Hello everybody,
I thought about modelling a Milwaukee Road heavyweight Olympian passenger train from the mid to late 30´s era. I thought about a black Bipolar by MTH to pull the train and Walthers heavyweight cars. Is such a consist prototipical for that era?
Bipolar
Baggage
Coach
Parlor
14 Section Sleeper
Diner
12-1 Sleeper
10-1-2 Sleeper
8-1-2 Sleeper
6-3 Sleeper
Observation
The black bi-polar would be appropriate, but the cars would have a maroon letter board stripe and a brown roof. The maroon letter board/black roof was a 50's thing.. That paint scheme was used on Olympian Hiawatha heavyweight Pullmans during the transition to the light weight sleepers. The Milwaukee road shops built all of the train except for the sleepers/skytop obs. There were delays from Pullman[Standard on the delivery, and the train actually started with lightweight cars, except for the sleepers/observation. Re-furbished H/W sleepers and observations were painted to match the post war paint scheme until the new lightweight cars arrived. The maroon/orange bi-polars showed up in the late 40's, but I suspect that black ones did their share of duty as well.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Thanks for the info.
I knew that the Olympian Hiawatha had heavyweight sleepers and the observation painted into this paint scheme between 1947 and 1949 to match the paint of the streamlined cars, until the train was fully streamlined in 1949. But I always thought that this paint scheme was older and used already on the all heavyweight Olympian. Thanks for clearing that up. So wouldn´t it be more prototypical to model a late 40´s or early 50´s Columbian instead of an Olympian with those Walthers heavyweight cars? And take a Bipolar with 5 or 6 "cat whiskers" instead of the black one to pull it?
About the 5 and 6 cat whiskers paint scheme on the Bipolars: can you tell me which version was first and how long did they last?
I think Branchline Trains had some Milwaukee heayvweight sleepers painted into that maroon letter board stripe and brown roof scheme you mentioned for the all heayvweight Olympian. But unfortunately they never offered an observation, diner, coach or baggage, so these cars are still missing to complete a full heavyweight Olympian...I think I should cancel the idea and rather model the Columbian, so I can use these Walthers heavyweights with a marron/orange 5/6 cat whiskers Bipolar...
I am a firm believer in "good enough" modleing, and frankly, depending on how the Walthers cars are constructed, if the roofs can be separately painted the right brown, that would be close enough for my tastes even if there are discrepencies. I saw the bi-polar at a hobby shop this weekend in all the available paint schemes and frankly the all black scheme looked just great.
Dave Nelson
Finally here is my first Milwaukee train. I wanted a classy heavyweight Olympian in the correct pre 1947 paint scheme (I guess with that "The Milwaukee Road" lettering inside the letterboard it lasted 20 years long from 1927 to 1947). So I went for the IHC heavyweights, which will be corrected by painting the roofs brown and the trucks oxide. According to Railway Classics, the heavyweight Olympian sported a paint scheme comprised of 5 colors: brown roof, maroon letterboard, orange walls, oxide trucks and black underbody (details). Will surely look great I guess! But I´m not so sure if that information from Railway Classics is correct, because for example the underbody (details) of the Microtrains N scale Milwaukee heavyweight cars are oxide like the trucks. Not black...
But I have a problem: Interestingly, the IHC heavyweight coaches and observation feature air conditioning ducts while the sleepers and diner don´t. In case of the Olympian that´s quite unsatisfying because I actually wanted a heavyweight train from the pre air conditioned era. But since the observation and coaches come with air conditionung ducts already from the factory, I will need to add air conditionin ducts to my sleepers and the diner too because otherwise it wouldn´t look good. But this is exactly the problem: In 1934 the Olympian was not only air conditioned but also partially streamlined because from 1934 on, streamlined baggages, coaches and diners were a steady feature in the Olympian consist, so this train became partially streamlined even long before being renamed Olympian Hiawatha in 1947. That means either way my consist won´t be prototypically correct: Either I have heavyweight air conditioned baggages, coaches and diner in a post 1934 train which is wrong, or I have a pre 1934 train with air conditioned coaches and observation which is wrong too.
And what about the motive power? For the pre 1934 version, I thought about the PFM United F6a 4-6-4 Baltic without solid pilot (the early version). But is that model powerful enough to pull 11 IHC heavyweight cars on grades?
Or should I rather replace the heavyweight baggage and 2 heavyweight coaches with Fox Valley streamlined baggage and coaches and have the consist being pulled by the PFM Fujyama S-2 4-8-4? I would prefer the S-2 because of the looks and because of the good running characteristics of this model, but that would defintely mean saying Goodbye to my much prefered all heavyweight consist since the S-2 Northers arrived in 1937, when the Olympian was already partially streamlined. Too bad nobody has ever produced the S-1 "Orphan Annie" in HO scale, which is by far my favorite MILW steamer and that would look correct in front of an all heavyweight Olympian.
By the way I would never have my pre 1947 Olympian being pulled by the upcoming BLI S-3, because as much as I adore the looks of the S-1 and S-2 classes, I dislike the looks of the S-3 class which is aesthetically a total failure in my eyes.