MEC Milk Car

The newest milk car on the White River Division roster is seen in Bellows Falls.

When I visited Bruce Douglas last month one of the cars he gave me for the White River Division was this great looking scratch-built MEC milk car. Bruce had an article published about his model in the July 1989 issue of Model Railroading. There has been a couple more articles about how this car can be built or kitbashed. John Nehrich used an Accurail car which one can find in  the January 2002 issue of Model Railroader. Eric Clegg got a RMC kitbash award back in June 1989 for using a Des Plaines (Storzek) CN boxcar kit for a starting point.

Car History
These cars came to the MEC in 1918 numbered in the series 1506-1525, 20 cars. At that time they were double sheathed but by 1932 were converted into outside braced milk cars. Three cars, 1510, 1513 and 1517 received steel ends, frames and roofs in 1954. They remained in service till about 1962.

The Model
On Bruce's milk car he mainly scratch-built the model but used some Athearn reefer parts such as ends and underframe. The car is painted Accu-paint #26 MEC Pine Green and did receive some nice weathering. I normally add my own touchs to the cars I have on the layout, but this one is staying just the way Bruce modeled it...George Dutka

Bruce's milk car rests on the article he wrote about his model in Model Railroading.

Currently MEC 1513 is seen with CV 538 ready for lifting at White River Jct. on the White River Division.

A short MEC train is departing White River Jct. with one lone milk car on this occasion.