Detailing Lionel Great Northern "Empire Builder" 8-car Passenger Train by John Rowlen

Still working on the "Lake Ellen Wilson" Station Sounds Dining Car.  I gave the seats a second coat of paint and painted the 1/4" strips of plastic that I will cut into the Seat backs.  I need to let the paint dry overnight before I cut the seat backs and glue them in place.  Then I will fill the seat back joint to the floor cubes with more paint.  If done properly, the seats should look as if they were one piece.

This is the fourth car of eight Great Northern "Empire Builder" passenger cars.  I ordered more paint today so I can mix more rose-tan for seats.

Have a good evening.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

April 9, 2024

It is late and I just finished cutting the Seat Backs and gluing them in place on the Great Northern "Lake Ellen Wilson" Station Sounds Dining Car.

Tomorrow after the glue dries, I will paint the seats a final coat of paint to fill-in joints between the Seat Backs and the molded Cubes in the floor.  Here are a few pictures of my jig to cut seat backs and the current progress on the interior.

Have a good evening.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Thank you for the paint information. I can totally see why you add the seat backs as it makes a big visual difference.

April 9, 2024 11:35 A.M.

Good morning.  The seats have had a coat of paint to fill in cracks between the Seat Backs and the Floor Cubes.  The table tops need several more coats of white paint. I often give them six coats of paint.  The bright LED lights show paint imperfections if the paint is not an even coverage.

I will be doing touch up of imperfections and then will set the car aside until I have painted more Preiser 65602 Seated People.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

April 10, 2024

The interior of the Lionel Great Northern "Lake Ellen Wilson" Station Sounds Dinning Car is completed and waiting for passengers.  I added two coach seats outside the Dining Area for passengers to sit while they wait to be seated for dinner.

I mixed another jar of Rose Tan for the seats in the remaining four Great Northern "Empire Builder" passenger cars.  The dining cars are the only cars in which I put my name.

Have a good evening.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

December 24, 2024 ... I am back working on the Great Northern "Empire Builder" cars after a summer break.  Here are some pictures on the Lionel 2427100 Station Sounds Dining Car "Lake Emily Wilson" #400.  The people are Preiser 65602 Unpainted Seated People that I painted in a variety of colors so that the same person would not appear over and over as the train went past.  Have the Merry Christmas.  Sincerely, John Rowlen

The next car is the Lionel 2427120 Great Northern "Empire Builder" Great Dome "Mountain View" with a medical clinic on the lower level and Full Dome seating above.  The car has lower-level LED lighting and openings along the upper walkway for light to spill into the Great Dome Seating.  Great care was necessary when painting the seats a tan color because the upper interior is not removable.  The Dome snaps off the top of the car to provide access to paint and detail the upper level.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

The Lionel 2427090 Great Northern 2-pack has the "Santium Pass" 10-5 Pullman Sleeper, the only full sleeping car in the set.  I would like to see Lionel offer two more Pullman Sleepers for this "Empire Builder" set.  The interior mold for this car does not have seats in the five center Staterooms. There are also two seats missing from the ten smaller rooms.  I used seven seats from a coach interior to add seats to the center five staterooms and two smaller rooms.  People are placed in the rooms that are under an LED lights in the strip of lights mounted in the roof of the car.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

The next car from Lionel 2427090 2-pack is the Dome Coach #1324.  It is the second Dome Coach with #1321 that comes in the 4-pack set. I tried to avoid putting the same person in the same place as car #1321.  I paint my similar people in five different clothing colors to avoid visual repetition of people as the passenger train goes by.

I already described the need to remove the Dome Seats from the Dome Floor in order to rotate them 180 degrees to face the same way as the lower-level seats.  The Dome Floor has an opening for the Steps and the Handrailing the pokes through the Dome Floor into the Upper area.  The Dome Floor can only be installed one way; therefore, it was necessary to rotate the Dome Seats.

I scored the bottom of the Dome Floor around each Seat Post, then tapped several times with a regular screwdriver to knock the post out of the Dome Floor.  After cleaning up any residual glue, I reglued the seats, rotating them 180 degrees.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

The final four cars to detail come in the Lionel 2427080 Great Northern "Empire Builder" 4-pack.  The other Dome #1321 was treated in a similar way as Dome #1324.  Here are a few pictures of that Dome Coach.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John, 

Amazing work, just found this thread.  Very inspiring, you might get a PM from me in 2025 as I want to do something similar to my Atlas O California Zephyr cars.   

Thanks for the details and all the amazing photos.  Merry Christmas Sir !   

John, these are truly fantastic models!  I always enjoy seeing your artistic work!

@John Rowlen posted:

The next car is the Lionel 2427120 Great Northern "Empire Builder" Great Dome "Mountain View" with a medical clinic on the lower level and Full Dome seating above.  The car has lower-level LED lighting and openings along the upper walkway for light to spill into the Great Dome Seating.  Great care was necessary when painting the seats a tan color because the upper interior is not removable.  The Dome snaps off the top of the car to provide access to paint and detail the upper level.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Extraordinary work -- painting the upper level in situ!

Well done, John!!!

Well done!

Peter

@John Rowlen posted:

The final four cars to detail come in the Lionel 2427080 Great Northern "Empire Builder" 4-pack.  The other Dome #1321 was treated in a similar way as Dome #1324.  Here are a few pictures of that Dome Coach.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Outstanding work. Merry Christmas John.

Lou N.

Merry Christmas!  I did some work on the Great Northern Coach from the Lionel 242337080 4-pack. I took a previously completed interior and installed it in the coach. Here are pictures of the Coach car.

John Rowlen

I also put Preiser 65602 Unpainted Seated People that I painted in the Observation car from the Lionel 24337080 4-pack. I still need to apply Dullkote to some people and glue spots on the car floor.  Tomorrow I will paint the RPO/Baggage car floor with a four-color dry brush texture before gluing a few Postel workers in the car.

John Rowlen