Of all the manufactures that make passenger cars, who do you guys believe make the best PRR heavy-weight standard passenger cars?
I like Walthers heavyweights. They are far better than IHC, Rivarossi or any others I have seen. But don’t expect them to run on tight curves. They are full length with six wheel trucks and body mounted couplers, so they need some radius to run well. My minimum radius is 26" and even that seems a little tight. If you have the space I recommend them for excellent detail and paint. And now they are available with grabs already installed. No more drilling.
Hi… Branchline makes some great heavyweights and are very well detailed - these are a little more costly but the details are worth the extra cost.
Bethleham Car Shops(Intermountain) also makes so me very nice cars - if you can find them.
Intermountain has patnered with BCS and I think now owns them - they are slowly releasing some of the cars I’d jsut visit the website: www.imrcmodels.com
HeritageFleet1
I have a couple of Branchline’s Blueprint series Heavyweight kits. They were pretty complex builds, but it was all worth it in the end. The detail is amazing, they roll very smoothly, and with a little work, they go around my 22" radius without any problem. Since they have metal wheels and axles, a lighting kit can be added pretty easily during assembly. And, since they’re kits, they’re fun to build and make something you can be proud of.
Walthers cars are also excellent. I don’t know if their Heavyweights are as detailed as Branchline’s, but I’m sure they still look great and roll well.
Hello "parts,’
The only HO scale Pennsylvania RR-prototype heavyweight passenger train cars Walthers has are the B60B baggage car and the R50B express reefer (both very good models). Walthers does make heavyweight Pullman sleepers and parlor cars that were assigned to PRR trains and purchased by the railroad at the end of 1948, as does Branchline.
For other types of heavyweight cars, though, Branchline and Walthers have no models that match PRR prototypes. Bachmann does make a heavyweight coach (the P70), combine, and diner that are decent representations of some of the most common PRR prototypes. Beware of the Bachmann PRR “observation car,” however. It’s really a model of a Pennsy business or office car, which might be nice to have but isn’t a car you’d want in an everyday train consist.
So long,
Andy
Define “Best”… Best as in best looking/detail etc. and/or best as in closest to PRR Prototype.
A great resource is the Keystone Crossing’s Modeler’s Corner
http://kc.pennsyrr.com/model/index.php
There is a discussion on modeling Pennsy Passenger Equipment that provides links to pages that lists the models by their manufacturer and critiques each model for correctness. It looks to be up to date, the Walther’s page was last updated August 20th 2010.
Walter
Thanks for all the advice guys, and to answer WinRI question, I guess what I ment by “best” is detail and quality of the passenger car.