EP-2 staic display model model. Got this off the bay want to paint up as a EP-3 Milwaukee Road. Was $20.50 with free shipping. Much better than I expected. Trucks swivel and I disassembled it down the the shell some glue holds the glass ,but came out with a sharp knife. Roof is glue down . trucks and floor use screws. When done with this post will order two more. Just wanted to share.
If you did some major tinkering, you may even be able to power it. A GG1 mechanism or trucks might fit inside. You could always bring back the classic Rubber Band Drive too, that's probably the simplest transmission I can think of. The truck wheelbase seems really long with the trailing and leading axles rigid to the frame. I wonder how these locomotives treated the track? I imagine it would be difficult to get an HO model to navigate our tight radius curves, especially at speed. You might need to make some kind of internal articulation, similar to how the Rivarossi Centipede tenders work. For 20 bucks, the tooling is not half bad, and the painting looks pretty good too. Maybe our other model manufacturers can learn a few things from this?
I now see this EP-2 has only a single axle lead truck where the MilwEP-3 has two. but can still make a display. plan on weathering it up as waiting for scrap as I model the late 50s - early 60s. It is well detailed( Milw scraped them in the mid 50s). The wheels turn but poorly and the lead and trailing axle are held in by a plate the rubs on the flanges. The floor of the engine has detail molded in. I think is is a copy of a existing engine.
There have been brass models of both produced. Indeed the two are different. Aside from the pilot trucks, body side panels are not the same. Even so, you can still paint it as MILW. If that is what you wish, do it.