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Hey everyone,

A few years ago a childhood friend of mine gave me his dad's Lionel postwar trains to hold on to. He didn't really want to give them to me to keep forever, but his thinking was he'd rather they be with someone who was going to take care of them and work on them rather than simply collecting dust in his attic. He told me keep receipts for any work on do on them (parts, labor etc) so that he can reimburse me if one day he decides he'd like them back.

Anyway, since I took possession of them I've been doing a little work on them here and there. I've now turned my attention to a few prewar O-gauge trains that are scattered amongst his dad's mostly postwar collection and I had a couple questions I was hoping to get answers on...particularly the pullman cars pictures below.

1. It seems that at some point all of the prewar O-gauge rolling stock was converted to postwar trucks. There's a 261e tender with postwar trucks and then there were 3 pullmans (2 610's and 1 612) that have been switched to postwar trucks. 

In the pics below you can see that new holes were drilled to bring the postwar trucks closer to the ends, and also it's clear that the latch coupler slots at the ends of the cars were broken off to accommodate the postwar trucks.

What I'm wondering is how these conversions were typically done? I know the reason...so that they could be run with the rest of his postwar trains. But what I'm curious about is if this conversion was something that was usually done by the kids themselves back then or if dealers did this in order to get rid of prewar stock? Or maybe dealers did this as a service to customers who had older prewar trains that they wanted to mix with their newer postwar trains. Was conversion to postwar trucks a common service performed on prewar o-gauge trains back then?

As a side note, it breaks my heart to see these conversions done. I'd have loved for these cars to have the original latch couplers. Oh well.

2. It's clear that at some point he repainted at the least the roof of the cars to a gold color. If possible, can anyone confirm for me what color these cars should have been when they were new? I think they were red and silver but I'm not positive.

Thanks for the help!

-Eric Siegel

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Last edited by ericstrains.com
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You Betcha! They've been butchered just as Jim stated. The only cars that I've seen done this way were mid to late prewar passenger cars. Back in the day everyone wanted the new knuckle couplers especially those who fought the latch-style couplers for years. Maybe a few were converted by the hobby shops, I doubt if very many were. Most like those in your photo were done by the home operators.

Some folks may not realize that Lionel published suggestions on how to convert prewar "O" gauge equipment to postwar trucks / knuckle couplers. Lionel was selling toys / models to be used, not collectors items. If I had a set that had been converted to postwar, I would not try to convert them back. On many of the suggested conversions, metal had to be removed from the cars to provide clearance for the new trucks / couplers anyway.

I would keep the passengers as is. I have added some pre war center rollers to passenger cars to help with flickering lights and the parts for pre war repair are extremely expensive. 

An operator of pre war stuff will give you more money then a collector will, a collector wants it to be 100% authentic and original part verses an operator who just wants the items to run on his layout.

Lee Fritz

Last edited by phillyreading

The photos you show are total repaints, including the body.  There were only two versions out of 22 total of the 610 Pullman that came in red.  One was "light red, with silver roof" and had The Lionel Lines rubber stamped above the windows.  The second red version was the "Macy Special" with RED body (not light red) and RED roof, and "Macy Special" stamped in black above the windows.  Looking at the photos you posted, the red looks too dark to be considered Light Red, plus the stamping is missing above the windows, which points to a total repaint.  It's been butchered too much, to even attempt to restore it to original colors and trucks, that it just isn't worth it.

I would keep them that way and enjoy it as is!  No point in trying to convert them back and doing a repaint.  I have one "Frankenstein" Evens Autoloader in my fleet that I loved as a kid and still do, but never knew it was "home made" by someone else until I was an adult and wondered why my autoloader was blue when everyone else's was red. 

As a kid, I could have chosen a red one, but I didn't care, I wanted the blue one. 

Just enjoy it as it.  There is probably a great story behind why and who converted it.

 

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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