I bought 4 Lionel cars because the price was right at 15 bucks. The 6656 cattle car has a broken end, a simple fix, but looking at the plastic, it is clear with a coat of yellow paint. I never knew they were made with clear plastic. I stumbled across a note to never clean a red painted Lionel car, and the main reason I grabbed these four is that it had a red 6464 M&StL box car in the set. Three of these cars are the dirtiest I have ever seen, the 4th, the #6819 red helo car is dirty but not like the rest, and the suggestion to never clean a red painted car and just use a brush will be a totally useless endeavor. Any thoughts on cleaning the red cars...or was that bogus info?
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Wow. I just bought a really nice red Lionel caboose last week at the flea market, and it was bright red but dirty.
I sure didn't know that you weren't suppose to clean a red Lionel car. I cleaned it with a little warm water, and mild detergent, . . . and now it is a dull red!
I thought that maybe the prior owner had "waxed" it and that I had just washed off the wax.
Looks like I am the sucker now, and I will have to be the one to wax it if I want it to be bright again. :-(
Can you maybe spray a clear coat on it to bring back the shine?
Mannyrock
I use Future floor wax to bring out the shine on my model cars.
I appreciate the tip, I didn’t know that either. Everyday is a new experience, thank you very much. Happy Railroading Everyone
If you had a digital subscription, you could watch THIS VIDEO by the late Jim Barrett, former OGR Backshop Foreman. He shows you exactly how to safely clean your trains. You would also have access to over 300 issues of OGR!
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Well, I do get Trains, Classic Trains, and Classic Toy Trains, but not OGR, and that for the same reason I don't get Model Railroader, a subscription I had for a couple decades.