Tom, thank you.
I bought a finished Branchline Railbox kit, exceptionally well put together. It prompted me to buy another in kit form. The kits are excellent quality. The big nut weights can be secured with Walthers Goo which is very strong but you can still remove the nuts if you have to. Comparing my work to the previously assembled kit has lead me to look for “used” but assembled Branchline kits. The finished product is very good. I have trouble justifying the work to add the details though. Wire stirrup steps and grab rails might be good looking but painting and installing them is a bit of a pita, frankly.
The Branch line Berwicks are great boxcars have several when they came out.
The only Branchline kits I have experience with are the undecorated 40 foot and 50 foot boxcars.
The 50 foot undecorated car included a Viking roof option, which was amazing. The last two I bought on eBay already had these roofs removed from the kits, that stunk.
The kits are good, but not as good as Life-Like Proto-2000 kits for 50 footers or Intermountain or Red Caboose for 40 footers. The Branchline kits had more options for ends and roofs.
The roofwalks were terrible, and were always replaced. I also used wire grab irons, as I do on all my plastic kits. I also as standard course-of-action replace any steel weights with lead.
-Kevin
Ive built many (okay only like 6) of these branchline blueprint 40’ boxcars, along with Intermountain, Red Caboose, and Atlas (basically the same as Branchline since they were bought by Atlas) kits…all of them were very enjoyable to build. There’s lots of parts so it takes time, but overall an easy build.
All you need is plastic cement an xacto knife, screwdrivers, and pliers/tweezers to build.
Great for when you dont got money but still want detailed cars, and lots of time to spare.
Good luck!
Charles
I have also built a couple of the Atlas undecorated 40 foot boxcars.
They are nothing like the Branchline Blueprint kits I built. The Atlas cars had cast metal underframes, and all the parts like doors and tack boards were located by lugs. The quality of the Atlas kits just seemed a notch higher.
Did they do some retooling?
-Kevin
Depends on which Atlas 40’ boxcars you were building. If they were the 1932 AAR boxcars or the USRA rebuilds then those were original Atlas kits put together as you noted but the Old Branchline cars have all the same parts as before.
I love the old Branchline kits and have sliced and diced them to build a lot of proper prototype cars.
Rick Jesionowski
That must be the case. I guess I never assembled an Atlas version of the old Branchline models.
Thanks for that information.
-Kevin
Two very poor photos of Branchline undec 50’ boxcar kits that I did as PC. Cut down the ladders on A end to reflect updated car. I think the only after market parts are the stirrup steps.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51799413436_7bc47fb920_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51798469487_a0c32d6b77_b.jpg
I put together a few. They are exceptional quality and a good value. (or were when they were owned by branchline)
Don, great to hear from you. Where have you been for the last 3 years?
Rich
Oh the usual. I have two boys that are 9 and 12. There’s cub scouts and hiking fishing camping. Then every extra bit of my money goes towards college and retirement. So the last kit I bought for myself was 7 years ago.
But the good news is I managed to con my younger son into liking trains with me. :D. So I built him a small layout and we play together. He went to the dark side: He’s a PRR fan.
A PRR fan??? Noooooooooooooooooo!
Anyhow, hope you stick around.
Rich
Oh! The shame, Don! [:$] I guess someone has to love ugly locomotives. [swg]
Tstage - Standard Railroad of the world and don’t you forget it!
PRR N1s 2-10-2!
Rick Jesionowski
I thought that the posting of obscene photos was prohibited on the forum?
[swg]
Rich
Rick,
I did make my previous statement tongue 'n cheek. [:D] I do like the PRR K4s. Those are quite handsome.
Tom
LOL, same here. In fact, I own one. [8D]
Rich
I can’t go that far, Rich. [(-D]
I have a few. My biggest concern as a hard core operations type is that the details look awfully delicate to handle being banged around by 500 foot tall giants.