Finished another engine today - It’s a fantasy/freelance Boxcab and I just need to decide on Road Name and Number.
In a parts lot purchase I found a very beat up body for a Lionel OO caboose. So I decided to create a small Boxcab from it. I cut off the cupola and what remained of its roof ends. Initially I thought I’d do something like a OO version of a Lionel 520 but found that the width was a PERFECT fit for the notoriously oversized AHM HO Plymouth MDT. That was too strong of a coincidence to pass up. I cut the lower frame from the AHM to give me the pilots and zebra stripes. The AHM drive, while pretty old, runs good enough. And it is a super easy drive/chassis to regauge to OO.
Couplers are Kadee, reset to pre-war OO height. The detail parts were all from my parts bins and bags so some of it is a bit silly at a detail level but overall I think the impression is a good one.
New efforts for me were to create the working directional headlights (SMT warm white LEDs embedded in black epoxy, covered by clear epoxy, and honestly this is the first time I’ve done a 2 to 3 rail conversion that completely works right all of the time without alignment issues.
Right now it is set up for 3 rail DC, but of course I could change that depending on what circuit I want to run it on. I’d still like a OO sized 520, but that will have to wait until the next time I get an unrecoverable caboose…
