Milwaukee Road Bulldog #5900

[m a y o r 79]

A teaser of my next project   .   Got this shell in the mail last Friday and by Saturday nite I have the frame figured out (need to fabricate some mounting posts for the trucks), an started building the fuel and water tanks.  Need some more underframe details still.




Leaving for vacation later this week so I wont be able to work on this again until the end of the month.   


Need to get one more coach and I'll have the full consist for the Berlin Bullet!

[icghogger]

That is going to be one sweet build!! Keep us posted!!

[countryroads]

It's the fugly duckling always thought that unit was weird but cool in its own way

[m a y o r 79]

No progress on the build yet but when I got home from vacation a nice surprise was waiting for me in the mailbox........the fugly ducklings  brother arrived.

The only real difference is 5901 had a plow added to the front pilot when it was sent out to Montana, otherwise the details are basically the same.   I think 5901 will be painted in the original "as delivered" paint scheme and 5900 will be in the orange/maroon/black scheme.  Not 100% sure yet though.

Not the best pic but here are the pair:

[countryroads]

There's some cool units being massaged there following with interest

Kudos Mayor

[m a y o r 79]

Working on the underframe on #5900, most of the main structure is now complete except for some of the finer details.   I've never scratch built an underframe before so I have no idea long term how well this will work out.  The main floor is a 0.060 sheet of styrene, shaped to match the opening in the shell.




The tank on the right (rear of the unit) is the fuel tank.   I left it hollow so I can install a speaker later.   Not really sure what the two smaller tanks are on each side but they're very noticeable so I included them.  The tank right in the middle of the underframe is the water tank, this was till in the era of steam heat.  Its also hollow and I managed to cram about 1 1/2 oz of weight inside.  The small oddly shaped tank, I believe, is a waste retention tank for the toilet in the engine.  Towards the front are a few air tanks.   I still need to add fillers/gauges, and other misc. details but the base structure is basically done.

Moving to the top side of the frame.......turns out with the motor and 1 1/2 oz of weight on the bottom side makes 0.060 styrene sag pretty bad.   I picked up some brass tube (cant recall the size) and used it to stiffen the underframe.   This still allows plenty of space for the motor to be installed as well as the decoder, keep alive and wiring.







Here is the overall assembled shell and underframe.   I'm debating putting in a cab interior (I think it would clear the truck tower) and some detail for the baggage section in the rear.   (funny from everything I read they never actually used the baggage section for anything, they always had an RPO/express car behind these)




Body details should be fairly straight forward.   Most of the unique details were part of the 3D printing on the shell.   The main things to add are the handrails, a few grabirons, horn on the cab roof, and the train line/air lines.  

We'll see how long the rest of the build takes!  LOL  I do need to order the decoder and speaker, not looking forward to that bill.    I havent done much with #5901 but as I'm fabricating parts for this unit I'm building the matching parts for that unit, so all I need to do is assemble everything.

[icghogger]

Excellent start, Mike!! You will not regret adding the brass reinforcement to the frame. Keep up the good work!