I know ... this mini-project may not be "worth it" as a value-added enhancement and may negate its value in the marketplace, but it was fun to do as a unique venture. It started as a modest project to create a locomotive that could pull a non-motorized track cleaning car (Lionel 6-36878) around my L-shaped layout. Then the LAAFS (Let's Add Another Feature Syndrome) struck.
To the original 520 loco, I added LEDs in its four rooftop headlight nacelles with cover lenses, eight porthole side windows, an ornamental horn, and an ornamental bell. I modified the other 520 loco to a "dummy" unit. I cut away the top half of its not-needed AC motor to make interior room for a Lionel sound card with horn and bell sounds and an accompanying speaker. Then I added LEDs in its four rooftop headlight nacelles with cover lenses, eight porthole side windows, an ornamental horn, and an ornamental bell. I installed new rooftop pantographs because both original ones were lost, and I replaced the missing fixed couplers.
Lionel Sound Activation Buttons (6-5906) were already installed on my layout for use with a Railsounds boxcar, so the horn and bell sounds within the 520 "dummy" unit are activated with those buttons. The powered 520 loco, although not a "strong puller," now escorts the "dummy" 520 and the Track Cleaning Car around the layout smartly -- like "the little engine that could."
Mike Mottler LCCA 12394
