Milwaukee Road Units and Green Bay Western

After looking at all the post of Freight cars and a few passengers cars I have done I decided that it was time to show off one of my Engines.

This locomotive is a model of one of the Milwaukee Road H16-66 units they operated in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on the ore lines operated with the C&NW to Escanaba Michigan.   The basic model was an early William engine with a bad motor.  Then I found another early Williams engine with the early plastic truck sideframes and plastic pilots.  Bothe of the motors in the second unit were in good shape.  One Williams locomotive had a Virginian shell in great shape.  The other shell had been painted in a paint scheme of unknown identity with no number or roadname.  I stripped the shell after rebuilding the motors and mounting new die-cast sideframes and pilots to the frame.  Once I had the shell down to the basic plastic I primered the shell and then selected the bright orange paint that would have been found on a Milwaukee Road locomotive that had just returned from the shops with a new paint job and renumbered in the new 3 digit number system vice the older 4-digit numbers.  I added details to the engine and painted the handrails as the engine would have been given with the new coat of paint.  I did not add the "X" marks on the frame as these units did not get that done to them initially until the following year, when the "X" marking were added to most Milwaukee Road hood diesels for grade crossing safety.  This engine will be used on the 3 rail layout as a trailing unit to handle longer trains of ore cars or general freight. 

This is  model of the Green Bay & Western's larger 8000  class boxcars which were delivered in 1930 to increase the GB&W's ability to haul paper products out of Green Bay and Wisconsin Rapids.  These cars were copies of similar boxcars delivered to the Milwaukee Road in the same year.  GB&W's subsidiary Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western also received similar cars in the 5100 series at the same time.  These cars were used for transporting larger shipments of paper and forest products outside of Wisconsin.  This car was built using photographs and drawings of these cars I found online.  I used Northeastern scribed wood for the sides as well as Selley Custom Finishes, Cal-Scale, Walthers, Keil-Line, All-Nation, and Scale City Design parts.  The paint is Scalecoat Boxcar Red and the decals are Champion decals.  The trucks are Athearn die-cast sprung trucks and the underframe detail is made from K&S brass wire.  The catwalk was made using wire window screen material to duplicate the modern catwalks added to these cars.  I enjoy building these outside braced boxcars and they were found in the Wisconsin and Upper Michigan areas up to the late 1960's and early 1970's on both the Green Bay and Western as well as the Milwaukee Road.  This care will operate on my 3-rail layout.