Junk Bin Finds into Custom Engines and Cars

I have a project of turning a junk Lionel 804 into a stationary storage tank. It's on the back burner though.

In the past, I took some old flat cars, glued HO track to it, and made the HO Disney World set into a load

Yes, this, to me, is one of the most rewarding aspects of the hobby.  Marx never made a baggage car in their scale series.  The coaches can be converted into such.  These were made from junk coaches of the version that had no windows punched out, but only lithographed indentations into the metal sides.  The NYC had some of the simulated windows puttied in; the ATSF uses photo paper; i.e. a photo of another baggage car.

I had three C&O TOFCs that I chopped down into shorty flat cars.  They now haul 1/2 sections of tinplate track for Lionel Steel.

The lead unit shown in the first photo here was a junker.  It came to me as a house-paint splattered Kusan dummy.  A lot of sanding, then painting to match the factory dummy, and finally K-Line running gear, made me a nice AA pair.  The second shot shows the Kusan factory dummy along with a nicer example of the junker model.