Let us see your Homemade Lionel (or Other) Style Cars or Engines you have Made or Modified

I re-decaled this Lionel REA Boxcar today 

not a very good picture but you can get was I was trying to make. scale rail posted:

Thanks Charlie, they are fun to build. It made me feel like I was in the 1950's again. I love building kits but there are so few of them anymore. LaBelle is one of the last. I have a small stack of them now, but not a lot of time. Don

Really Cool! You got me motivated. I just ordered 2 kits from LaBelle. 

Any recommendations on brand of glue and paint would be appreciated. 

Thanks,

Jeff

Well, I'm not much help but I used thick super glue and the last of my Floquil paint. Haven't switched over to water base yet. Don

I hope you O gauge guys can forgive me for this one.  I assure you that the shell was from a junk box which cost me the grand sum of $3.  S guys have known for years that O27 rolling stock is close to 1:64 scale.  The "Baby Ruth" style double door car is withing scale inches of being a perfect fit.  So this one became what you see in the last photo.  Scalecoat paint and dry transfers came into play and a frame from my parts box plus a couple of trucks finished off the car.  With the car rolling down the track at train shows, nobody can tell its origin.

As a PS to the above post, here's another O27 conversion, but this time a direct frame swap.  In the photo you see (left to right): an American Flyer car (which is based on a small prototype PRR car), the O27 car, and an American models true to scale boxcar.  The O27 car fits in quite nicely, and in this case with a minimum of fuss.

 Argh. I love Baby Ruth cars 😨 But that looks good too😬

I keep thinking I've met you at lunch a long time ago Jerry. Maybe at Miller's or Kiernan's, Andiamo's, or the Market? ...🤔 early day Skeeball at the "Mouse house" off Graph on Miave ?! 😶 🤔  

JDS repainted the Halloween loco for me last year.

Lets hope for a better year this year.

Using Marx 3152 and second hand Lionel cars previously painted, the Seattle Sounder seemed a good inspiration to create a conversion consist.

I made add on's  for the LONE RANGER SET. Makes a full battery

added a cannon and cannon balls stack and a gunpowder vat.

GG1GUYY

I made some "Trailers" for my Burro crane. 

I started out with a Lionel 4 wheel gondola (6-9030) from the Kickapoo Valley & Northern starter set (ca:1970)  These cars can be found for a few dollars at train shows.  They were made in red, yellow and green.  Lionel may have used them in other sets, also.

I separated the body from the base by gently prying the sides of the body until the molded in latches released.

The sides of the car were painted Reefer Yellow.  The deck was painted RR Tie Brown.  The running gear, wheels and couplers were lightly painted with Rust.

I left one gondola intact.  After painting and weathering, I  added a ballast load.  Extruded foam insulation was cut to size and shaped to the proper contour.  I sprayed gray primer on the foam, which reacted causing a rough surface.  While the primer was still wet, I covered the surface with ballast.  A Woodlands Scenics figure was added.

When hooked up to a Burro crane they make a respectable MOW train for the section gang.

Tom

Can someone please recommend a source for military miniatures in or close to O Scale?

 Thanks, Jeff 

Up grading and making a Cheap Lionel General 4-4-0 dc Locomotive more Functional and Beautiful

A cheap Lionel General 4-4-0, 8005 dc powered set with coal tender and Lionel 9541 Santa Fe Railway Agency Express Passenger car was obtained to have two 4-4-0s like the Great Locomotive Chase of the Civil war. 

I added a full wave rectifier and changed the Lionel 8005 to ac operation although in one direction.

A forward/reverse selector switch was added for manual reversal.

The Lionel 8005 was painted, along with the red and silver front wheels and painted domes.  The body and stack were painted Black.  Gold stripping was added to dress up.  Much more beautiful !

Here is picture of the smoke stack spark screen I made from a piece of fiberglass window shade screen I had laying around.

The forward/reverse switch was mounted by the door in the rear of the cab.

The Generals getting ready for The Great Locomotive Chase.

A fun and easy project to improve a cheapo General 4-4-0 loco.

Charlie

Choo Choo Charlie, that Vanderbilt tender is just a super idea. I wish I had thought of that one, but that's okay... You did.

And I love Gandydancer's reefers made from the short 027 box cars. I asked him about it at one time, and if I recall correctly, they're printed paper sides on modified sides to the car. In his photos, they look so good. The car ladders and door hinges look so 3-dimensional. There's a project I really want to get to myself.

I've repainted the normal Lionel traditional reefers, and have lowered the truck mount so that the cars ride lower, with their overall height now closer to the shorter Lionel, MARX and K-Line box cars. But I still like the shorter length of Gandydancer's versions.

And here's a couple more little projects of mine. I wanted some modern looking tank cars, so using the Lionel 027 body, I built a new frame to mimic the appearance of the newer unibody tank cars. And of course, Procor is a common name seen on tank cars. The bright green ones caused a sensation in the HO world when they first appeared on the real rails. Although black tank cars are certainly more common on the rails, the bright green appealed to the toy train guy inside me.

Below that is a MOW crane flat that I made using a crane from a kid's toy truck. The flat car was an old beat up MARX one. The crane boom goes up and down, and also rotates around, but the crane hook is stationary.  For me, it's mostly the appearance of having a MOW crane car on a train.

The red painted fuel tank came from some dollar store kid's farm tractor toy. I added a figure to inside the cab of the crane also. The smoke coming out of the tractor smoke stack is from the fiber used inside pillows, which I think looks way better than the cotton so many have used in the past.

brianel_k-lineguy posted:

Choo Choo Charlie, that Vanderbilt tender is just a super idea. I wish I had thought of that one, but that's okay... You did.

And I love Gandydancer's reefers made from the short 027 box cars. I asked him about it at one time, and if I recall correctly, they're printed paper sides on modified sides to the car. In his photos, they look so good. The car ladders and door hinges look so 3-dimensional. There's a project I really want to get to myself.

I've repainted the normal Lionel traditional reefers, and have lowered the truck mount so that the cars ride lower, with their overall height now closer to the shorter Lionel, MARX and K-Line box cars. But I still like the shorter length of Gandydancer's versions.

And here's a couple more little projects of mine. I wanted some modern looking tank cars, so using the Lionel 027 body, I built a new frame to mimic the appearance of the newer unibody tank cars. And of course, Procor is a common name seen on tank cars. The bright green ones caused a sensation in the HO world when they first appeared on the real rails. Although black tank cars are certainly more common on the rails, the bright green appealed to the toy train guy inside me.

Below that is a MOW crane flat that I made using a crane from a kid's toy truck. The flat car was an old beat up MARX one. The crane boom goes up and down, and also rotates around, but the crane hook is stationary.  For me, it's mostly the appearance of having a MOW crane car on a train.

The red painted fuel tank came from some dollar store kid's farm tractor toy. I added a figure to inside the cab of the crane also. The smoke coming out of the tractor smoke stack is from the fiber used inside pillows, which I think looks way better than the cotton so many have used in the past.

 

Brianel, I hate Conrail. But that's the first Conrail vehicle ever that I didn't hate. It looks pretty sharp.

Nice work on the crane Brian

Here’s a Lionel Standard O Boxcar I repainted and decaling  in NYC 

choochoopaul posted:

You have to be old to remember these being shipped to power plants around the country.

Those look like preamp tubes for my Marshall amp. 😎

Guitarmike posted:

choochoopaul posted:

You have to be old to remember these being shipped to power plants around the country.

Those look like preamp tubes for my Marshall amp. 😎

Another fine example of what you can do by combining a flatcar with imagination.

Here's a wood side gondola I fabricated from the base of a Fundimensions crane car and craft sticks.

Since at least the 1960's boxcar catwalks have been prohibited. I decided to try removing them on several boxcars. Since they are not add-ons but are molded into the plastic, I used a Dremel tool to get the job done, along with a hobby file to cut down the recessed areas. I also shortened the ladders on the ends and sides. Final picture is one with the roof weathered.

Terry

We had need to haul flamingos on our layout, so we modified an MTH Premier stock car for dedicated flamingo transport:

I made the CN boom car from an MTH TOFC car with compartments and toolboxes underneath. Atlas trucks were used instead of MTH to lower the car.

This storage mail car began life as a Williams 72’ REA Mail/Express car. It was Pullman green, but it had gold pin striping (which I did not like).  I tried to sell it cheap at a train show, and I tried to sell it on eBay but nobody wanted it.  So I decided to keep it, but change it into something more appealing to me. 

I always liked the look of an old silver painted, grimey baggage car. It would look at home in a cut of ATSF outfit cars, too. 

My opinion of Williams stuff has never been favorable except for this type of car. It is well constructed, easy to disassemble, and seems to have accurate dimensions. 

If I stumble onto some realistic diaphragms they will be added.

Started out as a K-Line "Krackle" caboose, turned it into an old CNJ "plywood" caboose...

Flared spark arrestors, ala Frisco:

Not a Lionel car or engine, but...….  thought this might be of interest to some one.

A few yrs ago and recently I bought several Lionel 455-23 oil drums, decided to drill them out.

Center punch the center where you want to drill the barrel out. If you want a barrel to look rusted out, offset the center punch approx. 1/16" off center, the drill bit will cut slightly along the outer edge.

Approx 1/8" drill bit for pilot hole, 13/32" drill bit for finished hole.

I used 2 strip's of luan to hold the barrels in the vice clamp to help secure and prevent the barrel from rotating while drilling.

Track cleaning car made out of a MTH test weight car.

Tom

Okay, Trussman, I understand that you drilled out some of the barrels to make them "rusted out." But why did you drill out the other ones?

Trussman,
I did this same thing a few weeks ago because I needed an empty barrel. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it drilled out!

Vincent Massi posted:

Okay, Trussman, I understand that you drilled out some of the barrels to make them "rusted out." But why did you drill out the other ones?

To put things in like shovels, pipes, trash barrels, burn barrels and stacked on their sides as empty barrels, just to names a few.

An experiment with a boneyard gondola, "rusted" using off the shelf spray paints and some bulging sides created by using white glue.

JB, that is one realistic-looking old gondola.

Vincent Massi posted:

JB, that is one realistic-looking old gondola.

I learned the glue technique from a Lionel.com blog 2 or 3 years ago. Doesn’t really show well in the photos, but it is amazing what some blobs of white glue can do to create that bulge effect.

Here is a New York Ontario & Western R.R Inspection locomotive that me and my brother made It was the locomotive from the 8410 Redwood Valley set. I got on eBay for $38. It still needs handrails and decals. 

Here is a better view of the modified tender with real coal. Tool boxes are also custom.

Here is what the locomotive looked before it was modified. 

You fellows really amaze me with the clever ideas and super construction.  Great work.  After more than 30 years in model railroading there are several things I have never seen before.

I really like that New York Ontario & Western R.R Inspection locomotive by Porter09.  A very unique car and an operating engine to boot.  I bet no one else has one of these !

Charlie

This weaver boxcar doesn't possess the realism of an Atlas Trainman or Masterline car, but I couldn't pass on it since it is C & S.  You just don't see a lot of C & S / F W & D cars for sale.  So, I added lube plates and ACI badges, weathered it with Chihuahua desert dust, and dull-coated it.  Because of the wheelsets, it still looks somewhat like a 2 year old wearing his father's work boots, but I thought it looks better.

K-Line Mikado with added feature.

I got 2 - A&WP #290 (Now Lionel makes one - but I like my K-Line more) and Frisco #4018 with a matching caboose.  Not a lot of options for us Southerners - especially in the steam era!  But nice to see Lionel trying, but much cheaper to get on the secondary market and re-letter!  I'd like to find another K-Line Pacific undecorated and letter for Western Railway of Alabama.

lee drennen posted:

 I’ve been working on some all nations cars here is the latest one I have almost complete I also cut down some Lionel Trucks to lower it 

Nice work Lee',  I love the All Nations kits'.  Questione for you, What size and type screws are you using to install MTH trucks the cars?  Thanks in advance Lee for your help'.. 

Memories from when my son was little.

all from the junk boxes. Rusty 1630s and a 1631 repainted in the Ives Black Diamond colors

and two broken 1666 shells made into a 4-8-4