WHAT’S ON THE WORKBENCH AT THE MOMENT

Obtained a postwar Lionel MKT 600 in the spring. It needed a bit of overhaul, cleaning and repainting. I always liked the gray and yellow version of the 600 and since the frame needed repainting anyway, this was the time to do it. The gray is from Hennings Trains and the yellow is Erie Lackawanna yellow. I added LED lighting with headlight lenses from Trainz. The colored paint was applied using airbrush over lacquer primer. It's not perfect but good enough! The locomotive runs well for something as old as this one,

I finished adding constant LED lighting to my two sets of passenger cars.  Six RailKing Western Maryland Scenic Railroad cars and four Lionel New York Central cars.

@Ed Samsen posted:

Missing is a container of "Kitty Treats"

They're kept in the kitchen, not on the workbench so they don't get contaminated with anything that might get him sick. Wouldn't want anything to happen to him and vet bills are high!

Off the workbench today is this 665.

Before

After

It just occurred to me that this engine, 665, has the same number as the house where I got my first Lionel 60 years ago!

Strasburg has acquired a few more cars. The coach is former Long Island and the Combine came from the PRR. Just out of the paint shop.

Pete

I have a few Lionel woodside cabooses that I’m always trying different things on as far as details and lighting. I use Atlas trucks and had flicker free lighting. There’s nothing to see as far as an interior. So the only lights are the Tomar lanterns. I have a designated caboose track in the yard. No toggle switch to shut the power off. So they all sit there with their lanterns lit. Certainly not prototypical. I had read many years ago about adding a magnetic latching relay for lighting cars using battery power.  Rivarossi is doing something nowadays with their Magic Wand lighting. I understand a little bit more today than years ago on electronic projects and decided to give it a try. I used a 9v battery for power and a couple of boards and removed the rollers from my trucks. Seems to be very reliable. It’s just a matter of how long the battery lasts.

Dave, gorgeous as usual!…..any chance you’re adopting adult children?

Pat

@Norton posted:

Strasburg has acquired a few more cars. The coach is former Long Island and the Combine came from the PRR. Just out of the paint shop.

Pete

On a visit to West Albany shops, I was able to see the progress firsthand on these cars,…..Craftsman level quality!….

Pat

Dallas Joseph,the dry transfer decals I buy. The decals I create from pictures are water slide created with an ink jet printer and sealer.

Years ago, I put together a Santa Fe Fast Mail train consist and made a streamlined rider coach to bring up the markers.  Further research told me how the rider coach was almost always a heavyweight combine.  To right this wrong, I sold the streamlined coach at a train show and modified this GGD combine to make a better representation.

It will soon get decals from ProtoCraft, a platform gate from Keil, and RYY markers from Tomar.  It will not be exact, but mighty close...

Thanks to the heat, I’ve found myself deep in my postwar Lionel closet and my box of “to do!”  Top of the list now is a couple of 6464’s with rusty wheels and trucks, not severe but definitely not anything I want to admit to, yet! And in a couple other cases, the door guides have spots of rust. My last attempt at rust removal on the door guides removed all the paint too, and the quick fix was to buy a couple of new sets. But I have the old ones, devoid of paint. Can they be satisfactorily repainted? Which shade of black? Protect against future rust how?

For the wheels and trucks-a couple of hours soaking, tooth brush, Dawn and warm water and an open air dry overnight. Will that protect the bluing or a drop of oil on a cotton cloth wiped over the dry assembly (Cotton swab in the hard to reach spots) protect against future rust or recurring rust..or something else?

like so many others, I learn from everyone here and am so grateful for the many topics.

Dick Lawrence

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Experimenting what I asked Walter M to do a long time ago....

Do you happen to have a picture with the shell off showing the wiring ?

In the process of painting , adding weight, and installing kadee's on menards oil cars. I am changing wheel frames, ladder . Oil car Platform to black from gray. Adding weight to cars and putting kadee # 742 couplers. I have 12 to do. These pictures are a sample of the starting process.

My public service announcement for the day: Always check engine gears and electronics before running them!

This Williams 5207 Hudson came to me from the fine folks at Trainz. Brand new sealed in the plastic. Took the gear box apart (boy, what an over engineered marvel that was taking apart 😂), and low and behold the brass and nylon gears were dry as a bone. Wonder how long that bad boy would've lasted without oil and grease?

Just finished up this Williams kit. Lionel trucks and K4 decals.

Strasburg picked up one more car from the PRR. Just out of the shops and ready for service.

Pete

https://ogrforum.com/...6#177539554876817526

Ross, what paint did you use on your beautiful 665 restore?

I just un-boxed some items picked up from a local online auction.  The description wasn't clear, and the pic was only a box full of pieces and parts, but I took a chance.  It came with a 225E loco and the 2602 baggage that are in pretty rough shape.  I need to find what proper tender came with it.  The other pullman cars and tender are also in rough shape but will make for a great cleaning/restoration project.  My list of things to find to complete the sets increases. prewar

225e needs a 2235w low couplers (2651 freight 2751 series freight  2245w for 2600 passenger cars (high couplers)  both are cast tenders.  there was a tubplate tender 2225w which is a waffle top usually in gunmetal.  Go find a 2600 and 2601  if notseveral 2600 and a 2601

Ed

Note if you cannot locate the proper cast tender, a 2224W can stand in as a 2235 by changing the drawbar   to stand in for a 2245W change the rear truck to the high couplerand the drawbar.  NOTE the prewar box couplers I would use are the ones with the simulated knuckle coupler on the box  aka 1940 pattern

Ed

Regarding a suitable replacement for the boiler front, would one from an early 736 work? 

@sclouse

I used Krylon Colormax satin black, then waited several days before spraying Rustoleum Matte Clear over it.

@Ross posted:

@sclouset

...then waited several days before spraying Rustoleum Matte Clear over it.

Yep. It's dry to the touch in minutes but continues to off-gas and 'cure' for a few days 👍

@woodsyT posted:

Yep. It's dry to the touch in minutes but continues to off-gas and 'cure' for a few days 👍

HAs the paint krinkled? Krylon paint is usually incompatible with other brands such as Rustoleum.  Rustoleum makes a satin black the looks very good on Lionel locomotives.

No, it didn’t crinkle. I have had that issue in the past, but waited probably a week or more before spraying and used very light coats.

PEOPLE  ,  PAINTING ,  PLAYING WITH LIGHT WIRING .

Never worked on one of these Streamliner cars before.

MTH Railking with different  ( for me )   incadescent light strips .   Changing to GRJ's module with LED light strips.

The incadescencts had the spring and pad type connector for the top tier metal strips with the micro bulbs. The lower cabin had the metal strips with the micro bulbs also.

  Definitely something I had never encountered while doing LED installs on standard Madison and Streamline passenger cars.........kind of fun giving the gray matter a new experience.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

PEOPLE  ,  PAINTING ,  PLAYING WITH LIGHT WIRING .

Never worked on one of these Streamliner cars before.

MTH Railking with different  ( for me )   incadescent light strips .   Changing to GRJ's module with LED light strips.

The incadescencts had the spring and pad type connector for the top tier metal strips with the micro bulbs. The lower cabin had the metal strips with the micro bulbs also.

  Definitely something I had never encountered while doing LED installs on standard Madison and Streamline passenger cars.........kind of fun giving the gray matter a new experience.

Dallas, here's my thread on upgrading the Premier versions.

MTH Amtrak Superliner LED Upgrade in Pictures

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Dallas, here's my thread on upgrading the Premier versions.

MTH Amtrak Superliner LED Upgrade in Pictures

Looks like your Premier had the same setup inside John.  The one I'm working on is a 1998 30-6503.

I like how you kept your wiring professional looking and retained an easy access to the interior floors.

I eliminated the molex connectors and the spring connectors ..........at the expense of an orderly looking wiring job.    Everything I did was soldered from the truck to the light strips.

Thanks for sharing John.......first time I saw a post on this Amtrak Superliner subject.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Looks like your Premier had the same setup inside John.  The one I'm working on is a 1998 30-6503.

I like how you kept your wiring professional looking and retained an easy access to the interior floors.

I eliminated the molex connectors and the spring connectors ..........at the expense of an orderly looking wiring job.    Everything I did was soldered from the truck to the light strips.

Thanks for sharing John.......first time I saw a post on this Amtrak Superliner subject.

I try to have the ability to separate each part of the car, drives me nuts when they're hard-wired together when I'm working on them later.

My current project is a not working K Line shay from ebay. It works now .

I verified that the sounds worked, but no motor movement at all. Thought I would just replace the K Line cruise board with a cruise M, but they might be available again in December. Since I have always wanted a shay but they need a bigger layout, cost an arm and a leg, that when I found this one I knew it was mine and could not wait to get it on the layout running! So, I installed a Tsunami2 4400 inside after stripping it of all electronics except the tach board, thinking I might be able to use that if I decide to install a super chuffer. I did not replace the lights with LED's this time around, the dyno light is way cool effect, way better than with LEDs! I even have a firebox flickering glow that's pretty neat also. I found a polar express berk bell that will fit in the yoke, just need to install it and I have to make the two pipes that are missing from the top of the boiler. What I paid for the loco and the upgrades is still less than what they are selling for on ebay so I'm really happy with it so far!

Need to stop buying loco's so I can get my projects list reduced, LOL!

Darrell, it looks and sounds great.  Am I correct that Tsunami is a DCC operated product?

Williams N5C caboose.  Beautiful car but the stock couplers are 3/32" too high.  So I retrucked the car with Lionel trucks and pickup shoes.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Darrell, it looks and sounds great.  Am I correct that Tsunami is a DCC operated product?

Mark, thank you and yes the Soundtrax Tsumani2 is a DCC decoder, command and sound all on one board. It is the older brother to the Bluenami 4408. It  does not have bluetooth so I use a Digitrax 8 amp DCC system to run it. There is a hobby shop up north in Phoenix that always seems to have them in stock so that is what I use now. There just was no room inside for a Cruise commander and a Sound commander inside the shay, so that was not an option and would have added to the cost of the project.

I'm just happy that after all these years of wanting one that would run on my 042 and 031 curves, I now have one!

@Darrell posted:

Mark, thank you and yes the Soundtrax Tsumani2 is a DCC decoder, command and sound all on one board. It is the older brother to the Bluenami 4408. It  does not have bluetooth so I use a Digitrax 8 amp DCC system to run it. There is a hobby shop up north in Phoenix that always seems to have them in stock so that is what I use now. There just was no room inside for a Cruise commander and a Sound commander inside the shay, so that was not an option and would have added to the cost of the project.

I'm just happy that after all these years of wanting one that would run on my 042 and 031 curves, I now have one!

Darrell, having a hobby shop that has the Tsunami decoders in stock almost all the time is a big plus when compared to other systems that are only available once in a while.  I'm not naming any names here. 

I most certainly agree Mark!

I installed the Polar Express bell and replaced the missing piping with some 20 gauge flower stem wire from Micheal's. At this point the project is about done and I'm having a blast running it around the layout!

Years ago, I made and printed decal sets for GARX insulated boxcars (the boxcars Atlas makes for the HO people but not us) **snarky voice inserted**.  Today I discovered how K4 Decals is making these same sets for QA&P Rwy.  Many other major railroads leased these cars which carried GARX reporting marks and numbers but sported the leasing railroad’s logo. For my next major project I have been buying Atlas Napierville Junction 50’ PS-1 cushion cars for very reasonable prices, and all the while thinking I would have to print more decals. Not so!  Later, I will need to buy short shanked couplers for the Atlas trucks since GARX cars were not cushion cars, and the Napierville Jct. models have simulated cushioned shanks.
   Side thought: I remember working in East yard as a new hire and watching a load get kicked fairly swiftly into a cushion car…everything on the track moved with the force of the joint except the body of that cushion car. Then very slowly the body crept to get in line with its underframe. It looked weird.
Pictures later this year.
K4 is “the Bomb”.

I need some 763e parts advice.  I bid on an item in a local online auction that seemed to contain a prewar 268w tender, and the 618 caboose, 810 Crane, and 812 gondola.  The pic also showed an outline of a loco in the corner of the pic so I took a chance.  There were some neat old items so I was willing to pay a bit more hoping that I would be redeemed.   When I went to retrieve the box, I found it included the 763E, and also some neat old accessories including a 6457 caboose and 2671w tender in really nice condition.  I ended up paying $260 for the lot.   

However, the 763e loco has two driver wheels with broken flanges, the lead truck wheels are chipped and cracked, and the trailing truck wheels are notched and one of the spoked wheels has dissolved around the axel.  Wondering if it got dropped or something.  It clearly hasn't been run as the driver wheels turn but seem to be really gummed up. Other than that, it looks to be in great shape.

Questions:

1. How do I go about finding replacement driver wheels/rims?
2. How does one replace driver wheels on a loco like this?
3. How do I go about finding the replacement wheels for the trucks?
4. Are there wheels from other Lionel locos that will work?

Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

Also, the loco, tender, and cars all seem so large in comparison to other Lionel prewar tinplate items (comparing my Lionel #2657 caboose to the #617).  Why is that?  When I first took the items out of the box I thought they might be standard gauge.  The tender wheels are huge!

I'm also realizing that the loco is missing the cow catcher, the pin that connects the tender, and the tender might be missing some grab bars.

Just picked up this 1952 Lionel 2032 Erie set with custom painted 2400 passenger cars. They have not been ran in years so I have to replace the battery, clean, lube and see if she goes around the track.