Model Railroading > Milwaukee Road Rib Side Caboose Questions

Walthers has Fox Valley N scale Milwaukee Road Cabooses on sale.
https://www.walthers.com/milwaukee-road-high-window-rib-side-caboose-w-oil-door-ready-to-run-milwaukee-road-991825-orange-black-roof-yellow-ends-logo
https://www.walthers.com/milwaukee-road-low-window-rib-side-caboose-w-oil-door-ready-to-run-milwaukee-road-01977-orange-black-roof-logo-on-bay-window
https://www.walthers.com/milwaukee-road-low-window-rib-side-caboose-w-oil-door-ready-to-run-milwaukee-road-02082-orange-black-roof-logo-on-bay-window

After a lot of thought I have decided on early to mid 1980's so I get to run cabooses. I like Milwaukee Road and my fictitious railway does connect in several places so it is not unrealistic that a Milwaukee caboose would end up on my layout or is it? Did Milwaukee restrict the use of their cabooses, in particular these ribside cabooseese on other railways? Also which scheme and number would be correct for the mid to late 1980's? Also in this thread by Marty Bernard Roger Puta captured one of these ribside cabooses with the windows either painted out or covered over (picture 4), was this common by the 1980's or hit and miss?
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4123074,4123074#msg-4123074
Another one with windows blanked out.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3917993,3918032#msg-3918032

From the pictures I would think the first one with the yellow ends and the 991825 is the one that would most likely fit my era. I am sorry to ask so many questions but I'd like to add one Milwaukee Road caboose, may as well be the right one.

Pictures that I took are preserved Milwaukee Road cabooses, both taken on the same trip on April 10th 2011.
1-2) Rib side in Trident Montana
3) Newer International? in Deer Lodge.

Jim

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#3 is a riveted caboose built by Thrall to MILW plans. It had orange ends until after the all welded International cars came around. It is likely niether the ribside caboose nor the Thrall caboose had yellow ends while in service though some cars in both classes did get painted that way.

Cabooses in all 3 classes did serve MILW trains to the end of caboose service.

The Fox Valley models would be a good choice for your intended service. They would be in the 99XXXX series rather than the previous 0XXXX numbers.

I bought my caboose, MILW 992096 in 1985 directly from the Soo Line. It DID have yellow ends. Attached is the only scan I have of a MILW caboose (Clinton, Iowa approx. 1984) and it doesn't have the yellow ends. Not what the indication is for yellow ends?

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/17 19:22 by GBW309.

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Note the 991971 has had the catalytic electric generator and the propane bottles to power that have been removed. There is no electricity for lights or radio unless there is an axle mounted belt driven generator somewhere.

what did the yellow ends denote on those cabooses?

66

Someone in the railroad industry decided if the entire end of the caboose was painted in reflective yellow paint the caboose would be more visible at night to other trains and helper locomotives. I think the reflectiveness of the paint was given up in a short while account plain yellow paint was cheaper.

MILW 991847 has been moved from Trident to Three Forks, MT along with the unique NP depot.

MILW 992185 is looking good in the parking lot of the Montana Territorial/State Prison museum in Deer Lodge, MT. It is displayed just in front of the E70 Little Joe and a MILW passenger E9. The Golden Spike display has been restored and stands just south of the caboose. This all makes Deer Lodge a worthwhile stop when traveling I-90 between Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. Both the MILW and NP wooden depots are still in use as a church and senior citizen center.

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Someone in the railroad industry decided if the
> entire end of the caboose was painted in
> reflective yellow paint the caboose would be more
> visible at night to other trains and helper
> locomotives. I think the reflectiveness of the
> paint was given up in a short while account plain
> yellow paint was cheaper.


The "someone in the railroad industry" was the FRA acting on some recommendations from NTSB after a couple of accidents.
Same reason the Santa Fe Yellow Bonnet paint scheme came about. Increased visibility.

I am not aware this was an FRA requirement. Look at all the roads such as Conrail, Soo Line, ICG and others who did not get on board the yellow end band wagon.

The MRL which began operation in 1987 never painted full yellow ends on any of their cabooses. I cannot find any FRA regulation requiring yellow caboose ends. The first cabooses painted this way seems to be for the BN merger prior to 1970 with NP repaints.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/17 09:26 by fbe.

It sounds like the OP is mostly concerned about Mid-Western cabeese, the Milwaukee also had a variation of appliances for use in Washington State. The cabeese had been used in a number of states but mostly around the far end of the Pacific extension.

Of interest to me was the Washington State logging and forest product branches. The typical caboose was the homebuilt rib-side with the Washington State required toilet retention tank, which appears to be mostly labeling, some of the electrical and heat generating devices and lots of grime. A number of examples continued to toil on the Chehalis Western on the ex-trackage between Tacoma and Chehalis. I don't have the photo files with me right now but I have a few cabeese photos on my Chehalis Western Gallery on PBase, here's a link to one example coming in toward Western Junction:

http://www.pbase.com/clivew/image/106528964

There's also two versions of the book 'Milwaukee Road's Rib Sided Cabooses by Jeff Kehoe' for some serious detail info.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/17 10:23 by TCnR.

As far as the yellow ends goes Detroit Toledo and Ironton Railroad painted the ends of their cabooses yellow, don't know how far that started back though.

Thank you all for the information. I think I will be ordering the first one listed with the yellow ends as Fox Valley seams to be number specific with what you get in paint jobs and such.

Jim

Here's a yellow ended Milwaukee Road ribsided caboose that showed up in my Flickr feed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckzeiler/35818177884/in/feed