My Lionel docksider bash

Very nice! I have been looking for a headlight like that to modify a Williams 4-6-0. Where did you find the headlight?

Only sort of.   I added a bridge rectifier and front coupler to the cheap Rock Island 0-4-0 DC only for AC cab forward operation.

With as much weight as I could manage adding to it, I ended up with a little engine that can ...i.e., can motor well with it's can motor

  The "MPC-ish" look is pretty bad on these being more or less a solid bright red with washed out white print on some. I could'nt really hurt it much painting it... even this way, lol. The boilers headlight doesn't make the boiler glow anymore as well.

A brass headlight under the cab roof and corgi dozer plow added some weight too.  The rest is in the pilot beam and under cab&bin. The old headlight sports a red lens, dim, but always on still. 

    It sports just a single class flag. It's accessable quickly on the roof hatch (hey, it's my RR )    The added stainless whistle's orientation is more about a visual swoosh to imply motion than any correctness as well.

   I skipped the diode reduction so it needs a load to move slowly, but often pulls an all cast work train with 12 wheel Bucyrus crane and all. I chose the Harlequin paint to blend in with the bright colors of Lionel Looney Tunes cars till a better option couldn't be denied, then I just weather washed it with dirty brush water to tone it down some.  Faux aging progressively, it is time for more grime, lol.

  Real wood boxcar on cast type stub axles(draggy), lionel copper wire still on two orange spools on a cast fishbelly flat, crane, cast fishbelly spotlightcar, (plastic) elevated platform car, fast angle needle tip axle with solder on a spool, & a misc. loaded nyc gondola, with another wire coil sitting on a work caboose to trail it.

Nice! 

The cosmetic parts would give me fits, the wiring would be like shooting fish in a barrel for me.

  With the time you'd save wiring you could use a pole to fish with Charlie, Floyd, and Uncle Joe down at "The Junction". Better eating  

RoyBoy posted:

Very nice! I have been looking for a headlight like that to modify a Williams 4-6-0. Where did you find the headlight?

Most of the detail parts are from Wiseman.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Nice! 

The cosmetic parts would give me fits, the wiring would be like shooting fish in a barrel for me.

Funny, right?  Just getting the thing back together with the diodes (and a new smoke resistor) I think took a few months off my life.

I've posted this before, but it's been a while, so here goes. I started with one of these:

It was going to be just a paint job, but it got a little out of hand....

Yes, it is now an 0-6-0. With TMCC, electrocouplers, and a functioning headlamp.

So, for the curious:

The wheels are from a 671 turbine. I ordered several of the idler gears which Lionel uses on it's standard O-27 4-4-2 engine. Three of them got glued to the backs of the 671 wheels to make geared wheels. Two others became idler gears (I drilled out the frame to accept the gear studs, which I also got from Lionel). The original bracket holding the cluster gear needed only to be rotated slightly to get that gear to mesh with both the pinion and one of the new idler gears. One of the axles is through the original holes in the 0-4-0 motor frame; I drilled new holes for the other two. Bearings came from a spare GP9 dummy truck.

The same GP9 truck also supplied the front coupler assembly. The rear coupler is a postwar coil coupler from a freight car, with a (fairly crude) homemade centering assembly, which works on the same principle as the GP9 coupler assembly does.

To accommodate the shorter wheels, I had to saw about 3/16" off the bottom of the frame. Of course, that destroyed the power pickup, which was replaced with diesel engine collector assembly on a homemade mount. The whole motor was also moved forward about 1/8", so that changed the motor mounts slightly. The crossheads and rods are cannibalized from an old 4-4-2 started set engine. I'm still getting around to making some side rods for it

For the headlight, I drilled a small hole diagonally upward, from the point where it meets the smokebox. That allowed me to use a toothpick to pop the lens out. A grain of wheat bulb fit inside the lens, which was re-inserted, and the bulb leads snaked thru the hole into the smokebox area. TMCC is provided by an ERR kit, which just fit into the cab. I have no idea where those handrail stanchions came from, but I sure like them! I think they may have been originally intended as PCB parts -- through-hole-mounted wire receptacles of some sort?

If I'm being honest, it's a project which is more impressive for its conception than its execution. When I did this, I didn't even have a drill press yet, and...well, all six wheels have never touched the track at the same time . Still, it does run; everything works as expected when I push the buttons; and it will pull three or four cars, which is just what I need it to do. And it doesn't look half bad.

But, if I'd waited a year, I could have just bought a Docksider when they came out!

All I've done to mine was add DCC and LED lights.

I've converted the Lionel 0-6-0 Docksider to TMCC and also the MTH 0-4-0 Docksider.  Sadly, I couldn't fit sound into either of them.