Charles Wales Photo, William Hopkins Collection, early 1948, Washington, DC

Like the B&O Wagontop design, the Milwaukee Road’s ribbed side box cars were unique and therefore immediately identifiable in freight consists. In 1939 and 1940, the Milwaukee constructed 3,188 box cars to the ‘early’ design that utilized ribs that extended the full length of the sides. These cars were an engineering advance as they decreased the light weight of the car by approximately one to three tons. This was especially significant to the Milwaukee since many of the loads that originated on its rails tended to reach the maximum weight limit before attaining the maximum cubic capacity of the car.

Sunshine offers an HO scale resin kit to model these early, full-length rib versions. (see photo of model)