I purchased a few blue print series box cars (ERIE) of coarse. This was seven or eight years ago and now that I'm retired I'm able to start building them. The weights for thse cars are a couple of nuts (like go onto a bolt). I don't have a scale, but these seem awful heavy to me. Has anyone built these kits and found them too heavy? Ken
No, they aren't too heavy. The rule is 1oz. plus 1/2 oz. for every inch of car length. The nuts weigh.1oz. each. If you are pulling them with a steam engine, you might even want to make them a little lighter by substituting with a different weight. Actually a fully assembled 50' Branchline car will be slightly light (maybe by a 1/4 oz, but well within the ability to track well. With the weight being concentrated over the trucks, they all handle well as assembled. Just don't forget to check wheel guage and coupler height and you have a very nicely detailed car that is actually pretty darn close to being prototypicaly correct.
Thanks Jerry. I am going to glue the nuts in place but it will be a job to take them out once the car is assembled, hence the question. Ken
I concur with the response. I have a lot of these cars and am quite fond of them.
The weights are fine and add a little as discussed.
One thing I do is a check fit of roofs, roof walks, ends, etc BEFORE gluing. Drill out painted holes before trying to glue on grabs etc. Otherwise enjoy!!!
I wonder if they will bring out new runs?
Chris
I too have built a few of the Branchline kits, both passenger and freight, and love them. I will say this much, (and I speak from experience), you might want to either not glue the roof, depending on fit, or use a white "Elmer's" type glue. I didn't and for whatever reason my weights came loose. Now they slide around inside the car, which makes for an interesting demonstration of the laws of Physics when I enter curves!! In a way it's almost like the prototype. You never know which way the car will go, if it even stays on the track!!
Of course now I have to figure out how to remove the roof, without damaging it, re-adhere the weights, and heed my own advice. Trail and Error, (with the emphasis on error), is what I love about this hobby.
Joe
Hi Ken,
Good question as I am currently slaughtering one of these kits myself. LOL I really really like the kit but assembly is a bit of a task, I think that is mostly because of not having the correct tools to handle the small detail pieces, ie. flat head tweezers and pin vise w/bit. Mine came with big 5/8 or 3/4 inch nuts for weights too, but instead of using them I was going to add my own lead weights with the sticky tape on the bottom of them. There's just something I don't like about those nuts as weights, glued or not.
Maybe it's just me.
Eriediamond Thanks Jerry. I am going to glue the nuts in place but it will be a job to take them out once the car is assembled, hence the question. Ken
I use white glue to put the weights in my cars. I use fishing weights that I flatten with a hammer. With white glue, if you wet the glue with water, they'll come right out.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Thanks guys. I just retired a couple of weeks ago and now have the time to get back modeling again and these kits are about seven years old or so. Ken