Regardless of all the somewhat deserved jokes about the so-called Lionel "44" Ton Switcher, as a 027 guy with a small layout, locomotive options are somewhat limited. Well, there are engines that will make the 027 curves, but my criteria is "do they look good doing that?"
The raised side door detailing on the engine hood sides makes decaling the hoods of these rather difficult. As witnessed by how Lionel and Williams on their versions, limit printing to the actual cab sides only.
I've taken on making modifications to two of these LTI period engines: One in Norfolk Southern and this one in Conrail. This one was the first. I only partially sanded down the raised detail on the hood sides of this one to make space for the Conrail logos. On the side of the loco with the Conrail wording, you can see more of the original raised lines to suggest the hood doors. For the Norfolk Southern one I did, I removed all of the raised door lines.
For both versions, I also made new frames to lower the overall height of the engine, making it look more at home with the smaller sorts of rolling stock I run. There are actual headlights using mini-bulbs in place of the clear plastic headlight lens. The only other revision I'm considering to this one, is to remove the Delrin plastic grabrails on the ends, coat them with wood glue, and to paint them the same CR blue to make them stand out of little bit less.
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Jeff (Pennsy484), if you have a Facebook account, I would suggest posting that video of the Pennsy Flyer to Lionel's FB page. You have a good looking layout and the video really shows off that starter set very nicely.... better than some of Lionel's videos do.
Jackiejr, nice effort on your scratch building project. I always advice folks considering taking on such a project, to start small with something simple to gain some practice with. Your tobacco barn project is probably more complicated than it looks. Still, a very nice effort indeed.
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Of course, nice work (photos) by everyone. But I have a tendency to be drawn to the NON-scale stuff (just as some are drawn to the scale only stuff), and to admire those who take on either scratch building or kit bash projects.
