Branchline Passenger Cars

Saw some late in the day at the Timonium train show. Didn't have them in my hands, but saw them sitting on a display case. What I saw was absolutely gorgeous. Best HO passenger cars I have ever seen.

Dale Latham

I'm still waiting for the Pere Marquette-painted kits to arrive at my dealer, but I picked up an undecorated kit over the weekend. I hope to assemble it this week.

Some first-impression comments:

• The first thing you notice is that the box is considerably larger in all dimensions than the typical HO kit box. On opening it, I have to say that I have never seen a kit with so much tissue paper inside. It does a great job of keeping the sides and the window glazing from getting scraped up.

• The kit appears to be well thought out- there's a lot of detail, but there doesn't seem to be an excessive amount of work required to assemble it. It's not Athearn-style "shake-the-box", but is in the same class as a Red Caboose or Intermountain kit.

• On first read, the 4 double-sided sheets of instructions are very clear. Branchline even calls out steps that you can skip if you're not interested in having as much detail in the finished model.

• This kit is COMPLETE- interior, knuckle couplers, diaphragms, steam lines and optional truck chains are all included, as are plastic couplers with coil knuckle springs.

• The window glazing is provided as four dozen pieces which mount into recesses insides the sides and ends. I'll mount these using clear silicone RTV so I can cleanly remove any excess. My luck using liquid cement in such installations hasn't been very good in the past.

• The trucks require assembly, but the kit's designers obviously were familiar with the complaints about the kit-built trucks in the Eastern Car Works kits. The Branchline kit's trucks are designed in such a way that it will be easy to assemble them squarely. They are made of styrene bolsters and side frames with acetyl inserts for the axle ends. The wheelsets are Branchline's usual metal wheels with plastic axles. Like the rest of the car, you can choose how much detail you want to apply to the trucks.

• No push-pins here- the trucks mount using 2-56 screws.

• Couplers are mounted to arm assemblies to accommodate sharper curves.

By carefully choosing which details to apply, you should be able to get these cars to run around 22" radius curves. If you build a fully-detailed car with truck chains, you'll need a 28" radius.

I'm looking forward to having a free evening later this week to assemble this car. This kit looks like it will be very enjoyable.

-fm Webmaster of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, at

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Wow, great responses..Thanks so very much for the details..now I'm all excited and ready to begin pestering my pusher.

Dave