Lionel 1920's bare-metal tinplate passenger cars? #607-607-608

They look good. 

 you did lots of work. Good to hear you got them running.

I have an American flyer cattle car that has lost most of the paint on the roof.  I wonder if someone used a cleaner on them to polish them and over time with handling the paint came off? I have found Lionel paint on prewar cars to be very soft.  Kept in a hot apartment and handled a lot, the paint may not last 70 years...

George

I'd run'm

They look great, like the straw idea for gauging the wheels.

Question: Is there any paint under the roofs or inside the car itself?
If no paint trace on the roofs, one of the previous owners may of removed the paint to expose the tin plating (would lookl nice) and over the years the tin worn off in spots and started to oxidize. The car may of been stored in a area that was dry and had extreme temperature changes where the paint and metal had two different rates of expansion and contraction (did not follow) and over the years the paint flaked fell off.

Just curious, what engine are you using to pull them. It would be nice if the engine had a similar patina to match the cars.

 Is it possible they had poor paint prep originally, or someone stripped the paint without disassembling the cars and then didn't get around to repainting them? Maybe they were submerged in a stripper chemical? but the labels are still there.

According to my understanding, Lionel did not prime their tin goods before painting.
I've seen some tin with lots and lots of paint missing, but nothing as bad as your passenger cars.

My guess is that someone stripped the paint without disassembling the cars.

Are those the couplers that came on the cars when you got them?

Heck, I would probably use the family 495 with those.

Ace,

 Yes, nice looking cars just the way the are. I have no problem showing the age of my trains (or myself). I would have kept the latch couplers on, but that is just me. Did you get a good deal on them? 

  Never saw the "straw fix" you used before, but I always like cheap, easy fixes, so I'll need to remember that one. I bet they make some great noises rolling down the tubular track...

Tom 

I believe I read that a Tide soaking (1960's version) would take the paint off. That would not harm windows. Not sure how the stickers on the bottom would survive.

I believe I read that a Tide soaking (1960's version) would take the paint off.

I have personal experience using Tide. It worked great until they removed the TSP from it. Last I knew, you could still get TSP in hardware stores.

Those would look really cool if you got them replated.

I've always thought about running unpainted trains but just haven't tried it yet.

Here is a look inside a car and underneath the roof, showing traces of original paint. It appears to be an incomplete stripping and refinishing job from ages ago. The cars have interior lights but I removed the old center-rail rollers so the cars would roll easier. The only refinishing work I did was to buff rusty patches off the roof-tops with a wire wheel.

As I mentioned previously, the original latch couplers were a rusty bent mess and I replaced them with scale dummy couplers, which also look a lot better with the closer coupling. The bodies-frames-trucks-wheels-etc needed straightening and cleaning. I reattached the trucks and replacement couplers with new machine screws and Nylock nuts.

I'm currently running the cars behind a 1970's Lionel 8040 loco (later version of a Scout) and a Marx tender on postwar Lionel trucks. The loco and tender have the right width and general proportions to look good with these small passenger cars IMO. I can imagine this train as a short-haul local or commuter run.

These aren't shelf occupants; they are run regularly! They roll well with all the wheels and axles cleaned up.

The tender has a home-made track wiper attachment under it, in case you wondered.

I strip the cars I'm going to repaint with Draino. if I don't leave them in the solution long enough some of the paint does not come off and it looks like your cars, sometimes the labels stay on too and the Draino doesn't affect the plastic windows. I soak them a little longer and scrub them with a brush until all the paint comes off. This looks like what might have happened to your cars.

I think these cars look great, much, much better than a new shiny car out of a box.  I might consider a satin clear coat to keep them just the way they are.

Jim

I have a whole train of rusty Marx six inch cars. I built it up to whiz past the command control guys in the club who were stalled and could not get their trains to run. Naughty, aren't I?

I have some cars that looked like that, three were very big Lionel Standard gauge. I cleaned them the best I could without disassembling them, took the roofs off, and painted them. Used paint and colors that replicated Lionel.  If I ever wanted to redo them I could strip the paint off. Bare like that they might rust with high humidity.