Building the HO Branchline C&O 800-Series Coach

While the Branchline kit is not an exact copy of C&O 800-814 series heavyweight coaches (the major difference is the kit's 22 windows vs. the prototypes 21), it captures the look of the C&O cars very well.

If the last heavyweight passenger car model you built was an old Walthers kit with the metal sides, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Think of a Branchline, Tichy, or InterMountain freight car kit. Like these, the new Branchline heavyweight coach kit comes complete with trucks and couplers.

Aside from some difficulty getting the roof to fit, I encountered few problems in assembling the kit. If you don't already have a sprue cutter, you'll definitely want to purchase one before building this kit. Otherwise, the normal assortment of tools will suffice. Also I found it handy to copy the part's sprue diagram rather than keep flipping through the instructions for reference.

I began by placing the factory-painted car side on a soft towel to prevent scratches. Because the clearances on the windows are tight, check the draft angle on the casting before inserting the windows-they'll pop in much easier that way. Note that the "spare" windows aren't really spare; they're for the vestibule doors. One thing I thought was missing from the kit were safety tail gates. If you want them on your model, paint and add them now rather the waiting until after you install the vestibule walls like I did.

Here's where I would change the sequence of assembling the kit. After you've snapped the car sides in place and installed the completed interior in the body core, test fit the roof. I had problems getting the roof to snap into the lips on the car side, and with the completed underframe it was almost impossible to clamp the roof down for gluing without damaging the detail.

If you decide to glue the roof in place now, install the correct clerestory vent sides, depending on whether your car had air conditioning or not in the period you're modeling. Pullman mechanical center duct air conditioning was installed on C&O cars 800-805 in 1935 and on cars 806-809 in 1940. Looking at photos, I couldn't see any vent over the lavatory so I didn't install the mushroom vents.

The detailed underframe on this kit is superb. The only problems I had in assembling the brake rigging and other parts was the tight fit of the tabs into their slots due to being painted. A couple of quick swipes with a needle file or emery board takes car of this. The couplers have a couple of nice features. First, the coupler box is mounted on an arm with a centering spring, letting the car negotiate tighter radius curves. second, the air signal and steam lines mount on the coupler box so they don't interfere with the coupler swing.

The trucks are well done and easy to assemble, with free-rolling nylon bearings. I gave up trying to install the inside brake shoes using their mounting pins. I was just not able to line the pins up with the holes in the side-frames, so I filed the pins off and glued the shoes in place without any problems.

After installing the trucks I added the Pullman mechanical air-conditioning compressor box in the open space between the truck (without the generator) and the cross bearer. My placing of the compressor is pure conjecture, but it's the only open space available on the underbody. Because of deadlines I wasn't able to obtain the brine tank (hold-over coil box) and the PSC speed control and transfer drive. When the parts come I'll install the brine tank opposite the compressor.

The other part that I might replace are the diaphragms. The Branchline parts look good but just don't extend far enough. When two cars are coupled together there is a two or three scale foot gap between the diaphragms. I'm going to try installing some American Limited heavyweight diaphragms and see if they'll reduce the gap a bit.

Additional Detail Parts Needed:

Cal-Scale

Passenger standard tail gates #190-309

New England Rail Service

(P.O. Box 40, Newbury, VT 05051)

Pullman A/C compressor box #255

Hold-over coil box for Pullman mechanical A/C #256

Precision Scale Co.

Mechanical speed control #33247

Mechanical transfer drive #33248

Copyright Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, Inc. May 2004
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