20+ years ago I had a beater 2531 observation car--I can't recall how I ended up with it; probably wanted it for parts.
So one train night in the late Rich Sherry's basement, I mentioned that I'd like to see a dome in this observation car. One of the other guys heard this and told me to bring the shell and a vista dome next week and he'd cut the roof. He later brought back to me the cut shell and dome, and all I did was put them in a box.
Today I was doing a lot of train stuff and decided to assemble the car and put it on the small loop of track under the Christmas tree to be pulled by the childhood 2356 AA's:
This was more a proof of concept since the shell itself is in bad shape as evidenced by the poor fit of the vestibule car end. I also installed the LIONEL dome interior that is now offered in standard dome cars. Pretty neat set-up, but can't be seen here because of the beater dome I used. It also prevents the rear light from being installed. Time for some LED's if I were to do this for real.
Doing this brought back a lot of memories of the late Rich Sherry and the many pleasant train nights spent in his basement with similar enthusiasts.