Here's a pic of a Milw. inspection car from the Mid-Continent Railway Museum. It's a 1947 Dodge 4 door sedan. Thing about this car is the wheels, they are not just rubber tires but they are specially made rims that have flanges cast right on the rim, then the tires were mounted on them, Firestones I think. More milwaukee items to come!!
This flanger was built by the Milw. Rd. in their shops. They used an old steam tender for the body.It was sold to the Wisconsin Southern then donated to the museum If Alan should wander by this way, one of the tenders he sent me will be used to make this.
Do we know the number of this particular one? X-9xxxxx? The winter of 1979-1980, I was lucky enough to watch one of these in action. Close up. Notice this is bi-directional. So there was no need to wye them anywhere. A very clever adaptation of something, most companies would have earlier quickly scrapped. Boxcab E50
Boxcab, I thought this would make a great model. The two tanks on the roof were added on by the Wis. Southern for spraying weeds. I accually found drawings and a short history for this car in an old MR mag.
Andy- I dunno. I've seen them back in Milw days, with twin tanks atop the car. Believe those were air reservoirs for operating the flanger blades up, and down. For switches, road crossings, etc. Remember the old "V" shaped flanger warning signs everywhere? If you get that way again, take a close look at the plumbing. Am thinking that's what you may find. Boxcab E50
Ken, According to the article the tanks on WSOR#8 were for spraying weeds. I have a drawing for X900263 with tanks and a picture of X900286 without. X900263 - X900277 were built in 1956, X900278 - X900297 were built in 1957. X900264 - X900289 were single blade, X900263, X900290 - X900297 were dual blades. The article also says the small door on the end of the tender was for access to the operating mechanisms for the blades. As for the tanks I am only going by what this article is saying, further investigation may be needed!
Hi Andy- The dates you give are accurate. This was when mass scrappings of steam were under way. Other tenders were converted to water cars. Fuel bunkers, etc. I'm just going by what they did out here in the western states. And they definitely didn't do any weed spraying with this equipment. That was done with other machinery. The tender-flangers out here sat, until the next winter. Unused. So if WSOR did any actual conversion... Hopefully that article is accurate. Seems to me those tanks are rather small for doing much. Appear to be 30-50 gallons range each. Boxcab E50
Boxcab, After reading and rereading the article it states that Wis. Southern ADDED tanks for weed spraying. They didn't say the tanks on the roof, maybe they put tanks inside!! I thought the same thing when I read the article and saw the picture, those tanks sure won't hold much, but for air pressure tanks they are perfect.
