Milwaukee 40-foot, ribbed-side automobile boxcar,
Pt 2
George Toman shared an update on a June Workbench Wednesday post. Here’s George with the scoop.
Progress has been made on my Rib Side Cars Milwaukee Road automobile boxcar. I had the car mostly complete at St Louis RPM and since have primed and painted as MILW 6582. The lead image shows the model in primer and paint.
Here’s the B end of the car showing the custom photo etched Milwaukee Road Ladders. Note the stiles have the “L” facing out. Other details include a Precision Scale retainer valve and Kadee brake housing with wheel. Custom bent brass brake step and brackets were installed. Holders for the retainer valve line were made from 0.020 x 0.005-inch brass, drilled and pinned to the car with 0.008-inch wire. The top ends of roof were simulated with 0.005-inch styrene and carefully sanded to represent the sheet metal folded over the ends.
Here’s a look at the scratchbuilt underframe. The slack adjustor was scratchbuilt from styrene and attached to rear of brake cylinder. The air line is using a 3D printed Tee and unions from Tom Madden’s design and printed at Shapeways.
Paint was a custom mix of Modelers Decals and Paint mixing six parts Aged Mineral Red, one part Caboose Red, two parts Tuscan and half a part Black. Decals are from Speedwitch Media set D174. The model was lightly weathered.
Here’s a look at the A end of the car. I installed custom Milwaukee Road style photo etched side grabs and brackets.
This has been a fun project. It took much longer than I anticipated, but kept finding differences between the Rib Side Cars model and #6582 I was building that needed correcting. Overall the Rib Side Cars model was a good starting point for this project.
George Toman
NOTE: The Rib Side Cars line is currently unavailable. Accurail has bought the tooling and plans to release a number of these kits.
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Wow, while I am an Xxtreme Modeler, George is THE Xxtreme Modeler. Really great model and modeling.
George, where did you get the MILW photo-etched grab irons. I have a car complete (more or less) except for those. Tried to make them by hand and could not get the results I wanted. Every one was different.
I designed these Scale Sized Milwaukee Rd Ladders and left side grab brackets with a friend (Tony Sissions) who did the artwork and had a short run of them photo etched in England for myself and two other Milw Rd Modelers. I have designed both a 8 rung and 9 rung versions to cover most cars. The left side Z Brackets for the sides are also on the PE Fret and are of scale size as well. Ladders can be assembled with Stiles facing in or out as on this car. These could be available in the near future
George,
That is a very impressive build. Thank you on telling us how you made the various upgrades. The extra work was worth it!
Nice tutorial and photos George. Well done. Glad to hear that Accurail stepped up and acquired the Rib Side Car line tooling. These kits are top notch. Thanks for a great article and good news.
Very nice work and great article to read.
Thanks Sonny for the kind comments.