MILW 21078 (Part 1) - Accurail Rib-Sided Boxcar

Happy New Years...

well, two weeks late.  New Years Eve we had a very severe snow storm that knocked power out for 50 hours and no internet for another 5 days, so I couldn't really do a "New Years Blog" like I've done in previous years.  So it looks like 2023 is starting off a couple weeks late.  As I'm writing this, we're having more storms, more snow.  Soooo, it's time to hunker down over my modeling workbench and see what kinds of trouble I can get into in 2023!

Right side of MILW 21078.

In the last three years I picked up one of the new Accurail Rib-Sided boxcar kits.  These are signature cars of the Milwaukee Road of the steam era into the 1970s.  I pulled out the Accurail model in mid-2022.

Overview

Accurail's Box info for kit #3992, MILW 21078

The Accurail #3992 kit is lacking much of the detail regarding which version of the car we have here exactly.  If I look at the website and cross check against the kit number, I can work out which version this car is... but it would be nice if they had a bit more text stating which version this is.

At least it does include the slogan info "Route of the Electrified Olympian", but no info as to the size of this group of cars, though the number at NEW date of 7-40 on the model indicates this is the preceding group of cars, below 21188, which is the RSC kit group's lowest number in the 1943-44 built group of cars.

Here's the contents of the Accurail kit spread out.

The Accurail kit comes with a ladder and detail sprue, roof piece, and a steel roof walk sprue.  Accurail Bettendorf AAR trucks are included, along with steel axled plastic wheels and Accurail couplers, which will be replaced with KD couplers.

Underframe of MILW 21078 - probably with misplaced Reservoir. - Oops!

The AB Brake components were then attached.  The parts are rather crude and I may eventually decide to add the other brake lever and rods to super detail the UF.  The arrangement of the main reservoir is rather strange that it's not on the other side of the underframe.  This may be a mistake that I didn't notice until writing this, so before the car enters service, I may end up correcting that by Part 2.

I worked on the trucks and couplers.  I'm not going to cover in detail here other than to say that I used Kadee scale-head couplers along with IMRC wheels in Tichy "Bettendorf" AAR cast trucks.

Floor weight installed with RTV Silicon.

I glued in a floor weight with RTV Silicon.  Note the coupler screw holes drilled all the way into the interior and tapped for 2-56 screws.

Left side of MILW 21078 on her trucks.

Once the basic body mechanicals were assembled, I then worked on cutting the ladders and brake staff rod from the sprues and gluing them to the body of the car, following the instructions.  Pretty simple stuff, nothing really to write home about.  Hopefully the ladders don't get knocked off, I suppose if it becomes an issue, I could drill and pin them in place with some 0.012" PB wire, which should help the sheer strength of the joint.

A-End with lumber door.

The small lumber door on this car will probably be put to great use on the Jawbone Branch, as I expect this MILW car will be bringing in lumber products from the PNW.

B-End with power hand brake and brake step installed.

I still need to put on the brake wheel itself as of these photos being taken.

In Closing

Right side of MILW 21078, still needs tack-boards added.

I still need to glue the roof on and then put on the roof-walk end supports and tack-boards.  In the next part I'll be covering finishing up of the MILW 21078, maybe doing some weathering as well.  It should be fun, but I'm not looking forward to doing weathering outside during the blizzards we're having in Nevada right now!

Jason Hill

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