A little help please.

Do I grind the rivet off from above or drill from below.  I think the new trucks attach with screws so no need for a rivet tool.  How do y'all do this?  Is there a forum section for basic questions?  Using O27 track, what is the best spacing for parallel runs?  I don't have any long cars yet but want to plan ahead.  I downloaded a paper house kit. By the time it was printed on quality paper and assembled, I could have bought a finished building.  Are Department 56 houses 1/48 scale?  Do postwar engines take well to repainting?  I want Southern RR rolling stock.  Is the lionel 6-82962 a good entry level engine?  I was the fireman on the real 4501.  It must somehow be in my fleet.  I know that's a lot to take in but I want to start smart.

Hi Bill,

I live in Leeds so we are almost neighbors. I just disassembled my 4x8 layout because we need our living room for holiday entertaining. I may set it up in the basement pretty soon.

There are lots of guys on here that are vastly more knowledgeable than me but I will try to point you in the right direction.  A forum search turns up a thread from 2012 on removing/replacing trucks. Some folks recommend using needle nose pliers to remove the rivet because there’s a danger of melting plastic by drilling out the rivet. I will say the trucks may be worth more than the box car. Menards sells a nice looking Southern box car for 19.99. 

The 6-82962 Southern Mikado is a really nice Lionchief Plus engine. Lionel’s website says it’s rated for O31 curves so it may not handle 027. Someone on the forum can probably tell you if it will work for you. 

Dept 56 buildings are a little larger than O scale but they look fine. They are widely used on layouts. Kind of expensive though. A lot of kits and assembled buildings show up in the For Sale forum. Train shows are a great place to find buildings but we don’t have many in our area. Smokey City Rails is an HO club that puts on a show at the Bessemer Civic Center every couple of years. It’s not a big show but I found some good stuff last year.

If you post in the Wanted to Buy forum that you want Southern RR rolling stock you will certainly get some offers at very reasonable prices.

Anything in the Lionchief Plus line will be a great entry level engine. I have the Southern Rr NW2 switcher. It has a lot of features lacking in the postwar engines but the grandchildren can easily run it when they come over.

It’s great you were a fireman on the 4501. I bet you could post some fascinating stories in the Real Trains forum. They would be well-received.

Good luck with your layout. This is a great hobby.

My email is in my profile. Perhaps we could get together sometime after my layout is back up. It’s not much but I have great hopes for expansion.

Mark

 

Thanks for the reply Mark.  I will do as you suggest and will contact you by email.  I will post a picture of me on the 4501's coal tender today.

Odenville Bill

Odenville looks like a nice place.  You even have R&R BBQ right near the RR.  

 

 

My humble start

Looking good.  Watch your speed. They do not put landing gear on locomotives 😳

Watch the heat. Let it cool if need be. Drilling works. If you can hold the rivet. I like to grind the head off with a reenforced Dremel disc. If the shaft is expanded I make an X across the top of the shaft and pull some before I break down to giinding it flush and pull. You might want to note the heights if it is an operating car or something. Not all trucks sit at identical heights. (couplers do). In fact I bet a couple swaps couldnt happen. Putting the new ones on, you want some play, but not so much the car lists badly. Track has to be water level perfection to run them real tight.

Good tips, thank you.  New trucks due in today.

Bill the best tip I can you since you're just starting out is go "O" instead of 0-27 if you can afford it and the bigger the curves the better if you have the space. 0-27 curves and switches will limit the engines and rolling stock you can use to older and smaller equipment.  A lot of the newer engines and definitely anything scale will have trouble negotiating 0-27.

Thank you for the reply Joe.  I think I just received my first "scale surprise."  On an impulse, I ordered a Lionel 6-17601 caboose.  It looks out of place with my old stuff.  It is a whole size bigger than my 1960 vintage Texas Special!  It sparks going over my very old manual switches.  Good thing it is pretty.  I have a new engine due in Thursday.  It is a lionel 6-82962, Mikado.  Now I wonder what size I bought for my first new engine.  Are the wheel flanges taller on the "O scale"?   Do I need special switches?  What have I gotten myself into now?

Bill,

Why don't you add an 031 tubular track loop around the outside of your existing layout and just simply leave the 027 like it is. You could run the 027 trains on their track like you're doing now and run your larger equipment on the new outside loop. I looked at your pictures and you will probably have to extend your train table outward somewhat to accommodate a new loop. You would also have two train operation with this arrangement. Also, your existing 027 equipment will negotiate the o gauge loop with no problem. O gauge tubular track is available on the secondary market at reasonable prices too.

George

Thanks George.  All help is needed at this point.

I have that caboose. I don’t remember having any problems with it other than it is too tall to pass under a track on Lionel trestles.  I have 027 profile track but a lot of my curves are 042. An 042 curves fight nicely on a 4 ft table.

My new engine arrived.  The Lionel Southern 4501.  It does not like my old manual switches.  I bet it won't like any of the 5 remote control switches I ordered last week either.  What kind of switches do I need???  I really like the smooth operation at low speed.  The crew should have a southern drawl.  Ref. photo 1 - is that supposed to be a coupler?

Basically with some "modern era" model train designs anything under 0-36 or 0-42 seems almost like luck. Go as big as you have room to if you might one day have plans of bigger locomotives. In fact, consider mixing in GarGraves or other more squared rail to handle any smaller flanges you may find.

The real deep flanges bottoming on 0-27 was a rare few or some loco, maybe prewar? I had a couple things as a kid that hit some O27 ties.and clipped Super O rail holders so hard you couldn't run them.

Newer wheels have a fast angle vs flat tread; and with that, smaller flanges that ever it seems, that perform the same or better really.

As far as that loco goes, most new have an "advertised minimum curve" if you search out the documentation on Lionels site it's usually there as an searchable ad/catalogged styled page and/or in the manual.

But keep in mind even the postwar Berk couldn't pull off O-27 curves and some old diesel rollers on long roller arms will drop off the center rail on O27 curves as well.

  Coupler variances in size over the years means occasionally some bind happen on 0-27, 0-32. 

Nicer scale locos tend to need a min. starting in the 50s.

How is the loco not making the turnout? Does it hit something? Does it derail from too tight a curve? Or is it electrical shut down?

The electrical timing of rollers moving across the turnout rails is never perfect for ever type of switch, car, or loco.  Adding a tether from loco to tender roller is the best fix usually making it a very "universal engine" from then on in. Other times a roller swap will work well.

O gauge 022 turnouts are one of the smoothest. 

Less prototypical looks wise, and point operation wise, very basic so needing home spun ant derail, Marx prewar are the smoothest turnouts because there are no frogs, diamonds, big gaps or guides rails. 

 

Bill, the flanges shouldn't be causing the problem it's the radius of the curve.  0-=27 is too tight for longer wheel base drivers like anything with 8 drive wheels, even some with only 6 drive wheels.  On switches longer wheel base locos and rolling stock hit the switch controller, on remote switches it's the little housing for the solenoid that operates the switch.  on straight 0-27 track you shouldn't have a problem.  Some forum members like the lower profile of the 0-27, slightly more realistic.  0-27 does come in some larger radii, I've got a 42" outer loop and there are even some switches with 42" radius diverging tracks.  I believe there are even some larger 0-27 profile radii available although they may be hard to come by.

The only time the height of the 0-27 rails may become a problem is with some older locos that gears cast into the back side of drive wheels.  I seem to remember threads where thees gears cause problems.