B&M Milk Car

[highpeak]

Now that I have some time for modelling, I decided to see what a resin kit would be like. My local hobby shop had a few kits by Funaro & Camerlengo, so I plunked down the plastic and walked out with a kit for a milk car.

The kit represents a car built in 1937 for the Erie RR by the Greenville Car Co. The B&M bought half a dozen of these cars from the Erie in the mid-50s. The car resembles a standard 1932 AAR boxcar but the trucks and doors give it away as a milk car.

The resin castings were crisply molded and while perhaps not quite as clearly defined as plastic would be, the rivet and door hinge detail was good. The distinctive Viking roof was well-represented and the parts cleaned up easily.

I use an emery board intended for fettling finger nails for sanding because the resin will clog files quite quickly. The joining surfaces needed a bit of tidying up, but a few swipes of the emery board got everything lined up and square. There are no tabs or rebates to help with alignment, but in practice the parts went together nice and square anyway. The sides and ends are relatively thick so there was enough surface area available to give a good joint. I tacked the tops of the ends to the sides with CAA and when I was satisfied I had a square box with everything in alignment I ran more CAA down the inside of the joint allowing capillary action to work the glue into the joint. The resulting box seems pretty strong to me. The roof needed a bit of sanding to get it to fit, but eventually it dropped in place.

The underframe needed a bit of sanding to get a snug fit, and I wish I had added a few locating tabs to the sides before assembling the box. It might have been an idea to do this and use some countersunk screws to unite body and underframe, but the underframe is a good push fit so probably won't need to be glued in place.

[highpeak]

Tonight's progress was a bit limited to fitting the main components of the AB air brake system, namely the reservoir, the valve and the cylinder and adding some representational plumbing.

 

I would have done more, but I had to go to a meeting of the women's league that I coach in to advise them on setting up an independent league, and we then adjourned to a bar for further discussions after which it wasn't too easy to manipulate the bits and pieces of the brake system or comprehend the general arrangement drawing.

 

The parts are not those which came with the kit. I thought the Cal Scale AB kit was a bit better than the parts that came with the kit so I used them instead. Since the Cal Scale parts apparently cost me 95cents, they probably had been in my parts bin for quite a while. James Earl Carter was president at the time of purchase, I believe.

 

Modelling while under the influence is quite a skill, not really one I possess to any great degree. Not that I am that skileld when stone cold sober, either. I remember visiting a model shop in Bar Mills, ME many moons ago and seeing an exquisite gas-electric car built from a LaBelle kit. The chap that took me to the store assured me that the proprietor of the store who built the little gem had been at least three sheets to the wind for most of the project. It was perfect.

[highpeak]

A bit of fiddling around with brass wire and the milk car has a basic representation of the AB brake system:

 

 

It's not the ultimate in brake system modelling, but it should look OK when the car is on the rails. As long as there's a few dangly bits to give the impression of brakes, that's enough for me:

 

[Gilbert]

Nice work

 

As no one has replied yet here's my contribution..

 

I've built one of these myself as part of my B&M stock. I like milk cars and I've got a fair few kit built examples.

I was fortunate to meet Dwight Smith and the Yahoo "milk car" guys when I "did" Springfield in 2007.

I'll be interested to see how this turns out - make sure its well cleaned before you paint!

 

Chris

[highpeak]

I get the impression that the resin seems a bit soapy, at least compared to plastic. Maybe it's just the colour of the kit! But I am sure it got a film of whatever release agent they use in the moulding process.

 

What did you use for paint? There's a colour picture of one of the cars in the Northern New England Freight and Passenger Equipment book that shows a very subdued maroon, but that's a 1958 shot so three years or so after acquisition. Plus colour film wasn't that accurate in those days. I am looking to represent the car as fairly new to B&M so that it isn't too much of a stretch to have my little Mogul haul it around (if I ever get around to building a layout!)

 

Milk train equipment is curiously addictive!

[highpeak]

The underpinnings got treated to a blast of black primer, ordinary spray paint from the hardware store. All I do is stand the spray can in some hot water for a while to warm the paint up a bit and shake it well. My theory is that the paint atomises better if it's warmed up a bit. Probably delusional, but I hate painting so any kind of mind game that helps me think I won't make a muck of it is worth it to me. I'm always a bit happier when the various shades of plastic and brass disappear under a coat of paint that makes it all look a bit more of a whole.

 

[Gilbert]

I actually used a Halfords maroon that was close to B&M. When I built the car I did look into colours and I think I considered either full maroon - including roof with "yellow" (Delux gold?) decals and box car red with a black roof with white decals - I opted for maroon but I suspect the decals are wrong as I had not got the Microscale milk car decals then and used the F&C that came with it - but its a while since I did it. Sorry about the photo quality!

 

Chris

[highpeak]

The colour on your milk car looks to be a very good match to a colou photo of a B&M Baggage/RPO car on the cover of Passenger Cars of New England vol. I

There is a black and white of one of the cars in the book taken in 1960, the maroon looks very subdued after a few years of service. The owner of a hobby shop up in Falmouth ME told me the colour was very variable and faded fairly quickly, so you could use a number of different shades and not be wrong. But yours looks to be a good match for a new car.

 

The B&M car is about ready for painting. I've slowly added the ladders and assorted grabs, brake retainer valve etc. I used some eye bolts to secure the retainer valve pipe as it didn't look right to have nothing holding it in place, though the drawing in the kit suggests the pipe was held by little metal clamps. Still to add are the various steps. I'm going to add the running board and brake wheel after painting.

 

Part of the reason I've made slow progress was the revival of a project to make a MEC milk car. This project started years ago when I read an article in RMC. I didn't have the kit used in the article and decided to use an Accurail boxcar kit instead. I doubt my car is really that accurate, especially as far as the roof is concerned. The ends look quite different from the few pictures I have seen. The article dealt with one of the cars MEC modified with metal ends, but I decided to keep the wooden ends, which still needed some hacking around. Nor did I have any reefer style door parts, so I ended up making my own hinges and handles. The photo makes the grab irons look quite rough, though in reality by the 50s they weren't that straight either.

The brakes are largely conjecture, but at least they'll look like there are some dangly bits underneath.

 

I decided to try to make better parts to attach the retainer pipe and made a little tool to make a clip out of flat brass. I don't think this is at all original, but it might be worth sharing.

I just carved a groove in a piece of scrap plastic, drilled holes in two small blocks to retain the wire. A couple of sharp taps forms a depression in the flat stock. It would probably work better with thinner brass, but I used all I had on hand. I think K&S does some 5 thou shim so I might try to get some of that for the future. Anyway, the part is probably not dead scale but it should look OK when it's painted. You can just see it toward the bottom of the car. Doesn't that Cal-Scale brake wheel look crude by today's standards? Oh well, I'll try to do better next time.