Walthers Brach's 40' Airslide Covered Hopper

Got a nice little piece of rolling stock to share with you today.  This is a Walthers kit of a 40' Airside Single Bay Covered Hopper in "Brach's Candies" livery.

Representing a type built up until 1969, it's a bit older than my 80's to 90's Chicago layout, and I'm not sure if there is a prototype for this specific livery.  However, there were airside covered hoppers painted for Brach's and I'm very glad to have this one as it represents a mostly forgotten bit of Chicago history.  Once called the "Candy Capitol" Chicago was home to many notable candy factories, including Brach's which was formerly located only a couple miles from my home.

This was received in trade from a friend of mine on the Tyco Depot forums.    It's an interesting kit in that it has many more pieces than a traditional Athearn "Blue Box" kit resulting in a better looking model.  However it does not have the kind of thin fragile details common on more modern models so it can be handled without obsessive care.  It's a very nice balance that I appreciate and has been the same for several pieces of Walthers rolling stock that I have acquired.

It does suffer from the flaw of most preprinted kits in that you end up with small spots of unpainted plastic wherever the parts are removed from the sprue.  However, a red paint pen from Walmart is a close enough match to the original paint as to be nearly undetectable.  

One small tip.  For touching up patches on the edges of the roof I just took the paint pen all the way across the entire roof edge.   When a slightly different tint is on an entire edge they eye dismisses it as just catching the light differently and it's virtually undetectable. On the other hand small touchup spots of a different tint on the edge are much more noticeable.

All this to say I'm quite pleased.  This was an easy to assemble kit that builds a handsome model that should stand up to active use.   To the best of my knowledge Walthers does not sell rolling stock kits anymore but there are still plenty on the market second hand or New-Old-Stock.

-Karl