Milwaukee Road 55-ton Hopper rebuild - Finally Done!!!!

[m a y o r 79]

Wow, can't believe its been almost a year since I had an update to this project.  Well, long awaited I guess, here it is.

Got the hoppers into the paint booth last nite for some color.  I never was able to find a perfect match but since these will be weathered pretty heavily I figured it didn't matter much in the end.  I went with Floquil special oxide red and darkened it some with engine black.  I purposely sprayed the cars different shades but it doesn't show up as well in the pictures.

Started the decal process and it didn't go as bad as I feared. The 1970s vintage decals still worked fine, didn't even have to coat them with liquid decal film.  I did notice that the "Milwaukee Road" lettering and numbers were starting to yellow.  But as i was looking over the pictures I saw that the lettering font didn't match at all.  So now I'm off to search for another decal set to use.  I did manage to use all the data info though so all was not lost.  Hopefully the next update has the full decal job done and maybe some weathering.  (all that's left is the remainder of the decals, weathering, one load of broken glass, and I need couplers and wheels).

Not bad, only two years (ish) start to finish

[m a y o r 79]

Well, almost 3 years (pretty sad) but the project has finally finished!  Thats gotta be some kind of record for two freight cars

Here are a quick picture with my phone camera, I want to get a nice white background and do some better detail shots of these two but for now this is good.  I ended up getting a couple of Microscale boxcar decal sets for the lettering.  They're not quite perfect, the "Milwaukee" should be a little smaller and the "Road" a little larger, but they'll do for what I need them for.  I never was out for museum quality models.  I think they turned out really good.  I need to find my box of couplers, they're hiding in one of my modeling toolboxes but I dont know which one.  

They wont get weathered until I get a few more cars ready as well.  I find its not worth getting all the paints out for only a few cars.

Fortunately now this will free up time for me to focus on a few other projects I started a while ago.

[m a y o r 79]

No real update except that I put Intermountain wheels and Kadee's on the cars.  I did get the DSLR out so I figured I'd take a few new photos with a nicer backdrop.  The last pic shows the cullet load that I made for the car, it needs a slight blackwash to tone it down a little but it turned out good, and it's removable for a loads out/empties in operation on the layout.

[jmlaboda]

Always interesting to see offset side hoppers with outer ribs applied. Have seen a few shots of prototype cars that have had this treatment and only recently learned that the original Norfolk Southern did this to some of their offset side cars but these Milwaukee cars take that to a whole new level.

Thanks so much for sharing your work!!!

[dtinut]

Mike,

Hey, nobody said Hurry up and finish these (except maybe yourself)
I am sure these will look even better once you weather them up.

Curious, what did you do to create the cullet load... I think I might make a couple of these loads for my buddy who models the EJ&E...

Regards,
Brian

[m a y o r 79]

Thanks Brian, just feels good to wrap up projects (one left to finish, an SD7 that's almost done, then I need something new), especially one that took this long.

The cullet load was made with a block of foam that I carved into the rough shape and painted a brown color (I chose brown because Schlitz bottles were brown but you could also do white or green depending on the load). The "broken" glass is actually small craft beads that I found at Michaels a while back when I was out shopping with the wife. This is a mix of about 90% brown and 10% white or clear beads. I put a small handful in a bag and smashed them up with a hammer so they looked more like broken bottles. I didn't want them to look too "perfect". Then I used tacky glue to secure them to the load since it dries mostly clear.

I can take some pictures of the load by itself tonite when I get home.

It still needs a little weathering, its pretty shiny right now. On the beer line at least the hopper would sit outside the bottling plant for a few weeks before they had enough for a full load. So I figured some weathering is in order, I think a black wash and maybe some dust/dirt to make it look like its been outside for a while should do it.

[ironstef70]

Mike, I really like the way that broken glass load turned out. Cars also look realistic with the rough sides looking a bit bumpy as these cars usually are. It really shows in the he first picture on top of page.

Looking forward to see the weathering. Good job.

Stephane

[mikeinwi]

Looks great Mike!  I really like the load.  Are you going to compress enough to do the whole line? or a certain area?  I got really carried away one cold day, about a month ago, and spent a lot of time studying the beer line.

Excellent work.

Mike.

[m a y o r 79]

I wish I had enough room to do the entire line. MR did an article a few years back about the Beer Line (not the project layout, just a track plan), I went to school with the guy that designed it for his brother to build. If my memory is correct the basement it's in is roughly 20x40ft and he still severely compressed it, except for the last mile. A 6 mile branch line with a couple hundred customers needs a ton of space. My plan is to model the last mile from Humboldt yard to the end of the of the line at the Lincoln Fireproof Warehouse. My main focus is the Schlitz and Pabst breweries and the warehouse/Blatz loading at the end of the line (along with a few other smaller customers). I unfortunately have a rather small space so I'm pretty compressed.

I can start a thread with my track plan if you're interested. (I'm always looking for critiques on it....I think its up to the 4th version now) My next project is actually going to be three H10-44's to use on the line. My first non EMD/GE builds!

[Deleted]

Sounds like a cool idea Mike.

Would love to see a plan.