TRUELINE Gold Series

[grayfox1119]

I just bought my first TrueLine ( Gold Series) locomotive, it is a NYC C-Liner. I am very favorably impressed with the quality and the running of this model. The owner of the LHS informed me that TrueLine is the re-incarnation of Life-Like CANADA. When Walthers bought out Life-Like US, they did not opt for Canada operation.

I also purchased TrueLine freight car that looks very nice, and the price is reasonable, $15.99.

Have any of you guys purchased and TrueLine products yet? If so, opinions?

[don7]

This engine was reviewed in the Jan 2007 issue, if you are a subscriber you can read the review on line. The review is good.

[aloco]

I do NOT like the way they paint their products.  They rely on moulding for the color of the grab irons and trucks.

Tough bananas! 

[bogp40]

As long as the basic paint and lettering is decent, the grabs, trucks and any other detail can always be touched up. Most of my equipment is light to moderate weathered. Painting the colored grabs to loose the toylike/ sometimes tranparent look is not that much work. Early P2K GP18, SD7 and E units suffered from this. A simple touch up with the proper paint solved the problem. Even the best RTR needs some TLC to make the piece more believable.

[Pathfinder]

I am not sure what the actual relationship was between Life Like and HobbyCraft Canada (the http://www.hobbycraft.com/home.php web site still has links for a bunch of Life Like stuff, including P 1000, P 2000 and some non-railway related items), I think it was more a partnership than a true ownership by Life Like of the Canadian distributor.  Just take a look at all the other neat stuff HobbyCraft has on their web site.  Some of their plane models are great, and with Canadian markings to boot.

I have always liked the HobbyCraft stuff, such as the 4 axle C Liner and newspaper box cars. Like most rtr items, they need some tweaking to look just right but they are producing items that are unique to Canada, and that is alright by me.

More of their info here: http://www.hobbycraft.com/tlt/ 

[grayfox1119]

BOBK and PATHFINDER: I agree with your assessments, I feel the same way. We all can get very anal at times about the quality of the products. It would be very nice if everything we purchased (MRR) was perfect in every detail, but this is not a perfect world. Many of our products are now made in China, and this reminds me of the 50's and 60's with products made in Japan. Products that I have purchased that are made 100% in the U.S. have been of very high quality, but the price is very steep also, so I pick and choose as my fixed income budget allows.

Doing a little touch up painting here and there is no big deal to me either, so I am very happy with TRUELINE gold series at this point in time.