Branchline Pullman kits

[ssw]

Bought a couple of Branchline heavyweight Pullman kits ( a 12-1 and an 10-1-2)at the Plano train show yesterday.
Got them home and took them out to look at and give the instructions a look-over since I've never assembled one before.

The floor/ends piece for the 10-1-2 has a horrendous warp to it, where the ends are much higher than the middle.

Any tips/pointers/ideas on how to unwarp that piece or am I looking for another kit to replace that part?

[Mr. Trainiac]

You do not need to correct the warp. The sides have pins that engage with the holes. Once you install the sides, the floor will straighten out.

[ssw]

Thanks - I saw the pins and holes but figured I'd have to dewarp the floor - I'll start working on them. I'm a bit excited - they look like well engineered kits - and I'm wanting to do something more than a shake the box boxcar

[Mr. Trainiac]

Jan 21, 2024 15:30:10 GMT -8 ssw said:

Thanks - I saw the pins and holes but figured I'd have to dewarp the floor - I'll start working on them. I'm a bit excited - they look like well engineered kits - and I'm wanting to do something more than a shake the box boxcar

Just follow the instructions and you will be fine. The only major issue with these cars is the center sill. I don't have Pullman drawings to refer to, so I'm not sure where the geometry issue is, but the trucks interfere with the center sill.

The easiest solution is to omit the inboard brake beam hanger when building the trucks. The other option is to cut a notch or remove part of the center sill to clear the brake beam.

[wagnersteve]

1/21/2024, starting 7:08 p.m.

From what I've read, the Branchline heavyweight sleeper kits were considerably easier to assemble than the same firm's coach kits were.

[markfj]

The Branchline heavyweight sleep kits are rather easy to build. I’ll just add that special attention should be given to the bolster areas on the floor. As mentioned, the floors are usually bowed and if you look carefully at the bolster area the plastic there is sometimes a bit deformed too. When I build these kits, I take the time to make the bolsters are as flat as possible by filing down the high spots and then adding either .005” or .010” styrene plates to build the area back up for proper coupler height. You could also just use washer as need though.

Another thing to watch is that, because the bolster areas are kind of deformed, they interfere with the installation of the longitudinal frame pieces. You’ll see what I mean when you go to put those pieces in and they don’t sit down all the way in the slots. I used a variety of tools to remove the excess plastic in the corners of the slots near the bolsters. You could also just trim the frame pieces at the ends slightly. I think the floors on some of these kits suffered from some molding issue at the factory back in the day. Maybe removed from the molds too soon?

I had some really good photos that show what I’m talking about, but can’t find them.

Thanks, Mark