I bought a bunch of the new MT heavyweight parlors and pullmans when they came out a little while back and they've been sitting on my workbench looking at me for some time now. Decided to finally get to work on them. To start with, I took one of the MT 28-1 parlors and put it in more "correct" colors (that would be Milwaukee Road for those of you who don't know me). I could not find any reference material for the MILW heavyweight parlors as to what name series they where in, so I cheated and put a sleeper name on it (these decals are the new ones from Streamstyle Graphics; they are great). Not sure if anyone will catch it or not. Besides the paint, I swapped out the stock couplers and installed Z scale ones as well as installing FVM 36" wheels in the trucks. I ended up cutting off the funny looking loop things that were hanging off the break shoes; not sure what they were, but they didn't look quite right. Much better now. I have a couple of the 10-1-2 Pullmans as well that I may try to work on yet tonight or tomorrow evening. I may letter one for The Olympian and one with just Pullman, not sure yet. These look so good compared to the old Riv heavyweights. Something as simple as the steps and the correct diameter wheels make all the difference. These new cars are such a breeze to work on as well; everything comes apart for easy painting. I may get ambitious and try to bash a mid-train parlor/solarium out of one of my other parlors. They had one called Camp Randall that I'd like to do since I went to UW-Madison and that's the name of the football stadium. Enjoy. Nate
If you decide to do some more parlor cars usable names are Chandler, Hilard, Miller, Mitchell, Sahwa, Sewall and Whittenmore. None are of the Pullman plan that the MT cars are patterned after but... Your parlor does look great!!! Looking forward to seeing more!!!
All those names are for the 1938/42 lightweight ribside cars so I can't use them on the heavyweights. Thanks anyways. I've got my 10-1-2 all painted up as well and just need to add the decals this morning. I'll post photos when I'm done. Nate
Here's a couple of photos of the 10-1-2 Pullman Marquette that I've just finished. This car name is correct for the floor plan. Nate
Very nice work; I did "Watertown" as a old "foreign" road sleeper for fun... I like your Pullman's - those are really well done.
Your car looks great as well. Interesting how many different paint jobs these old sleepers wore in their years of service. Nate
For anyone who cares, I did find some names of heavyweight parlors, however, I have no idea what floor plan these are: Lindbergh, St. Johns, Shada. These are from a Pioneer Limited consist from 7/16/45. Because of the sleeping car embargo at the conclusion of WWII, MILW used heavyweight parlors for 1st class passengers instead of sleepers on this train. The goverenment had requisitioned all sleepers that were used on trains less than a certain number of miles to bring the troops back from the coasts at the conclusion of the war. Nate
Hello Nate, great looking paintjob! I have a quick question as I plan to paint a few heavyweights for my 1949 version of the Columbian in the same colors: You have extended the letterboard down to the windows. As I am not a Milwaukee-Expert: Is that the way the sleepers were painted? Looking at Nightswonger / Strauss "Milwaukee Road Color Guide", Volume 1, Page 49: There is a picture of 10-1-2 "Marquette", probably taken between 1947 (the roof is grey, not brown) and 1949 (the year "Marquette" was scrapped): The letterboard appears to be narrower, leaving an orange band above the windows. Is your paint-scheme older? Do you have any photo-reference that you could point me to so I am selecting the right scheme? Many thanks in advance Dirk
Dirk, My paint job is older than what you are looking at. If I recall correctly, they started to switch the heavyweights out of this paint job sometime in the mid 1940's to coordinate them with the hiawatha cars that were in service at the time (the hiawatha cars had either silver or grey roofs up until ~1952). After the brown roofs, they switched to grey, then after that they were switch to black. Some of the heavyweight express cars even made it into UP colors. I do not have any color photos of this paint job. I have multiple b/w photos in my reference books (that are not sitting in front of me at this time, sorry). Hope this helps you out. Nate
Dirk, You are correct; the maroon paint should not extend all the way to the windows (on any of the paint jobs). One more thing I srewed up. Nate
