First effort at a Branchline Passenger car kit

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Grabbed 2 of the HO scale Branchline heavyweight car kits on a massive sale the other week. Basically completed! Except for the addition of some small detail parts, namely on the trucks and coupler ends and grab irons. Not sure actually if I’ll add all those, they seem to break off pretty easily. Also going to add a Rapido lighting system. It was easier than I thought! Thought y’all might like to see…

2

Looks great. Do you think you may add lighting? I have seen a lot of lit cars. Tthe inside details really bring the cabin to life. [I]

[:#]

3

Oh hi to another Australian! Yup, the Rapido battery powered lighting kit most likely.

4

Nice work Alex. Car came out great. You may wish to consider using metal grab irons instead of fighting with the plastic ones that were supplied with the kit. This has worked well for me on the Branchline and Proto 2000 freight car kits so I thought I’d pass it on. Whatever you decide the cars looks real good. Thanks for sharing.

John R

5

Thanks! Actually mate these kits came with metal grab irons. Maybe Atlas relaunched them??

6

Is the kit a Branchline by Atlas or some leftover original Branchline production?

7

Nice work! I’ve built 3 Branchline heavyweights (pre-Atlas), which all turned out great. The underframe detail is a bit fragile, but it looks great when completed. The only real complication I had was filing grooves in the frame to clear the trucks for my 22" radius. On my kits, all of the grab irons were formed steel wire. Did some of the heavyweights use plastic grab irons instead?

8

Sorry guys, my error. The Branchline freight car kits I have came with plastic grab irons. Sorry for any confusion. John R