Craig Wilson modeled a unique Green Bay & Western 40' boxcar which is not available as a commercial model.

GBW/MILW 40' PS-1 Boxcar with 9' Door from E&C Shops Kit
by Craig Wilson

Table of Contents

Page 1 of 6:
The prototype cars, the HO boxcar model, and a parts list.

Photo 1

One of the less common types of the Pullman-Standard boxcar was the 40-foot length with a 9-foot door opening. Both the Green Bay and Western and Milwaukee Road had versions of these cars:

Prototype Images:

GBW 933 (ca. 1962) GBW 1001 at Manawa (2000) MILW 30295 (1968) from Fallen Flags Railroad Photos More images: New 900- series boxcars (1959) GBW 909 (1966) from Fallen Flags Railroad Photos

GBW 900-949 (50 cars):

These cars were built by Pullman-Standard in June 1959 with P-S doors and roller bearing trucks. They were fitted internally with DF Loaders with adjustable rub rails and used primarily to haul finished paper products. These cars were the first yellow boxcars on the Green Bay Route. The original paint scheme had 12" high GREEN BAY AND WESTERN lettering and black ends. They were repainted in 1962, getting the famous 'Home of the Packers' football emblems, but now with yellow ends. By 1964 the cars were reclassified as XML and again by 1966 as XMP. Around 1970 the cars were painted in the standard GBW yellow scheme without the Packers lettering.

GBW 1000-1005 (5 cars):

GBW added five additional PS-1 boxcars in 1963. These cars were outwardly identical to the GBW 900-949 cars. Originally painted dark green with yellow lettering and a  'Home of the Packers' logo; around 1970 the cars were painted in the standard GBW yellow scheme.

MILW 30250-30649 (400 cars):

Built in 1961, Milwaukee Road series 30250-30649 were nearly identical to the GBW cars except for the Youngstown corrugated doors. The MILW cars were originally painted oxide red with black ends. In 1965 they were reclassified XML and received 'DF2' emblems on the doors.

Others car series:

Car series	Built	Door type	Images and notes
CNW 24100-24199	1956	P-S
GBW 900-949	1959	P-S	GBW 909
GBW 1000-1005	1963	P-S
L&C 1000-1019	1952	Superior 7-panel	L&C 1000
L&N 8750-8999	1956	Superior 6-panel	Wore a variety of paint schemes over the years; many were rebuilt, refurbished and /or renumbered. Several cars were fitted with round roof hatches for feldspar loading.  Examples of some of these boxcars can be found in the L&N Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment Vol. 1 (by Steve Johnson, Morning Sun Books, 2000).
LS&I 2500-2620	1966*	Superior 6-panel	LS&I 2601   LS&I2606
MILW 17400-17699	1959	P-S	MILW 17625
MILW 30000-30249	1961	Youngstown
MILW 30250-30649	1961	Youngstown	MILW 30296
MKT 940-948	1961	P-S
SOU 30000-30499	1951	Youngstown	SOU 30453
SOU 30500-32018		Superior 7-panel	SOU 31575
* The LS&I cars were rebuilt from

In addition, LS&I rebuilt 69 40-foot PS-1 boxcars in 1966 with 9-foot doors.  The March 1993 Railmodel Journal has a complete list of new-built 40-foot PS-1 boxcars.

There are no commercially available models to match these cars, but an E&C Shops 50-foot Pullman-Standard boxcar kit can be used as the basis of a kitbashing project. These same kits were also marketed for Branchline Trains. The kits do not have as finely molded details as some of the more recent offerings, but the modifications made for the kitbash will eliminate most of their shortcomings.

The E&C Shops / Branchline Trains 50' PS-1 kit is available with either P-S doors or corrugated (Youngstown) doors. A kit with a P-S door is needed to model a Green Bay & Western boxcar and a corrugated door kit is needed to make a Milwaukee Road model.

Although the E&C Shops Boxcar kit has been out of production since 1998, these kits can be found through some dealers or else check secondhand sources such as eBay. The P-S door models are a little harder to find than the corrugated door models. [ Search eBay for E&C 50' PS-1 boxcar kits ]

The photo below shows nearly all the parts used in this project. The red P-S door body will become the GBW car while the blue body will be used for the MILW car. InterMountain Railway parts will be used for the ends, roof and body details. The underframe and roller bearing trucks from the E&C Shops kit will be used, although one could choose to replace these as well.

[ Table of Contents ]