Page 68 - 38. MRH13-04-Apr2013

But many modelers seem to have a blind spot about the
Milwaukee. I have chosen two models as signature cars of the
Milwaukee, which are the two cars already mentioned. One
is a USRA single-sheathed boxcar, and the other is one of the
famous rib-side design boxcars.
Many railroads owned some USRA boxcars, but the Milwaukee
was the second-largest owner, trailing only the Pennsylvania,
so the Milwaukee cars were certainly significant. Moreover,
unlike most other owners, the Milwaukee left their USRA cars
with wood sheathing into the transition era. Information on
the entire spectrum of USRA freight cars is clearly summarized
and explained in an article by James E. Lane in the Railway
& Locomotive Historical Society journal, Railroad History
(No. 128, Spring 1973, pages 5–33). Much additional pho-
tography of the boxcars is available in Pat Wider’s article for
Railway Prototype Cyclopedia (Vol. 17, 2008, pages 1–51). The
Milwaukee’s 4000 USRA cars were numbered from 700000 to
703999, constructed by three different builders in 1919. My
model is from a Tichy styrene kit (1).
Getting Real Column - 3
1: This example of a Milwaukee Road USRA boxcar,
one of 4000 such cars purchased by the Milwaukee, is
a Tichy styrene product.
1
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MRH-Apr 2013