Intermountain Milwaukee Ribsides

[Sokramiketes]

Mine arrived the other day and I spent some time comparing them to the photos in the Morning Sun Milwaukee Road Freight Car book.  First, the car is very well put together.  It's proportions and ride height appear to be correct.  It has grabs, free standing ladders, and a nice etched roofwalk.

Ed is pretty much right with his assessment, but I could not see what he meant about the sides and the overlapping seam.  If the Intermountain car is missing it, I can't tell it should have it from looking at the photos.  The recessed area around the door is also missing, but not noticeable.

The two bothersome discrepancies are the dreadnaught ends and the roof.  The ends appear that they were sanded at a 45 degree angle.  The roof is the most disappointing, as the rivets are obviously wrong.

All in all, a nice but frustrating car to own.  If you don't care about prototype fidelity, the car is a great, well-made piece of quality rolling stock.  However, it also serves as a classic example of when a little bit of knowledge can take away the fun.

Stay cool and toss out your books...

Ben Hom once said of the HO Tichy USRA 55 ton hopper and it's incorrect panel proportions, "You may not ever notice, but as soon as someone tells you about it, it's an itch you just can't scratch."

Perfect sentiment here too.

[tom mann]

One more thing that bothers me more than the roof:  on the Billboard lettering version, the rectangle that contains "THE MILWAUKEE ROAD" extends too far down.

[CVSNE]

Intermountain... well... ???

So on the Maroon CGW caboose  . . . Now the lettering is metallic gold instead of Dulux Gold (yellow). 
 :

Mike, look at it this way - you found the metallic lettering that's missing from the "as delivered" B&M buggies . . .  ;D ;D

Marty

[CVSNE]

One more thing that bothers me more than the roof:  on the Billboard lettering version, the rectangle that contains "THE MILWAUKEE ROAD" extends too far down.

Things like lettering and lettering colors are really hard to forgive in this day and age of "trace the lettering from a photo." Of course, what sometimes happens is the photo used to generate the artwork is the one oddball car that was repainted by a shop that used a stencil for some other piece of equipment :-[  Another common problem some manufactuers have is using those Morning Sun books for everything - the cars in those books usually date from the very end of the cars existence, and there's no way of knowing how much the paint and lettering was altered over the years through repaintings etc. . .

Ed's assessment of the model is right on - and Ed is a tough taskmaster who will notice things about 99% of model railroaders never will -- my problem with Ed's assessments is that he puts as much emphasis on truly minor things (like the panel overlaps) as major issues - and so the major issues sometimes get buried in a string of comments.

[Erik W]

Another common problem some manufactuers have is using those Morning Sun books for everything - the cars in those books usually date from the very end of the cars existence, and there's no way of knowing how much the paint and lettering was altered over the years through repaintings etc. . .

This is something I've found in my rather exhaustive research on various D&RGW paint schemes.  Many of the color photos of transition era cars show stenciling that was not typical of how the rolling stock would have looked in it's prime.  While the color photos are nice, some are definitely not truly representative of the entire class.

I do like the Morning Sun books though because they manage to bring the RR "alive" in a way black and white photos don't.

Erik

[asciibaron]

is there a MILW car book - i need to brush up on my MILW rolling stock if i'm going to model the darn thing.

-Steve

[tom mann]

is there a MILW car book - i need to brush up on my MILW rolling stock if i'm going to model the darn thing.

-Steve

Yep, #2 has freight cars.

[asciibaron]

is there a MILW car book - i need to brush up on my MILW rolling stock if i'm going to model the darn thing.

-Steve

Yep, #2 has freight cars.

#2 what?

[tom mann]

is there a MILW car book - i need to brush up on my MILW rolling stock if i'm going to model the darn thing.

-Steve

Yep, #2 has freight cars.

#2 what?

Sorry... ...

Milwaukee Road Color Guide to
Freight and Passenger Equipment,
Volume 2
by Doug Nighswonger

The revenue freight equipment of the Milwaukee Road is illustrated in more than 300 vintage color photos. Box cars, gondolas, hoppers, they're all here in this 128-page hardcover. Item # 1128.

[asciibaron]

it's on my list, thanks tom.

you should read the Western Expansion book by Stan Johnson - damn.  how did anything happen ever in railroading/

-Steve