. I now think they're incorrect but it's too late now for me!

Your work on the running boards along the solebar is a great improvement on the Kirk mouldings too

Colin Parks