I met Joe McMillan years ago through the railfan photography community. We are practically neighbors living less than a half mile from one another along the fabled Moffat Road in Arvada, CO. To add to this delightful story, Joe’s neighbor next door is Steve Patterson also a friend and like Joe very renowned rail photographer and historian. Like Joe, Steve shared professional experience as railroaders beginning in the late 50s. Joe was eventually director of Safety at AT&SF after a long career with them retiring in 1996. 40 years on now 40 years off, as Joe says, he beat the system on his pension with the AT&SF now BNSF.
That leads me to how this beautiful treasure came into my possession. Joe in the 1980s while acting as Safety director was visiting his friend and retiring outgoing President of AT&SF. While in his office in Chicago, Joe was helping him clean out his closet, wouldn’t you want to do that!? I sure would! Wow. The treasure in that stash huh? In the closet was this Alco PA bronze model. These early pieces operated daily for many years into the 1950s delighting little boys like Joe. The outgoing president gifted it to Joe and he’s kept it along with a incredible collection of artifacts he has from his years at AT&SF including a genuine Indian Head from Alco PA 58 that Joe acquired while it was being scrapped in the late 60s. You can see that Indian Head hanging on the wall behind in this charming photo I took of Joe holding his prize MSI/ALCO PA the day he passed it to me.
IMG_8624 by Erik C Lindgren Fine Art, on FlickrI started to railfan with Joe more than 20 years ago and over the years he and Steve were introduced to my O scale hobby. Steve was an O scale enthusiast sharing a mutual membership at the Denver Society of Model Railroaders at Union Station. Joe displayed his model on his desk in his office since the 1990s running his renowned business McMillan Publishing, specializing in railroad history, books, calendars, and his personal collection of slides. In the last 3 years he’s been doing what Steve has by selling his collection and organization for his heirs. He is 87 years old today and has a big family. I talked Joe into offering the ALCO MSI PA to me, and he gifted it to me in 2023. A treasure I will never part with. I too enjoyed the MSI as a boy and luckily I am old enough to have seen the Warbonnets pulling silver passenger cars in 1985 as a boy, I was 12 and never forgot the experience of a black woman working the control panel offering me the chance to flick the switches running the trains. Shortly after this the MSI remodeled the layout to a more 1990s style intermodal and modernization. I was lucky indeed; funny I’ve not been back since 1985 when my family took me there while living in Iowa.
Below is a photo essay of the model and its left intentionally in original patina. I accompanied it with photos of a genuine postcard from the Museum of Science & Industry dated 1949 and published in Chicago.
I hope you enjoy seeing this beautiful model as much as I do. You can plainly see it’s not a bronze kit so commonly found made by Central Locomotive Works. Also pay close attention, this model is in 1/4 scale not 17/64 or Q gauge like the rest of the M&SF at MSI! Sitting next to my 2010 run Key Model Imports brass model it’s nearly the same size! I no longer have a Central Locomotive Works Q gage PA, they are substantially larger and I would have included it in this essay if I still had one. Also the sculpt and proportions of the CLW PA is far different. I’m told the MSI used CLW PAs later after retiring this one of a kind hand built A/B/A set. Where the other 2 are is anyone’s guess but it’s the lead unit with the coupler cover cast into the pilot and seen in the photo from the post card.
On Facebook a man claimed to be owner of the PA set and posted similar photos and I tried to engage with that discussion and was met by rude comments and typical behavior common to Meta’s platforms. This man owns a modular HO layout and very well may have obtained some of the CLW models which were used later but it’s not the ALCO promotional set that this is in 1/48 scale.
An amazing piece of history and I am very proud to have it. I feel bad it can’t be shared with others at a museum display but in time that may become a possibility.
Essay follows
IMG_8617 by Erik C Lindgren Fine Art, on Flickr
IMG_8598 by Erik C Lindgren Fine Art, on FlickrSome links of interest:
https://www.mcmillanpublications.com/co ... ns/books-1
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDe ... 1_60-_-bdp
