027 trains are still fun! Photos of my own creations... more added 12/27/20

Nice work!

Great work!

Really nice work.  Thanks for sharing.

Those all look great. Nice job!

Very nicely done!

Chief Bob (Retired)

NICE!

Steve

The 44 tonner looks terrific.

Very nice work and choices of roads!  The manufacturers should be making these!

Excellent work!  I like them all.

great work thanks for sharing.  How do you make, I assume, your decals?

Very nice.

"Some simple suggested details that allow your imagination to do the rest. Like with the air-whistle, I know it's not real. But when I hear that air whistle, in my mind it becomes the real thing."

Yes, I also find this to be the magic of Lionel. All model railroading is caricature because the largest club layout is just a few scale miles long. The magic is getting the brain to see a real railroad in miniature. Thus for me the "lobster claws" become real couplers when I watch them closeup couple or uncouple. The giant tinplate wheel flanges are converted in my mind's eye into the prototype squealing on a ten degree curve.

Nice modeling.

Lew

Very inventive and nicely executed.

This is what model railroading is all about; taking off the shelf items and modifying them to meet your needs.  No complaining about the manufacturers not getting all of the details right or not making a particular paint scheme.  You have done an excellent job of creating one-of-a-kind pieces, and you should be very proud of your work.  There is a sense of gratification when you watch pieces running on your layout knowing that they are unique.

Keep up the good work!

Tom

Great work. I like the way you correct some inherent flaws/weak spots on the original. Keep posting.

Tony D.

First off, thanks for the many kind responses. There are guys here who are way better modelers than I am. Brother Love comes to mind. But I'm not trying to achieve exact scale realism either. I kind of view doing these train projects like doing watercolors or Impressionist paintings. And then, letting the "magic of Lionel" take over and do the rest.

I started off repainted and making revisions to used Plasticville buildings. Satisfied with those results, I quickly moved to trains.

The comments here are above the photos.

Some of you might recognize this car from the Kughn-era, from a 027 rolling stock pack. To lose the molded plastic appearance, I primed the inside of the car with dark grey. I removed the "built by Lionel" words on the side of the car. Then I painted the ends blue and the roof silver.

Likewise here, a familiar car, which I thought was visually way too "busy." So I masked off the top and repainted the roof silver. Then I created a new less busy background for the interior of the tank car, which makes the moving fish more visible. Any of you who have this car as was, know what I'm talking about. Then I touched up the inner edges of the windows. As was, the factory paint didn't cover the inner edges, which were white.

A repainted Gil Finn aquarium car. If any real railroad deserves to be on an aquarium car, wouldn't it be SeaSX? I replaced the trout film strip and put in two light bulbs for better illumination.

Some years ago I decided I wanted some 027 friendly modern motive power. So this is a chopped down Lionel U-Boat shell mounted on a K-Line MP-15 chassis. In hindsight, I should have made one more cut in the cab to shorten it as compared to the rest of the engine. So as an after thought some years later, I partially painted the cab window piece, which when I'm running the engine with the cab illumination, makes the cab look smaller than it certainly is here.

To answer WB47, my decals of choice are Microscale. Though I've used Hearld King too, Because I'm doing smaller 027 cars, I can get away with using HO decals from larger train items, like engines. The caboose below is one of several items where I did custom make my own decals. The idea for this came from some photos of yellow painted Conrail snow removal equipment, including some flanged cabooses.

@M. Mitchell Marmel, this one's for you! Even the cheaper molded plastic cars can be improved in appearance. I painted the ends and roof, and inspired by a post from David of Dearborn (Musicalcraft), I also painted the activation device on the bottom of the car, black. Adding some paint to the giraffe helps too.

I have a special fondness for the Lehigh Valley. This is a K-Line Alco FA. In hindsight, the grey should have been a little darker as with the yellow. There's one disadvantage of using spray cans versus an airbrush. But I still like it, and the paint mask came out absolutely perfect... no touch up needed.

Another Lehigh Valley loco, this time a Lionel Industrial Switcher from the 1990's.  I removed all the slatted vent detail off the hood and made simple suggested vertical doors, so I could decal the hood. All my industrial switchers are DC operated. I've set my layout up to run either AC or DC current. By removing the circuit board on this, I could add additional weight to the chassis, so this engine can easily pull a train. Even without a traction tire, which I also removed to reduce stalling on switch tracks.

My latest project, though not finished yet. Slightly different cuts in the Lionel U-Boat shell from the CR version above. Again, chopped down to fit on a K-Line MP-15 chassis. I'd always hoped Lionel would do a modern equal to the scaled down postwar Alco FA that looks good on a smaller layout with 027 kinds of rolling stock. Well, it was time to do it myself.

And finally, the answer to the question no one asked. Why am I photographing 027 trains on Atlas O track instead of tubular 027 track? Because the Atlas track does make for a much better looking track load on a MOW track car!

Where did you get your decals?

geysergazer posted:

"Some simple suggested details that allow your imagination to do the rest. Like with the air-whistle, I know it's not real. But when I hear that air whistle, in my mind it becomes the real thing."

Yes, I also find this to be the magic of Lionel. All model railroading is caricature because the largest club layout is just a few scale miles long. The magic is getting the brain to see a real railroad in miniature. Thus for me the "lobster claws" become real couplers when I watch them closeup couple or uncouple. The giant tinplate wheel flanges are converted in my mind's eye into the prototype squealing on a ten degree curve.

Nice modeling.

Lew

Thank you Lew for posting this insite. I’m starting to feel the same way the “loster claws” don’t bother me as they once did in fact I’m liking them more and the “cookies cuter” wheels I hardly even notice them. Like you said you have to get a different mind set.

I experimented doing repaints back in my traditional 3-rail experimental layout stage. Ended up with this as my first try:

Had more repaints planned. But my experiments in 3-rail fizzled. However, it did leave behind a profound appreciation for Lionel PW.

All fer now.

Andre

Mike23 posted:

Where did you get your decals?

Mike, as I said Microscale is my first choice. I certainly have used their O scale sets, but those have become much harder to find, as with other O decals in general. Being that I'm repainting mostly 027 and traditionally scaled O stuff, I've been able to make use of HO decal sets for larger HO scaled trains. I get the Microscale newsletter and they have offered a small selection of decal sets in O recently. So when I see something I think might be of use, I don't wait. It also sends a message to Microscale there is still a market for O scale decals.

But I do a lot of scale mixing. I've actually had some Microscale sets in S scale that I'm sure were probably made for some other company or club. Years ago, Rail Graphics made data only sets and I ordered a whole load in both O and S scales. 

There are still a few decal makers who do products in other scales than HO and N. Here's a few I'm aware of and have also made use of, except Tichy which I only recently found out about from here on the forum. So I plan on checking with them: They have an extensive selection of decals in S scale.

Listing here edited 2/15/20. Industrial Models is no longer marketing decals, so I removed the link. A few more have been *added.

https://www.protocraft.com/Majors.cfm?ID=1

http://www.shellscale.com/

http://highballgraphics.com/

http://primemoverdecals.com/decals.html

https://www.tichytraingroup.co...-6-sets/Default.aspx

*The listing of decal road names is on the far right of the page. Go to your category, click on a specific set and then the price will vary depending on the scale chosen...

https://www.cmrproducts.com/st...-PC-Decals-c32215624

*Here's a link for mostly CNJ decals

https://www.ebay.com/str/tomsmodeltrains

*Another link for a variety of differing decal sets with some O scale sets

https://www.ebay.com/str/K4-Su...rksid=p2047675.l2568

So things I've done and posted in other threads.

It's been a while since I added some more photos here, so here we go. Descriptions and comments above the referenced photograph.

First one below is an repainted MPC era 027 short flat car with a repainted trailer. The trailer mount is made out of bass wood and mounts in the holes that the rivet (in this case, blackened screw) goes for mounting the trucks to the car body.

The next photo has the trailer removed so you can see the underside of the trailer mount. I used Plastruct pipe, so that it fits around the diameter of the blackened hex screws used to hold the trucks to the car body.

The advantage of doing this is that I can easily swap loads from one flat car to another. I could easily put the trailer mount on the NS flat car below.

We see regular threads about correct scale of vehicles. My three concerns are cost, weight and "how does it look."

This tractor was bought at a dollar store, though I've seen the same one in a 4 or 5-pack at Walmart. I actually prefer plastic versus die-cast metal for vehicles that are going on train cars.

I used very small blackened nails, put into the sides of the flat car so that I can use girls hair bands (the kind without the metal joiner) to secure the tractor to the flat car.

The B&M has to be one of the most popular of the iconic 6464 Lionel box cars. Not wanting to be left out of the loop, this is a repainted K-Line 5000 series box car with new door guides made of styrene, so I could paint them the same color as the car body. Standard procedure at the Brianel shops. And a fascia wood floor inside the box car. It also has Lionel trucks instead of the k-Line Symington type.

Next below is a Lionel short 027 gondola with a cover I made from some sort of plastic pipe, which I forget now.

I noticed the LCCA is offering a traditional size box car done up in the uncommon (and varied) reefer paint scheme. But it's $90.00! That's not criticizing the LCCA: The prices of the new traditional cars are right up there on par with the newly tooled scale cars, and in some cases, even more. Even the separate sale 027 cars for the Lionel Junction sets listed for $44.95. In my version of English, that's translated as "insane."

Fortunately for me, I did this one years ago based upon a photo in the Conrail Freight Car Color Guide by Morning Sun. Again, a K-Line 5000 series box car, obviously with the wrong kind of door for a mechanical reefer. I actually made the decals myself for this car on a Xerox copier. I've never had any luck printing decals on a laser jet printer.

Although K-Line did make this one for awhile, I believe this was a beat up MARX version, which is typically the condition of rolling stock I look for to do my repaints. I'm not going to repaint something that is either in good condition or might have some value. Especially the MARX plastic cars, since finding a good one of those that isn't beat up or missing parts is getting more difficult.

The screen on the lower deck of the car is the type they use for embroidery, I think... I got it at Hobby Lobby. The cars, obviously not scale, are larger Maistro types that I got at a dollar store. The BNSF logo on the screen I made on my computer. Inside the lower deck of the car, I have some rolled up black plastic window screen, so you can't see that there aren't any cars inside on the lower level... at least when viewing the car from this angle.

Since the Norfolk Southern has a yard in my area, I get to see a good deal of older Southern rolling stock, regardless of living in New York state. Adding a dome platform, a little suggested undercarriage detail and a nice paint/decal job makes these cheaper less expensive cars look so much better.

Here, a K-Line 5000 series gondola made from the old MARX dies. I always add a fascia wood floor to these gondolas as well as a metal brake wheel over the plastic molded in one. But I show this car because I'm always on the lookout for cheap items that can serve as train loads. These are women's hair rollers from a dollar store that I randomly spray painted black, grey and rust  colored primer.

Another common short MPC 027 flat car with bulk ends and stakes. I painted the Delrin plastic stakes brown after first coating them with wood glue. The load is made from the square plastic leg from one of those dorm room or porch tables. I measured it, then made GP Gypsum load on my computer, printed it out on paper and glued it to the square table leg. Then added some basswood strips to the very bottom of the load.

More to come another time.

Another course in helpful hints at OGR Univ.  And tuition is free! Thanks!

I recently acquired a bunch of K-Line freight car kits.  Like you, I really enjoy doing re-paints of the O-27 sized cars for the Midwest lines and local shortlines.

Before I started on these, I was trying to research when these kits were offered by K-Line, how and pricing.

I know these were mostly the Marx molds which date them from 1985.  However I cannot find any documented listings, catalog references or price sheets.  If you have some info I would appreciate your assistance.

Thanks

@Ahitpy, I never much purchased any of the unassembled cars, nor really followed them. Obviously they were very early production, when K-Line was being made in Chapel Hill, NC, and most likely a cost saving move to eliminate assembly and decoration when K-Line was first getting started. I got back into the hobby around late '88, early '89 and by then, K-Line had already begun to establish themselves. I don't recall seeing unassembled cars in their catalogs either. 

Every once in a while though, you see them pop up for sale. I don't recall seeing too many of the 5000-series cars in kit form, but mostly the Kusan based rolling stock like the caboose and the offset hopper. Though I have seen the 5000-series hopper this way. And I seem to remember seeing one of the 027 auto loader flat cars too, which would be a plus for repainting.

I have to wonder at this point in time, how many of them are still out there in original kit form?

I also wonder, with the thinking some have that the whole hobby is going scale , where are all these K-Line 027 cars? Some of them are getting real hard to find, and when you see them for sale, the prices being sought for those make the scale cars look like a bargain.

In the future I've gotta remember you on the off-chance I want to get something professionally painted. These are so incredibly done.

As mentioned in the very first photo post, here's an example IMHO, where less would have been more. I should have left off every other one of the red/white markings on the bottom and sides of the car. This is a MARX solid door type box car.

This next photo is one of three of the very first repaints I attempted. This now has to be about 30 years old. These were Woodland Scenic brand dry transfers. Initially I'd seen so many poorly done decal jobs, that I was only going to use dry transfers. Until I realized some decals are better than others, and there's also a right and wrong way to do them. 

This has to be the most ambitious of all the self-made decals I ever did. The car started off as a screw up I made when trying to minimally alter a Lionel car. Now with two bobbing giraffes on each end.

Referencing the first photo here, I think less works better. I didn't use as many of the red/white safety markings. This one is a 5000-series K-Line box car.

I've long known what Menard's has recently figured out: That painted door guides look much better. Though they are a bit of a pain in that they are more prone to chipping of paint, and when you push the rivets back in to secure the door guides, I inevitably lose some paint and have to do some touch up.

And also here's a good example of compromise: The NS logo is an HO scale Microscale locomotive decal. Still, a little small for a box car, so I leave on the "Norfolk Southern" words, even though prototypically, they shouldn't be there. But all the other traditionally sized NS box car offerings have all been BLACK painted box cars, also not correct. So color-wise, I'm one up.

I remember when OGR Magazine reviewed the traditional 027 NH passenger cars from the mid-1990's, they concluded the New Haven lettering on those was too large for the car.

I agree, so I redid mine.

Visually, I like the Penn Central. PC was never offered on a traditional 027 passenger car, so I took care of that. As with the New Haven above, I actually go to the trouble of painting the molded in car diaphragms black. A very steady hand is required along with some patience.

Try joining the K-Line group on FB.  I'll be posting pics of each kit.  They include the 5000 series boxcar, depressed center flat car, three dome tank, double door auto box, gondola and stock car.

Brianel027

Excellent work and very creative.  I find modifying and dressing up cars an enjoyable part of the hobby.  You have a large body of work and I know how much effort goes into doing just one car.

Charlie

Brian027,

These are all great! I am a fan of the O27 end of O scale and have admired your modifications though your posts on the forum for awhile now. 

That Penn Central passenger car is wonderful. I love the idea of a train of many colors that so many of the PC trains looked like when in operation. 

Very nice topic. Thanks for posting. 

Here are the K-Line kits I was able to get.

@TheRWBYRailfan, In the past I'd considered doing commercial repaints.

I used to do photography including doing 100% of my developing and processing. I never lost my awe for when I opened that film can and saw good printable negatives. Even if you're a stickler for doing things by the book, it's still a chemical process and things can go wrong - usually when you least expect it. I had a friend who did wedding photography. Bought a bulk brick of Kodak film to shoot their wedding and not one single picture came out. He got a defective bulk pack of film. After that, he made sure his film was from different sources. Needless to say, that was one very unhappy couple. They actually went to the trouble to restage parts of the wedding to get good photographs.

Likewise for repainting, and here's an example of that. This is a RMT RDC Budd Car and everything was going just fine. Until I put on the final coatings of flat spray. Something odd happened to the paint on the left side below the word "Conrail" on the ribs of the lower body. It yellowed a little bit: You can see it in this photo. It's not the lighting, but something odd happened with the paint. Eventually, I'm going to try and fix this. Fortunately there's no decals over the affected area, so maybe some very light sanding and repainting those spots.

Needless to say, sometimes the best made plans go awry. And part of the reason that I repaint either beaters, or very common items that weren't that expensive.

@Choo Choo Charlie, I appreciate your kind words. Much like you, this is a labor of love. If it weren't for having a small layout, I'd have none at all. The smaller types of trains just look better on a small layout. But I happen to like modern road names too, not just Baby Ruth . Since these cars are affordable and many HO scale decals work just fine, I'm in business.

I've been chopping down the 027 switch for many years. Removing the over-sized base of the turnout opens up so many more possibilities on a small layout.

I started years ago by removing the sheet metal base plate, and then soldering on wires on the underside for electrical conductivity. Problem is that without the baseplate, the plastic is more subject to warping over time.

So now I leave the base plate attached. I use a Dremel with a cut off wheel to cut the upper side plastic part of the turnout, creating something of a path for the next step. Then I use a hacksaw blade to cut through the sheet metal.

Inspired by your painting of your switch tracks (David from Dearborn also did the same thing), I decided to give it a shot. After I did this and put it down on the layout, I decided for me, it looked odd since I use more smaller width ties closer together on my regular track.

So I still cut down the switch tracks, but leave them brown. Which I suppose some might say would also look odd. Ah, the compromises made in 3 rail!

If I was a real purist, I would have gone HO many years ago. I run trains for FUN, not frustration! It's less aggravating to just work with the compromises than to grumble and complain about them all the time. Or to find perfection in what is basically imperfect and letting your imagination do the rest.

For me, that's what the phrase "The magic of Lionel" really means.

@Silver Lake, Thanks. And that's partly why I'm doing this: There are still a great many 027/traditional operators out there. We sometimes get drowned out by all the scale postings on this particular forum sub-category.

But we 027/traditional guys have some things going for us.

• There are plenty of beater or well worn trains that can be restored or redone. And because these trains were made in such large production runs over many years, there are lots of them out there. And prices are good, especially for less-than-pristine condition.
• Talk to the decal makers and they'll tell you there's not much of a market for O scale decals. But with these smaller proportioned trains, we can get away with using larger HO scale decal sets, like locomotive sets for rolling stock. Plus, the real railroads are using smaller logos on real rolling stock, so there's a prototypical plus.
• Commercial spray paint has improved in quality vastly over the years. So you don't need to invest in an air brush to do this.

So Silver Lake, here's one more for you that started off as a true beater: Rust on the frame, no box, missing the original barrels and figure, slide shoes broken off the trucks. The Price was Right. I replaced the PW slide shoe trucks with modern plastic ones with a pickup roller. Wired in a small toggle switch on the underside of the car, so I'm not limited to having the car on a UC track. And since my layout is small, reaching the car is no difficulty at all. The barrels are grey painted sewing thread spools.

I love it when I get comments like "Hey when did Lionel make that Penn Central barrel car?" They didn't... I did.

@Ahitpy, that's quite a collection of the unassembled cars you have there. I had no idea K-Line had made such a variety of them, especially from the MARX origin types of rolling stock.

I have believed for a long time that 027 trains were underappreciated. Because of the sharp curves, layouts can be built in smaller spaces. There are some very high quality trains available that will run on 027 track. The main objection to it is that the F3, the scale Hudson and the Fairbanks Morse diesel will not negotiate it. My first layouts were 027 and I enjoyed them very much.

George

You are the Master st Custom O27 very tidy work 

Very well done Brian!

Great pictures !

Besides switches, wide radius curves in 027 can be found and makes using 027 more flexible.

Brianel027,

I just found this thread and I love your work and imagination.

I also like repainting and, even though I've previously posted some of my work, her, for the sake of convenience, are some examples. While these are all cabeese, I've also done tankers, boxcars engines, etc. I'll find some pics of some of those.

The Erie and NH cabooses are also bashed, each was made from 2 Lionel SP cabooses:

@Lionelski, nice work. You know, I've been tempted to try your elongated SP caboose project. Years ago there was an article in the OGR magazine about doing that very same project. I thought, wow, that'd make for a good "027-ized bunk or crew car. The Wabash caboose looks good too!

My whole point in doing this thread was to encourage people to try their hand at fixing up older trains. There's plenty of beaters out there and plenty of well worn common train items that don't have much collector value: All great candidates. If I found something that WAS actually worth money, I'd try to sell it so I could then buy more beaters or common stuff to repaint.

Many years ago at my first YORK show, some guy was giving me grief over repainting trains, telling me they were all collectibles and worth money. So... I pulled a well-worn gondola out of my purchases bag and told him I'd sell it to him for $500.00. He laughed and said, "That's not worth $500.00! That's a $5.00 train car, at best." I then laughed and told him he'd just shot his initial argument full of holes and then went about my merry way, looking for more candidates for repainting.

At another show, I was talking to the owner of Ross Custom Switches at a train show. I was looking over his products and admiring them, when he asked if he could help me. I told him I was a strictly 027 guy and was just looking.

To my surprise, he encouraged me. I asked why and he answered that every 027 item I buy from Lionel helps to keep them in business. Which helps Lionel to put money into the new high end scale products, which in turn, helps his business grow.

I thought that was a terrific answer, showing a great attitude towards business and a realistic outlook on the 3-rail hobby.