Milwaukee Rib-side Caboose Redux

[sirenwerks]

I'm trying to figure out which of the upcoming caboose releases (if any) to purchase and am wondering - is there a good primer available online that covers the design changes and body modifications made over the years, and the paint schemes and how long they lasted in service? I need to decide which of the versions and paint schemes I should get to develop a late-60s fleet and I've been searching for a copy of the Kehoe book to purchase to no avail. For this release I need to know if any cars survived into the late-60s without the oil door being added and if any unmodified cars survived into then with the original paint/lettering intact? Has there been any word from Matt on whether an oil stove door version will be manufactured later?

[sirenwerks]

Bump.

[Dave Schneider]

Bryan,

I am not aware of any online references that will answer all your questions about the rib-sides. I did look through the Rib Side Caboose book by Kehoe, and there really isn't a complete listing of all the various modifications. As you know, the Milwaukee Road was the Non-Standard Railroad of the World that tried all kinds of different ideas.

According to the Kehoe book, the transformation to an oil stove from coal (with the resulting modifications to the side) began in 1958. "By the mid-1960s, nearly all the coal stoves were gone: yet surprisingly, a few locally assigned rib-siders kept their coal stoves until they were retired."

The side modifications are really quite simple to add. Just some thin styrene with a couple of fittings, along with a mess of weathering to represent the oil spills. For the late-1960s, rib-siders with straight-frame trucks were more likely to be found on cabooses assigned to yards and on patrols, while those with drop-frame trucks were more likely to be used on mainline assignments.

Kehoe also states that the original paint scheme had disappeared by the late 1960s.

Bryan, what is your modeling plan in terms of location and operations? Sorry if you have shared this before, but I can't recall.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes, Dave

[sirenwerks]

I'm still trying to get that focused, Dave. It's looking more and more like the Twin Cities area so I can have both the Milwaukee and CGW - maybe Red Wing to Cannon Falls or do some fudging to to have more ops. My tertiary interests keep raising ideas and I may just end up with a generic layout and a hootenanny roster of front-end power and butt cars, and run Hill Lines, Rock Island, Soo, Illinois Central and all sorts of other Midwest flavors of goodness. I haven't given up on being a purist and research is still in the works but right now I am more worried about keeping up with product releases so as not to miss anything I will end up needing.

I'd thought about modifying the models, but if a modified version was to be released later, I could sit on my hands and wait until then. If not, I should grab them up now and your the info will help me decide on a mix of the 6 versions that will be available. I think I'll reach out to Matt to inquire about the possibility of an oil stove version as well.

BTW, I was in touch with the MRHA just today and found out there are plans to re-release the Kehoe rib-side book in the not-too-distant future. No word on the steel caboose book though.