Passenger cars - Light & Heavy

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for some heavyweight passenger cars to go with my BLI NYC Hudson. Does anyone know who makes the best cars? I've looked at Rivarossi, IHC, Bachmann & Branchline Trains. The Branchline Trains cars really caught my eye, however I'm a little hesitant because of the difficultly of the kits (maybe someone can ease my mind?). Pros & cons on these cars would be appreciated.

Also looking for some streamline cars for my BLI Rock Island E7 (as soon as it gets here!). Same question as above...who makes good cars or are they all the same?

Thanks

[cacole]

The Bachmann Spectrum heavyweight passenger cars come with interiors and lighting. Their lighting uses a plastic light guide to spread the light from the bulb in the center of the car, which is not really an effective method because it tends to cause a bright area in the center and dark ends. Their interiors are a solid cream colored plastic casting that will need painting to appear more realistic. Their cars have metal wheelsets for electrical pickup.

IHC, Rivarossi, Athearn, ConCor, and other brands usually have plastic wheelsets, no interiors or lighting except as optional items, and are extremely lightweight.

I have no experience with Branchline Trains except their freight cars.

[ndbprr]

Your question needs one other qualifier in my opinion and that is who makes higher quality cars of NYC and RI prototypes. The Bachman cars are PRR cars for the most part and the RIvarossi cars vary all over the map as far as prototypes. As long as you are setting out to buy cars you might as well get the correct ones and I can't help you at all in regard to the NYC.

[nfmisso]

Wes;

Take a look at:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Passenger&scale=H&manu=&item=&keywords=NYC&instock=Q&split=300&Submit=Search

and

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Passenger&scale=H&manu=&item=&keywords=Rock+Island&instock=Q&split=300&Submit=Search

Branchline has a reputation of good instructions with thier freight car kits, which should carry over to thier passenger cars. Get one and try it - you'll like it - go slow and read the instructions thoroughly, and it is very important to have the correct tools.

For the RI cars, Walther's Budd cars and P-S sleepers. You may need to ream on the trucks a bit to get the wheels to rotate freely, with one of these:
http://www.reboxx.com/Tools.htm

[Anonymous]

Well, I got my first Branchline Trains heavyweight coach yesterday and boy am I impressed! The instructions seem to be very detailed and the kit itself is awesome! I have not started construction yet but have been familiarizing myself with the parts and I have to say that the kit doesn't seem to be as difficult as I had feared it to be.

So, thanks for the advice! I'm glad I took it!

[jag193]

Well ... after about a week of aggravation and frustration, I have completed two Branchline heavyweights. I might say, up front, that I am an enthusiastic Branchline Blueprint fanatic, but these heavyweight kits are miserable, at best. Somebody fell of the stage when they were making these kits. The castings are fantastic but often don't fit and the instructions are vague in places and don't indicate placement.

Some examples: there are instructions to put the air tanks together but not to locate them, none of the brake rigging fits into the locating holes, you must drill new holes or expand or modify those currently existing, in both of my kits, the roof was U-shapped, making it impossible to "snap" into place, the locating holes for the wire grabs are next-to invisible and must be drilled ... although the ads in the magazines say that the unique design of the coupler will alllow operation on a 22" radius, that is far far from the truth. Indeed, I recommend something greater than a 26" radius since the trucks even bind on a 24" radius.

If you are successful in getting the kit together, the looks are fantastic .... but prepared to be incredibly frustrated.

[Anonymous]

after quite a lengthy delay in finishing my kit, I have to agree with epeorus on this. I wouldn't say that I'm completely dissatisfied with the coach kit, but I am sort of aggrivated. I could not (and can not) get the roof of my car to "snap" into place. It is bowed along the length of the car, making for a rather large gap in the middle of the car and a nice tight fit at the car ends.

I also agree that i had to modify almost every mounting hole on the car. I think that for me the most frustrating part of the kit would be the the assembly of the trucks. For whatever reason both trucks kicked my butt.

I haven't ran the car yet, so I can't say that it even will run yet, but if it doesn't it'll look good sitting in the yard...

[pmsteamman]

Too bad they dont make R-T-R.

[Anonymous]

For the price they get for what appears to be a poorly engineered kit, and not just a challenging, fun to build kit, it should be RTR! After reading previous posts in this string, I'll pass on these over-priced turkeys.

[Anonymous]

wes454,

Take a look at this... http://discussion.atlasrr.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38340

[Anonymous]

Thanks Snake! I would agree with almost every word in that review! I'm glad I built the car, and I'm ever happier that I wasn't the only one to have trouble with it. I guess it gave me a little more confidence in kit building. I think I'd still like to try a Branchline Blueprint series car, just for fun. Maybe thier 40' boxcar isn't as bad...

Thanks again guys!

[orsonroy]

Basically everyone's having problems with the new Branchline coaches, but that doesn't mean they're a POS. If you've got any sort of modeling skills, you should be able to figure out how to fix the SMALL problems associated with the kits. Now that Branchline knows what their assembly issues are, we can assume that they'll be fixed for future releases, including their line of Pullmans.

Even with the problems with the BL kits, they're the best non-brass heavyweights on the market right now. Out of the box, Athearns are just plain wrong for anything, ICH/AHM/Rivarossi cars are too light, only basically detailed, and track poorly, and Bachmann cars don't track well and have coupler droop issues. Each manufacturer's cars can be upgraded, but it takes a lot of time and frustration.

Bill: don't hold your breath on seeing BL cars as RTR. They're one of the few manufacturers left that are bucking THAT trend. And I'm glad they are.

WES454: The BL 40' boxcars are the best on the market for their prototype. They go together as easily as any Intermountain or Red Caboose kit (intermediate level) but the detailing is finer. They're well worth buying, especailly if you're modeling 1938-1970.

[Anonymous]

hey orsonroy --

I'll keep an openmind re: the BL heavyweights - it's my understanding from another rr forum that their cars are very close to the L&N equipment I need . As far as kit vs RTR - I prefer kits over RTR and have the modeling skills-I do a fair amount of kitbashing and scratchbuilding esp in G scale where every detail shows and is important. I was just being a smart axxxx when I said they should be RTR for the price. I tend to be frugal, too! Guess I'll have to look on the internet and wait a bit for the bugs to be worked out and for the availability to match demand-you know, if we wait a bit to purchase our stuff the prices often get more reasonable, rather than having to have it the day it hits the market, or worse-reserving a place in line months before it's even released. . .

I've had some Athearn heavyweight, Rivarossi smoothside and heavyweights, and Spectrum heavyweights kicking around and gathering dust for a long time. Your comments re: these are right on. I also have some ConCor s.s. streamline cars and for a long time I couldn't figure out what wasn't 'right' about them-the fluting looks like it is upside down relative to the cars' sides, and a bit overdone. Also, the detailing-rivets, etc. on the Spectrum cars is a litle heavy handed-guess they wanted to make it easier for the rivet counters to count the rivets.

Now if I hadn't spent all that money on all the dust bunnies I just mentioned, the price of the BL cars wouldn't seem too awful. I am glad that they haven't jumped on the RTR band wagon that other manufacturers have (in order to use really cheap labor to inflate the price a bunch).

What is your opinion(s) on the IHC/Rivarossi fluted s.s. lightweights vs Walthers? Thanks in advance.

[orsonroy]

Hi Bill,

Actually, I'm a heavyweight passenger car fan, so can't really comment on the quality on the Riv lightweight cars. I only have two, and they're both the full baggage cars. I added a little weight to bring them up to NMRA specs, changed the trucks (AHM all-metal four wheel trucks), body mounted the couplers, and added Walthers diaphrams (not the best in the world, but the only ones I could find at the time). With these mods, they track fine. From what I've heard regarding streamlined passenger cars, the new Budd and P-S cars from Walthers are the way to go. I'll eventually need 2-3 streamlined coaches, and I'll head straight for the Walthers P-S cars.

[Anonymous]

hey Ray-

Thanks for your comments and I think you're right-the Walthers' streamlined cars are the way to go.

By the way, I am using my Spectrum heavyweight (PRR prototypes) for a kit -bashed gas electric and trailers. The heavy-handed rivets don't look too bad in this application. I've shortened the cars to approx 70 feet. I used the combine car for the gas electric, and coaches for the trailers.

For the front of the gas electric I used a really old Walthers white metal casting from the bottom of the parts box- a part they used in an ancient gas electric kit they sold, a Northeastern wood roof molding -also ancient, roof vents, tanks etc, body- mounted Kadees, brass marker lites, snow plow pilot, Pyle headlite and horns, Pikestuff seating in several compartments, a louvered side panel from an Athearn GP7 shell, and a cab door and cab side windows form the parts box. I also added wire grabs, and an exhaust w/ a spark arrestor.

For the power unit I have utilized one of the power trucks from a Spectrum GE 44 Tonner (older production ones used two small truck mounted motors/drives-so do early production Spectrum GE 70 Tonners). I've attached MDC 4 wheel pullman truck sideframes to the powered truck and used the same trucks for the rear unpowered one. They have the same wheelbase, too. It has power pickup from all 8 wheels since it has metal wheels and wipers for pickup. All it needs now is paint, window 'glazing', and lighting. The trailers are much easier to make and are detailed similarily-same roofs, vents, similar underbody details, trucks, etc. I'm going to use an observation just for the heck of it(since I already have it) to bring up the rear. (I.m only aware of one obs. ever pulled by a gas electric and it was a train that served the Mayo Clinic - I think.) Guess there's a prototype for everything and anything.

The unit runs smoothly and quietly - adding a little weight enables it to pull several trailers up an approx 2% grade. The prototypes couldn't do any better typically.

My Athearn hw shorties and Rivarossi hw coaches are heading for the mow roster. (Saw a really neat crane tender made out of an old combine on the La Mesa Model RR in San Diego. ) Now I've got to think about an excursion train to use my MDC 'Pullman Palace' cars. . .