Hi I have been searching for the answer to a question I have since Friday and with no aluck. So I come to this great forum. See i have a few Undecorated Athearn Bay window caboose and want to paint and letter them for the Milwaukee. The problem is I dont know the road numbers for these cabeese? I am hoping someone on the list has this information. I am looking for pretty much what they were still using in the mid 70’s till the Milwaukee’s Demise in the the 1980’s If anyone would be so kind to send along that information and maybe other date they may have on these cabeese I would greatly appreciate it. Also I know the Athearn Caboose is a little longer but basically All I car about is the feel of having them on the layout. Thank you.
[:D]
I’m not completely sure how many were made but more than enough for what you want. some of the numbers are as followed:
992154
992142
991547
992215
992148
991909
Most of the rib side cabooses looked like this but if your looking for the regular bay window then the milwaukee road only had about 10 to 12 of those. most were rib side or cupola. look at googles images and take a look at the bay window cabooses for the milwaukee road. Most of these cabooses were used into the 80s. Some were used untill the early to late 70s. Have fun!![:D]
James
Thanks for the info CMSTPP for the information. Are these the numbers for the Smoothside bay windows? Also where there any other lettering such as safety marks or anything else?
The only safety marks were the cabooses on the coal trains. Specialy made cabooses for the coal train. They had the saftey strips but I don’t know about your cabooses. Do they have a walk way on the roof? The only other lettering was on the end of rib sided cabooses. Otherwise its the number above the bay window and the Milwaukee sign.
The numbers with the 992 in them are the smooth side and the others are the ribbed cabooses.
Alright thanks for cleaing that up. I thinkt hey have walks on them but dont recal I ordered most of them froma guy on ebay and the on I have which is in Milwaukee Colors I havent looked at for about a year been revamping the layout.
sounds good. Good luck on your railroad and on your cabooses.
James
Thank you I appreciate everything you have helped me with. its great to have people like you thats willing to help us semi MILW modelers out.
If you’re modeling the final year or so, most of the cabeese on the Pacific Extension had “WA” painted on the sides toward (I think) the left side in about 1 ft block letters indicating it had retetion toilets required for operation in Washington
Since you are doing the project why not obtain the Milwaukee Road Historical Society’s excellent soft cover book on steel cabooses (they also have books on the rib sides and on wood cabooses). It gives you numbers, it gives you detail photos and painting help and I think you’ll find it a good book to have on your shelf.
http://www.mrha.com/item-detail.cfm?ID=PUB2
Dave Nelson
MILW’s rib-sided cabooses were numbered from 01800 through 02114. The Thrall bay window cabooses, built in 1956, were numbered 02115 through 02214. Of all MILW bay window cabooses, the Thrall cars are closest in appearance to the Athearn car.
During the late 1960s, all of the cars listed above had their number prefixes changed from “0” to “99” because the car-tracking computers would not recognize “0” as the first digit in a car’s number.
MILW’s last bay window cabooses came from International Car in 1973, and were numbered 992215 through 992229. Walthers makes this car.
I have a photocopy of a MILW July 1978 caboose assignment list. The cover page lists cabooses in this manner:
Section 1 Class C cabooses, Limited to Terminal/Transfer service
990001-990035, 990050-99076, 991602-991608, 991733-991771
Section 2 Class B cabooses, Limited to Branch Line and Patrol service. Equipped with Conventional Underframe. No Radio, except as noted.
991800-992061
Section 3 Class A cabooses, For Main Line and Transcontinental Service. Equipped with Cushion Underframe and Radio. (Not all Washington State Equipped)
992019, 992020, 992025, 992028, 992030, 992034, 992035, 992037, 992039, 992040, 992056, 992057, 992062-992229
Section 4 Class D cabooses, Designated for special service.
992298-992301
992298 & 992299 Gascoyne-Big Stone Coal trains
992300 & 992301 Colstrip-Columbia Coal trains, Cupola type
X-5001 General Manager’s Caboose.
Jeff
Note that while the Athearn bay window caboose resembes a Milwaukee Rd car, the Walthers International caboose is much closer to total accuracy
Anybody interested in Milwaukee Road cabooses in all their varied glory really should purchase the three soft cover books put out by the Milwaukee Road Historical Society
one on the rib-sided cabooses, one on the steel cabooses, one on the wood cabooses. Full rosters, numbers, tons of photos, scale drawings, etc
The Milwaukee Road had steel cabooses with cupolas, extended vision cupolas, drover’s cabooses, bay window, “privy on a flat car” transfer cabooses, and some unusual extended frame cabooses meant to match the length of coal gons.
Dave Nelson
Note that while the Athearn bay window caboose resembes a Milwaukee Rd car, the Walthers International caboose is much closer to total accuracy
Anybody interested in Milwaukee Road cabooses in all their varied glory really should purchase the three soft cover books put out by the Milwaukee Road Historical Society
one on the rib-sided cabooses, one on the steel cabooses, one on the wood cabooses. Full rosters, numbers, tons of photos, scale drawings, etc
The Milwaukee Road had steel cabooses with cupolas, extended vision cupolas, drover’s cabooses, bay window, “privy on a flat car” transfer cabooses, and some unusual extended frame cabooses meant to match the length of coal gons.
Dave Nelson
I am not a MILW fan, but in my quest of scratch building some Erie Lackawanna cabooses (cabeese!), I ran across a MR article on scratch biulding thes cars from a few years back. i still have this article if you’re interested in it. You can just email me and I’ll let you know which issue is was from.