The Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club (MLRRC) has announced its latest club car (#22). It is a version of the Lionel round roof boxcar lettered for the Milwaukee (CMStP&P). The Milwaukee Road built one round roof boxcar in its own shop before standardizing on the ribside design in the late 1930's. The model is, of course, the Pennsy prototype with CMStP&P lettering, but even though it isn't exactly correct, I'm happy to see it. I had considered buying a Lionel car and relettering it, but I'll happily take the club car. Here's a link to the page on the MLRRC website: http://milw-lrrc.com/shopping/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=229&zenid=ibintrr6d5a08a9tn972fr4rl7
Here's the club car:
And here's the Milwaukee Road prototype. The club car isn't a perfect copy, as you can see, but close enough for me, given the unlikelihood of ever seeing a fully correct model unless I scratchbuild it myself. The Milwaukee Road car is actually a better looking and more modern car than the Pennsy version. The side seams are smooth and there's no big roof seam like on the other car. Also note that the Milwaukee car has a vertical brake staff. I may try to modify mine when I get it, since this is a very prominent visual feature.
