New Life for Lionel MPC Engine

Very nice.

Yep.  "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."  (Old Yankee expression).  Nice job repurposing.

Always loved Conrail blue. Your two diesels coupled together looks great.

That is nice.  good to see an old trooper like that still on duty there.  It looks good!

I don't think Lionel ever made a Conrail SD24 - not sure what that is. Maybe a repainted SD20 Lionel did in the later 90s, but that was well after the MPC era, and in any case, the repainting appears extensive (including a different cab no.). Looks very nice.

 

Assuming it was originally a Lionel SD-20, then it would be essentially a scale-size engine, just like Lionel's traditional GP engines are. In your picture, the SW9 appears oversized, but that may be the angle of the shot.

 

You indicated you "gutted the motor." Assuming it was a Pullmor, how did you fill the opening in the frame, and modify the front truck? 

Well done!

 

Peter

Good job.  Was that an SD-24 or SD-18?  I remember the Milwaukee freight set as it was the first Lionel with 6 wheel trucks.  I seem to remember SD-18 but that was many years ago.

Great `recycle`.  Opens up a new stream for `cast offs`.

 

Thanks for the great idea.

this was a engine that we did repaint to Conrail but it was so long ago I can't remember what the original road name was. It was a Pullmor motor and all we had to do was pull off the cap that held the brushes and then removed the commutator. The truck assembly remained in place. The gears and wheels all turn freely.

 

It looks like it may have been the Orange & Blue Lionel Lines flattop SD-18.
Nice job on the repaint!

looks great nice work

Thanks for comments And yes I believe this was an SD18.

You indicated you "gutted the motor." Assuming it was a Pullmor, how did you fill the opening in the frame, and modify the front truck? 

 

Do you HAVE to fill in the frame opening? Why can't you just pull out the armature and the carbon brushes from the pullmor motor?

You're right. As he said above, he didn't pull the motor. He notes "It was a Pullmor motor and all we had to do was pull off the cap that held the brushes and then removed the commutator. The truck assembly remained in place. The gears and wheels all turn freely."

 

I've not done this before, but good to know. To make dummies with these traditional engines I've always swapped the shell and just put it on a dummy chassis I got somewhere else. That's less weight to pull around if putting the dummy behind another Pullmor motored engine, but of course that's not a problem if the powered engine is a heavy DC motored job.

Wow,  this is such a great story!  I would Love to have may dad still around to enjoy trains, especially so, this time of year.

That looks really nice!!!