Does anyone know where I can find information on the prototype for the La Belle kit O59 - C.M. & St. P 50' open platform business car? All the instructions say is that the car was built in 1885. Bi-Polar Bruce
I'm not familiar with this kit. I wonder if there'd be any leads in the Nighswonger book on Milw passenger cars? Boxcab E50
Last fall I built A LaBelle O scale CMStP&P open platform business car. There was a prototype drawing included in the instructions. It showed a duckbill roof instead of the plain roof ends as specified in the instructions. A bit of unasked for advice: take the plans to the UPS store and blow up the drawings to full scale quarter inch to the foot size. It will make building so muchsimpler and quicker. Odd-d
Ken, I checked Doug's book, but being a color guide it has only post-WWII photos. The 19th Century built passenger and business cars that were pictured in MOW sevice did not match the window arraingement in the La Belle kit. Are there older published B&W photos of Milwaukee business cars out there? Letourneau's photo book has a picture of one of the early wooden business cars on page 50. Unfortunately I don't think the pictured car is the same as the prototype for the La Belle kit. Interestingly the car does have six-wheel trucks and the name WISCONSIN on the side. Odd-d, I learned a long time ago to trust, but verify kit instructions if modeling accuracy is the goal. My kit did not include the drawing you describe. I wonder if it is an equipment diagram from the Milwaukee. While not to scale these documents can be very useful. Given the construction date in the instructions it seems possible the car had a duck-bill roof. There has to be a photo to confirm this design out there somewhere. What color did you paint your car? Thanks for the help.
BiPolar Bruce-----I freelanced it into a combine and covered over the big windows on one end and reduced the size of the picture window on the other end. You were right that one of the views included with the kit was an equipment diagram and probably not to scale. But that's OK because when the drawing was expanded on the Xerox it came out a little longer than the car sides in the kit. I hate to disappoint you, but I painted and lettered it for my own roadname, The Mountain Route. My standard favorite color for my freelance open platform cars is Olive Drab, flat. The Milwaukee painted an old open platform combine in company service orange with maroon letterboard if I remember correctly. I was pretty young when I saw it. Odd-d
