Chicago & NorthWestern 400 Passenger Car

Here is my final C&NW "400" car for my Oreland 400 passenger train.  This car is a model of the parlor cars that were introduced to the early 400 in 1939.  The basic car was from a 401 model kit.  I then added the underframe details as well as a complete interior with passengers as well.  I took the liberty of letting my fantasies come forward and added the "400" tail sign on the end door.  Most of the C&NW "400" trains did not get a tail sign except the original Twin Cities 400.  This car was another fun car to build although the details and interior took quite some time to build (9 months for those who are counting!!) 

This shows the end door with the "400" tail sign on this parlor car,  Since my models are based on what was operating from 1958 through 1960, I chose to keep the early 400 cars with the original paint scheme, although by the time I am modeling some of the 400 cars were being rebuilt and received the simplified paint scheme.   Again hope you enjoy the models I have added to the blog.  Thanks for visiting.  Bill

 

Milwaukee Road Gondola

This Milwaukee Road gondola was scratch built using photographs of this series found in many of my Milwaukee Road books. This car is carrying a load of steel girders for constructing large vertical supports.  The car is shown with newer steel sides rather  than the original wooden sides.  The car has a fully detailed underframe as well as end details found on this series of gondolas.  Scalecoat paint, with Champion and Microscale decals complete the car.  It will run on my 3-rail Proto layout.  Hope you like the car.  I had a blast building it.  Bill

Here is another Milwaukee Road gondola that was made from a Max Gray GS gondola I found at a recent train show.  The car was in need of some TLC and some upgrades as well.  All the drop doors worked perfectly with a little fine oil and some minor repairs.  It was given a fully detailed underframe with air lines as well as brake linkage.  The ends received full details as well.  I decaled the car for the GS steel gondolas that the Milwaukee Road owned.  These gondolas were often found in pulpwood or lumber service in numerous locations along with Milwaukee Road.  Hope you like the car.  Bill