MILW Milwaukee doodlebug colors

I have a B-Mann motor car that I want to paint for Milwaukee Road service.
Searches have only turned up one color photo so I thought I'd seek expert advice here to see if I'm anywhere close.
Looking at B&W reference pics on the Don Ross site, I'm guessing the sides and ends are orange with a maroon letter board and a black roof. It also looks like the letterboard might be bordered with a thin black stripe?
Also wondering about the lettering. Possibly gold or white?
Any information would be appreciated.

Here's a link to the reference pic:
http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr1100/sk57.jpg

Thanks,
Jim

 

Finding color photos of MILW motor cars is hard to do but not impossible. The colors are the simplified streamliner colors, orange sides, maroon letterboard (with black trim stripe below letterboard), black roof and yellow letters. Also, worth noticng, is that the coach windows (and a few others) had maroon window frames. Here is the only color shot that I know of in color at present but the streamline paint was used on a number of them.

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?september07/09-22-07/MILW5933BedfordIN_1949PMColl.jpg

 

Finding color shots of MILW motor cars is extremely difficult. The paint you describe is the simplified streamliner paint with orange sides, maroon letterboard (with bottom black pin stripe), black roof and yellow lettering. Here's the only shot of one in color that I know of...

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?september07/09-22-07/MILW5933BedfordIN_1949PMColl.jpg

Its also worth noting that the coach section window frames and the RPO section window frames were painted maroon as well, providing for an interesting little addition to the color. Other, B&W, shots can be found at my Passenger Car Photo Index...
http://trainweb.org/passengercars/Indices/DB2.htm#MILW

Did a Google search out of the hope of being able to at least find a shot of a car in another scale but could find none. I hate that I can't be of more help.

 

In my "Milwaukee Road Color Guide" vol.1, there is a single color shot of #5937 pulling a mail&express car. It's a good shot from the front-left side. The paint is pretty much as Jerry notes, except it does not have the black stripe under the letterboard, and the lettering appears to be grey/silver......could be the photo, but I have a set of ConCor cars that also have silver lettering. #5937 is VERY similar to the Bachmann unit you have. A lot of the Milw. gas/electrics were baggage/express with no passsenger section, and some were express/RPO with a much smaller passenger section (like your photo). Those seem to usually be towing a coach, while #5937 seems to usuall be towing a mail/express car. On #5937, the passenger section runs forward over the RPO section in your photo....roughly twice as large, which matches the Bachmann unit.

 

Thanks for the replies and the links. That's exactly the information I was looking for.
I've decided to paint my model after #5937 because the B-Mann shell is actually pretty close and won't require major bashing.
This should be a fun project.
Thanks again
Jim

 

Good luck....I have an undec. Bachmann that I plan to do the same thing to that you are planning.

 

Hi All,
I was able to make some progress on the 'bug project today.
Here it is mocked up before heading to the paint shop



The windows were shortened, the bell was moved down from the roof, the headlight was cut off of the radiator(?) and moved down into the front cab wall, the horn was moved to the center of the roof, wire grabs and support rods for the sweep were added.

Here's a picture of the roof mods. After trimming the light off, I scored lines across a piece of styrene and capped the front. The horizintal lines don't show up very well in the pic,



While waiting for the 91% to take the paint off the shell (my apologies to the Great Northern fans out there), I spent some time cleaning, repairing and relubing the mech and was extremely surprised how well this runs.
Will post more as progress continues

 

Thanks Boxcab,
The undercoat is applied and it's going to turn Milwaukee orange momentarily.

 

Very nice so far........they used to run the doodlebugs quite a bit in Iowa......where in Iowa are you? I grew up just a few blocks from the Milwaukee roads big service center in Sioux City. It was on it's way out as I grew up, but it's still there and being restored.

 

Thanks MRLdave,
I'm about as far from Sioux city as you can get and still be in Iowa. I'm in Clinton. That's east central right on the Mississippi river. The ex-Milwaukee (now IC&E/CP)yard office and freight house is only about 5 blocks from my house. There's much rail history here and still a lot of activity as the UP (former C&NW) crosses the Miss here too.
I get to watch trains cross the river at Sabula where I work and I get over to Savanna almost every day. We railfan southward through the Iowa Quad cities to Nahant yard occasionally as well.

 

Completed work on the 'bug today.
Decals, details, Dullcote and decoder.

My apologies for the so-so photos





Jim

 

Very Nice !!

Cheers
Dirk

 

That thing is just beautiful Jim!!

 

I agree.
Just beautiful. Think I will get one for my Hudson & Catskill Ry.
But getting a doodlebug is the hard part, it is no longer in production.
Regards.
Ron.

 

Cool!

Nice modeling.

 

Thank you for the kind replies.
I'm looking forward to running it.

 

Ron,
Don't know if you use eBay but there's an undec listed now.
These show up in the classifieds and at shows occasionally too.

Regards,
Jim