Milton Train Works™

Custom kits and custom models

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This remarkable custom kit builds a handsome model of a stockcar.

Stockcars were an American invention, introduced in the mid 1800s as a way to transport livestock of various kinds. Thousands were used in great blocks by various western railroads to collect cattle from railheads in frontier towns such as Amarillo and Dodge City, and transport them to the great meat packing cities of Chicago and Kansas City, where the slaughterhouses awaited.

This model is the first Milton Train Works™ kit to feature animation. More about that later.

Instruction Cover shot

Side View

This side view shows the sharp red and black color scheme of this car. It gives a sense for the size of the car, compared to MTW-2001 (on the left) and MTW-1001 (on the right). In this shot the sliding door is closed. This car simulates a mid period unit, with wooden slats but a pressed steel door.

You can see both horses in their respective windows.

This shows the door open. One of the horses is visible in the window. As you can see the horse is pivoted close to the window. I posed it that way for the shot but in operation the horses wil pivot and bob as the car moves across any unneveness in your track geometry (curves, switches, changes in gradient or even just rough spots are enough to activate the mechanism).

Why bobbing horses? As a young boy I had one of the famed Lionel^® "Bobbing horse" cars. It was not practical to get the horse heads to actually hang out the windows but I was able to get them to bob nicely.

Three Quarters View

End View

This shot gives a good view of the end, which has ventilation. Some stock cars used ventilated ends and some had pressed steel ends, it varied by manufacturer. Ventilation was a good thing, sometimes it got a little messy in those cars and some draft helped!

The shot also shows that the car is a bit taller than the MTW-2001 switcher behind it. This is prototypical, engines were not always taller than all rolling stock. MTW-1003 looks good on the tight radius curves we're stuck with. While I wanted a nice beefy car, it's not so big that it looks silly navigating S bends.

A closeup showing the details around the door and the window. You can just see the black plate that the horses balance on. Parts are included to build the car with a plain floor if Lionel^® style swaying horses are not of interest to you. The instructions show both ways.

Similarly, while most pictures show a flat roof, you get parts and instructions to build a ridged roof that simulates pressed steel roofs of the more modern era as well as (by omitting the underlying ribs) the flat roof shown.

Note also the truck detail. I'm rather pleased with how the grey rounds simulate the truck rigging, and I've standardised on this truck where car length allows it (this is the same truck used in MTW-1002).

Window Detail View

Excerpt from color instructions

As with all Milton Train Works™ models, you get a fantastic set of instructions, featuring cropped views, cutaways, subassemblies and other nuances to make this a fast and fun build. These instructions, while not quite "The LEGO^® Group" quality, are amazingly close and are thorough and accurate. They will allow you to quickly and correctly assemble this set. You will receive a high quality printed or photocopied set of instructions, as well as all the required parts to create one instance of the set.

Here we have another excerpt from the instructions. This image shows the ribbed roof version of the car. You get parts and instructions for both the smooth roof (older style) and pressed steel roof versions.

These instructions were created with MLCad, an LDraw compatible CAD modeling program especially designed for use with LEGO^® and compatible elements. After the painstaking transcription, I checked the instructions for accuracy, generated the parts list and had a fellow Bricksmith^TM print them, doublesided, on a color laser printer, ensuring that you get the sharpest instructions offered by any limited run custom LEGO^® kit producer on the market today. (B&W instructions are included, color instructions are an optional extra cost item, inquire for details)

Please note, special newly devised techniques have been employed in the instruction generation and rendering process to ensure that the part outlines are clearly visible and that you will have no trouble telling part boundaries whether you get color or black and white instructions.

Sorry, instructions are NOT available separately. No exceptions.

Roof ribs from instructions

Here is a scene from a layout (my International System Creativity Contest entry, to be exact) showing several of these beauties in action.

In this shot you can see how good they look in a loading scene. Extra horses (you get 2 per car) and corrals are not included, of course.

Layout scene

Showing off for the Schoolmarm

This model, the seventh all new and completely original design from Milton Train Works is sure to be very popular, and these may be a collectors item some day, since this is a strictly limited run.

Don't let this opportunity pass you by, your layout needs one (or more) of these. It's just the thing for giving your horses a ride, or bringing some realistic action to your layout. Bid today!

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