A bit of a rainy 4th yesterday in the northeast. I was able to grab some time at the workbench in the afternoon. I got the stacker board installed and started sorting out the wiring. I need to extend some of the wires but everything went in OK.
Bob
Looks like you are moving right along, Bob!
@Mark Boyce posted:Looks like you are moving right along, Bob!
Thanks Mark. I received my last parts order from MTH today so nothing but making the time to stop me now.
Bob
@RSJB18 posted:Thanks Mark. I received my last parts order from MTH today so nothing but making the time to stop me now.
Bob
What else could be more important, Bob?? 🤔🫡🤷♂️
@RSJB18 posted:A bit of a rainy 4th yesterday in the northeast. I was able to grab some time at the workbench in the afternoon. I got the stacker board installed and started sorting out the wiring. I need to extend some of the wires but everything went in OK.
Bob
That looks very daunting Bob. I would be putting it back in the box and setting it aside.
Jay
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:That looks very daunting Bob. I would be putting it back in the box and setting it aside.
Jay
I might still.....🤣🤣
Hopefully all goes well and the thing lights up and moves when I apply power....🤪🤪🤪
@Mark Boyce posted:What else could be more important, Bob?? 🤔🫡🤷♂️
I don't know Mark....want to ask my wife????
🤯🤯🤯🤯
On the bench is the start of a Sawdust burner for my Lionel 464 Sawmill. Sawmills in the 30s and 40s burned the waste sawdust and lumber in cone shaped burners.
Charlie
@Choo Choo Charlie posted:On the bench is the start of a Sawdust burner for my Lionel 464 Sawmill. Sawmills in the 30s and 40s burned the waste sawdust and lumber in cone shaped burners.
Charlie
More on this, please Sir!
John
It has been about a two week project so far and more work to do. I will post a few more updates as progress is made. It is a no money cost project and all materials are some where around the shop and garage. The time put in is another matter, some just looking for stuff.
Charlie
On the Workbench went to Off the Workbench for the Sawdust Burner that receives sawdust from a Lionel 464 Saw Mill. "Off the Bench" is the name of a local ESPN radio station sports show staring Hester and TeeBob, ex LSU football stars.
Complete details on how the Sawdust Burner was made are below
https://ogrforum.com/...2#176694689110970672
Charlie
The rebuild of an MTH UP #80 Coal Turbine. It was sold as having a PS/3 upgrade, but what it had was a nightmare tangle of wire, electrical tape, and hacked off wiring with no insulation! In addition, the two smoke units were totally missing, apparently the person converting it didn't think smoke was part of the conversion! 
Basically, the conversion consisted of sound and motor drive. The only light was the headlight, missing are the MARS light, the number boards, the markers, and the cab light! Also, the couplers didn't work.
I've replaced the smoke units, fabricated a smoke funnel for the missing one in the lead unit, and gotten the second unit all running. The second unit ran backwards, the coupler and backup light to the tender didn't work, and of course that missing smoke unit. It also had all the bare wires just hacked off the PS/3 connector, a generous supply of electrical tape, and a few bare wires as well. I was actually able to rescue the existing wire harness by removing all the clipped wires and adding a bunch of missing ones and cleaning up all the electrical tape. Notable feature is that the middle unit has no lighting.
There was no rescuing the wiring harness of the lead unit, so I took the lead unit and striped every wire, mounted the smoke unit, and started on the wiring again. I'm using the wiring from the F3 unit I converted to Legacy as a base, it's got most of the wires I need, I'll add the missing ones.
That's some project John! Right up your alley. I'm sure we'll be seeing a video of it running laps around your layout before long.
@coach joe posted:That's some project John! Right up your alley. I'm sure we'll be seeing a video of it running laps around your layout before long.
Well, I'm sorting out the new wiring harness now, I'll add the wires for the missing functions, then I can stick it in and see if it all works. 
John, I agree with Joe, that will be a nice engine when done. I have plenty of confidence in you to get everything working well!
Well, it's a wrap! Here's the coal turbine in full flight! BOY, is it a noisy set, and it's only at half-volume! That has to be one of the ugliest upgrade jobs I've tripped over, but that's all behind me now.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Well, it's a wrap! Here's the coal turbine in full flight! BOY, is it a noisy set, and it's only at half-volume! That has to be one of the ugliest upgrade jobs I've tripped over, but that's all behind me now.
WOW!
Somehow the train gods knew to send this one to you! 
Nice work John.
Bob
@RSJB18 posted:A bit of a rainy 4th yesterday in the northeast. I was able to grab some time at the workbench in the afternoon. I got the stacker board installed and started sorting out the wiring. I need to extend some of the wires but everything went in OK.
Bob
I picked up an assortment of 22 ga wire yesterday. Hopefully I can get this engine running soon.
Bob
@RSJB18 posted:WOW!
Somehow the train gods knew to send this one to you!
Nice work John.
Bob
Well, given the price that I got it at, I guess I can't complain. After all, the PS/3 boards were there and all functional, so that's $300+ that I didn't have to spend. I was going to buy the PS/1 model and upgrade it anyway, and the PS/1 models were going for what I paid or hundreds more! I also wouldn't have gotten the two PS/3 boards, so all in all, it was still a good deal. Obviously, it would have been an even better deal if the PS/3 upgrade was done properly and they didn't take the smoke unit parts out! I have a drawer full of smoke units, so I just popped those suckers right back in!
The good side was the set was perfect cosmetically, which is really the key element for me, I can fix the insides. 
It runs great, John!!
@Mark Boyce posted:It runs great, John!!
I think with both units having audio, it's the loudest engine I have, the turbine sounds are insane! I turned it way down so I could hear myself think!
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Well, it's a wrap! Here's the coal turbine in full flight! BOY, is it a noisy set, and it's only at half-volume! That has to be one of the ugliest upgrade jobs I've tripped over, but that's all behind me now.
" ONE OF THE UGLIEST UPGRADE JOBS I'VE TRIPPED OVER "
(Beauty is in the eyeof the beholder )
Maybe a few resistors in the speaker wiring and some heavier weight oil John. Looks impressive though . 
@Dallas Joseph posted:" ONE OF THE UGLIEST UPGRADE JOBS I'VE TRIPPED OVER "
(Beauty is in the eyeof the beholder )
Maybe a few resistors in the speaker wiring and some heavier weight oil John. Looks impressive though .
Well, it looks fine now, but for the lead unit, I had to start from scratch and rebuild everything with a new wiring harness. I salvaged the wiring harness for the middle unit, but I had to do a lot of work on it.
John, your wiring harness reminds me of making wiring harnesses for a job I had back in the late '70s. The company I worked for made devices for the automotive industry. We made 8 prototype fuel injection and idle speed controllers for British Leyland for their MGs. I was the engineer's assistant, so I had to load 8 double sided circuit boards and make wiring harnesses to connect all the sensors to the controller that we sat on the passenger seat. It was kind of cool, but another company got the contract, and a bunch of us were canned. Now, 45 years later, if I could scale down from 1:1 to 1:48, maybe I could be in business.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Well, it looks fine now, but for the lead unit, I had to start from scratch and rebuild everything with a new wiring harness. I salvaged the wiring harness for the middle unit, but I had to do a lot of work on it.
This looks like the times I've opened up a problem child to see if I could find an issue with shorting.........the engine usually ends up being assigned to my boneyard in frustration. If only a fraction of your knowledge was available to me .....but alas. I don't think you'll have this on the workbench too long John.
( if I could just plug my buzzing non functioning ps3 board into your little finger.............🤔 I could keep another loco on the DCS rails )
@Mark Boyce posted:John, your wiring harness reminds me of making wiring harnesses for a job I had back in the late '70s. It was kind of cool, but another company got the contract, and a bunch of us were canned. Now, 45 years later, if I could scale down from 1:1 to 1:48, maybe I could be in business.
No doubt in my mind Mark.
@Dallas Joseph posted:I don't think you'll have this on the workbench too long John.
You're right, as you can see above in a previous post, it's off the bench and on the rails. I had a last minute little alignment issue with the smoke funnel I fabricated, it didn't line up exactly with the smoke unit. I had to move the smoke unit about .2" to get them working, my calibrated eyeball was out of cal. I also had to swap the smoke unit for one with slightly longer posts! Who knew that the diesel smoke units come with about four different length posts, only varying by a couple of mm, just enough to leak smoke like crazy!
I bought a MTH Consolidated engine. In it’s stock form it’s close to scale from what I’ve read and not a bad engine. It’s got PS2 features and runs well. But it still felt a little starter set like.
So I made a few modifications.
- I painted the dials and knobs
- Removed the front trucks and made it an 0-8-0 I read that did occur
- I painted the side rods “Weathered Steel” from the Rust-Oleum aged metallic line. The inside of the side rods were sanded clean.
- Added glass to the front windows.
- I mixed some brown and yellow acrylics and touched up the bottom half of the engine and tender trucks.
- I then used water down gray for level 1 weathering (meh results)
- On top of that used school white chalk shaved into a powder. Brush on with a makeup brush.
- Finally dull coated with Krylon flat clear. This ate up most of the white chalk but can be classified as lightly weathered.
Final results aren’t bad for a first time weathering a steam locomotive. Still need to add the engineer figure.
Its not an engine but Ive been cutting the legs off of HO sitting people and last night I populated my Lionel Ferris Wheel. Did a mix of single, double, and triple cars and true to life left a couple cars empty. Happy with the results. O scale people looked goofy sitting in the cars as their heads touched the car roof so HO was the next best option I could find.
Paul, The Ferris wheel riders look happy to be there!! 
Steve, the engine looks great with the extra detail painting and weathering.
@Mark Boyce posted:John, your wiring harness reminds me of making wiring harnesses for a job I had back in the late '70s. The company I worked for made devices for the automotive industry. We made 8 prototype fuel injection and idle speed controllers for British Leyland for their MGs. I was the engineer's assistant, so I had to load 8 double sided circuit boards and make wiring harnesses to connect all the sensors to the controller that we sat on the passenger seat. It was kind of cool, but another company got the contract, and a bunch of us were canned. Now, 45 years later, if I could scale down from 1:1 to 1:48, maybe I could be in business.
@Dallas Joseph posted:No doubt in my mind Mark.
Thank you for the confidence in my skill, Dallas!!
Afterward our most recent visit to Strasburg, my grandson asked if I thought MTH, Lionel, or someone else made or would make open air cars like Strasburg's. I posted about it, and some good suggestions came back.
I found 3 MTH Pennsy Woodsides, complete, less trucks, on line, and not exact, but passable Premier trucks, and we went to work.
Strasburg has two versions, one with nine openings,the Hello Dolly rebuild, the other with 5 openings.
Still early in the process, here's a sneak peek at the first project
Albertstrains I love your work bench.
Almost done with this little critter. Stripped it down and repainted, replaced e-unit with a Bluenami decoder so it has full sounds now, upgraded lighting to LED's. Did the lettering with a P-touch and my USCG decals that just came in. The road number and the name are from the first Cutter I served on, it was brand new and I am a plankowner of the ship!
Semper Paratus !!!!! love the coastie switcher
Nicely done Jim M! I am relettering a few MTH woodsides for Strasburg as well. Still waiting on some decals. Stay tuned.
This is a Labelle car.
Pete
@Norton - Thats beautiful. Where do you get your decals from?
@pault posted:@Norton - Thats beautiful. Where do you get your decals from?
Thanks Paul. Highball Graphics makes most of them. They have them for 89, 90, and most of what you need for at least ten of the passenger cars. I added a few from a Microscale PRR set.
You have to contact them as the O scale ones are special order. HO are catalog items.
Pete
I'm putting seats and passengers in my Rio Grande Zephyr cars. For some reason, Lionel put tables and chairs in these domes. I replaced them with seating from Precision Scale and then used the old dome seats in the lower level. I'm also spraying Testor's transparent green on the windows.
Terry
Too big for my workbench but working on my 8.5 ft bridge. Lots of dowels from HD have been harmed in this process.
@Norton posted:Thanks Paul. Highball Graphics makes most of them. They have them for 89, 90, and most of what you need for at least ten of the passenger cars. I added a few from a Microscale PRR set.
You have to contact them as the O scale ones are special order. HO are catalog items.
Pete
I use Highball Graphics for both stock and custom decals made from my own artwork.
In addition to a quality product that is easy to apply to models, I find Highball Graphics responsive, fast and affordable. Below are photos of one of my many work-in-progress projects, repainted MTH O-27, Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL) passenger coaches being repainted and decaled with custom decals from Highball Graphics using my artwork. The decals are the lettering, road numbers and PRSL logos. The window striping is yellow graphic tape.
Randy that’s an exceptional job and thanks for the insights. My efforts are directed towards Reading equipment and PRSL when I can find them. Thank you.
Jay
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:Randy that’s an exceptional job and thanks for the insights. My efforts are directed towards Reading equipment and PRSL when I can find them. Thank you.
Jay
Jay:
Thanks for the kind compliment. My layout, due to space constraints, is rather "old-school". It has tighter curves and we run "semi-scale" locomotives with selectively compressed passenger cars. The only PRSL P-70 coach models were full scale and would not work for me. I like MTH RailKing\Rugged Rails passenger coaches. They are well detailed and include interiors rather that the old-style window silhouettes. The prototype P-70 coaches had the older clerestory roof but were not heavyweight coaches. They had 4- wheel trucks. The closest that I could get to the look of the P-70 in MTH RailKing was their Madison style, heavyweight coaches with 6-wheel trucks. So, my PRSL coaches are going to be heavyweights, much to the disdain of rivet counters everywhere (and we have a few in the PRSL Historical Society). Below are photos of the prototype exterior of the coach I am emulating, the interior of a prototype PRSL P-70 coach and my interior.
The posters at either ends of the of the model interior are reductions of actual Pennsylvania RR ad posters for service to the New Jersey seashore. Lighting for the coaches is being converted to LED.
I would like to photos of your modeling. So, please post some.
You have a great body style with interior....what about Lionel "Baby Madison" 4 wheel trucks not quite PRR 4 wheel trucks but better than 6 wheels
Ed Samsen
It looks great, Randy!
@Ed Samsen posted:You have a great body style with interior....what about Lionel "Baby Madison" 4 wheel trucks not quite PRR 4 wheel trucks but better than 6 wheels
Ed Samsen
Ed:
Thanks for your kind words and suggestion.
I don't know that the 6-wheel trucks are even PRR style. The MTH O27 heavyweight coaches come painted and lettered in more than a dozen different road names. The actual coach is exactly the same no matter what the livery.
I did have this borderline brilliant idea of ordering a set of MTH 4-wheel passenger trucks for their O-27 streamlined passenger coaches assuming that MTH, to save money on tooling, would use the same chassis for both coaches. Well, silly me. The trucks for the streamlined coach have a shorter coupler than the Madison and the hole to mount the 4 wheeled trucks is not in the same place as the Madison mounting hole. Drilling a second hole will not work because the two holes slightly overlap. So, 6-wheel trucks it is!!!!!!
Been working on a battered Lionel 253 for the last few weeks. Cosmetically, the main problem was that most of the tabs holding the end pieces onto the body shell were broken. I'm not one for stripping original paint, but a solder job was the only permanent solution contemplated, and that required some or all of the paint to be removed. Tried a number of suggested recipes for paint removal, but ended up using a chemical stripper (another thing I'm not real fond of). That got about 99% of the paint off, so we got the shell soldered back together this week and a test fit back onto the frame (which will just get a good polish):
A bit more bending/straightening was required to get it to fit back onto the frame, and it's a tight fit, so some concern that the stress might pop the solder...we'll see. It'll get some rough handling during the next step (a final cleaning to remove the last bits of paint, then a thorough wash to remove absolutely every trace of chemical stripper) so a good test of the repairs. Presuming everything holds, it'll be off to the paint booth.
A big thank you to my solder-master friend for the work. I'd have burned a hole through the sheet-metal trying to do this.
PD
Missing is a container of "Kitty Treats"
Haven't had much train time lately. Honeydoo's have kept me busy.
I got a a few hours at the bench this afternoon and was able to bring life to my first of two MTH S2's that I'm working on. I bought the PS3/2 stacker boards a while back and had installed them, but several of the wires were too short and had to be extended. So the soldering station and the heat gun were warmed up and the work began.
I had to extend one set of wires from the pick ups- so I took the factory splice apart (wire nuts are very bush league), and replaced them with proper soldered splices.
Next was the front motor. Instead of doing 2 splices, I removed the wires from the motor and extended them from the harness. Could they make the wiring tabs on these can motors any smaller???? 
Finally, I installed the new speaker and wiring harness. The electro-couplers need to be checked. The rear has a short and chatters when power is applied, and the front doesn't work at all.
I put the engine on the track and SLOWLY brought up the power. NO MAGIC SMOKE!
The engine didn't react to my RC, but it worked in conventional. After getting the speaker installed I was able to reset the boards and now it works with my RC.
Still more work to do, and I need to get the birds nest of wires under control.
Bob
Very nice Bob!
@RSJB18 posted:Haven't had much train time lately. Honeydoo's have kept me busy.
I got a a few hours at the bench this afternoon and was able to bring life to my first of two MTH S2's that I'm working on. I bought the PS3/2 stacker boards a while back and had installed them, but several of the wires were too short and had to be extended. So the soldering station and the heat gun were warmed up and the work began.
I had to extend one set of wires from the pick ups- so I took the factory splice apart (wire nuts are very bush league), and replaced them with proper soldered splices.
Next was the front motor. Instead of doing 2 splices, I removed the wires from the motor and extended them from the harness. Could they make the wiring tabs on these can motors any smaller????
Finally, I installed the new speaker and wiring harness. The electro-couplers need to be checked. The rear has a short and chatters when power is applied, and the front doesn't work at all.I put the engine on the track and SLOWLY brought up the power. NO MAGIC SMOKE!
The engine didn't react to my RC, but it worked in conventional. After getting the speaker installed I was able to reset the boards and now it works with my RC.
Still more work to do, and I need to get the birds nest of wires under control.
Bob
As the esteemed Dr. Frankenstein exclaimed, “It’s Alive”. You have soo much more patience, and talent, than I.
Jay
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:As the esteemed Dr. Frankenstein exclaimed, “It’s Alive”. You have soo much more patience, and talent, than I.
Jay
That's Fronkenstein........
@RSJB18 posted:That's Fronkenstein........
Haha. In that case I'm Igor
Pardon me boy is this the Transylvania station?
Experimenting what I asked Walter M to do a long time ago....
I just had to do it. Change my Rolling stock to kadee couplers. All new rolling stock is getting the scale look. Those big huge ugly monster claws just destroy a good looking car. Plus coupling goes so much smoother. No more banging cars together I just am in love building trains in my new yard. 
My Forney StdGauge GP style loco is finally moved up on the to do list.
Upgraded my Williams J class with adding a cab unit from a Lionel workhorse J class. Perfect fit and it covers that can motor. Added firebox glow as well. Added classification lights to the tender. Yes, the outside lights are red, and clear in the middle. This one also got a MTH ps1 smoke unit, and a postwar front pilot that looks much better. 
looks great! Do you have a video of it smoking?
Here ya go. This was before the other upgrades.
@Jim M Sr posted:Dallas Joseph,
Realy nice looking job Jim.
Where do you get your decals ? 🤔 They look great.
Thank you.I made the decals from pictures I found on line. Copy and paste into “Word” then adjusted the size. Used ink jet printer, so they had to be sealed before wetting and applying.
Engine numbers on the side are dry transfers.
Jim,
I'm intrigued by your custom decals. Do you also make your own dry transfer decals? I'd be interested in more details and advice explaining how you make them (and seal them), and maybe showing pictures of the process.
Why? My family homesteaded in central Nebraska (just outside of Eddyville), but the farm was on the Union Pacific branch line that ran from Kearney NE, out to Callaway NE. So, I grew up in the final days of that line before it was decommissioned in the late 1980s (I still have the crossing sign from our road). That line originally started out as the 'Kearney & Black Hills Railway' in the late 1880's and was then absorbed by UP later on. The line started out with a couple of 4-4-0's, and then transitioned into several Baldwin 2-8-0s (w/ Vanderbilt tenders). My dream is to model this branch line (before becoming UP) but would need to make my own decals and your guidance would be really helpful (knowing I'd be taking liberties with my own interpretation of lettering/imagery on locos and freight as aren't many detailed pictures from this era.) The other problem I have is finding good loco prototypes in O or S Gauge in a condition to where I won't feel guilty altering them from the original build.
Obtained a postwar Lionel MKT 600 in the spring. It needed a bit of overhaul, cleaning and repainting. I always liked the gray and yellow version of the 600 and since the frame needed repainting anyway, this was the time to do it. The gray is from Hennings Trains and the yellow is Erie Lackawanna yellow. I added LED lighting with headlight lenses from Trainz. The colored paint was applied using airbrush over lacquer primer. It's not perfect but good enough! The locomotive runs well for something as old as this one,
I finished adding constant LED lighting to my two sets of passenger cars. Six RailKing Western Maryland Scenic Railroad cars and four Lionel New York Central cars.
@Ed Samsen posted:Missing is a container of "Kitty Treats"
They're kept in the kitchen, not on the workbench so they don't get contaminated with anything that might get him sick. Wouldn't want anything to happen to him and vet bills are high!
Off the workbench today is this 665.
Before
After
It just occurred to me that this engine, 665, has the same number as the house where I got my first Lionel 60 years ago!
Strasburg has acquired a few more cars. The coach is former Long Island and the Combine came from the PRR. Just out of the paint shop.
Pete
I have a few Lionel woodside cabooses that I’m always trying different things on as far as details and lighting. I use Atlas trucks and had flicker free lighting. There’s nothing to see as far as an interior. So the only lights are the Tomar lanterns. I have a designated caboose track in the yard. No toggle switch to shut the power off. So they all sit there with their lanterns lit. Certainly not prototypical. I had read many years ago about adding a magnetic latching relay for lighting cars using battery power. Rivarossi is doing something nowadays with their Magic Wand lighting. I understand a little bit more today than years ago on electronic projects and decided to give it a try. I used a 9v battery for power and a couple of boards and removed the rollers from my trucks. Seems to be very reliable. It’s just a matter of how long the battery lasts.
Dave, gorgeous as usual!…..any chance you’re adopting adult children?
Pat
@Norton posted:Strasburg has acquired a few more cars. The coach is former Long Island and the Combine came from the PRR. Just out of the paint shop.
Pete
On a visit to West Albany shops, I was able to see the progress firsthand on these cars,…..Craftsman level quality!….
Pat
Dallas Joseph,the dry transfer decals I buy. The decals I create from pictures are water slide created with an ink jet printer and sealer.
Years ago, I put together a Santa Fe Fast Mail train consist and made a streamlined rider coach to bring up the markers. Further research told me how the rider coach was almost always a heavyweight combine. To right this wrong, I sold the streamlined coach at a train show and modified this GGD combine to make a better representation.
It will soon get decals from ProtoCraft, a platform gate from Keil, and RYY markers from Tomar. It will not be exact, but mighty close...
Thanks to the heat, I’ve found myself deep in my postwar Lionel closet and my box of “to do!” Top of the list now is a couple of 6464’s with rusty wheels and trucks, not severe but definitely not anything I want to admit to, yet! And in a couple other cases, the door guides have spots of rust. My last attempt at rust removal on the door guides removed all the paint too, and the quick fix was to buy a couple of new sets. But I have the old ones, devoid of paint. Can they be satisfactorily repainted? Which shade of black? Protect against future rust how?
For the wheels and trucks-a couple of hours soaking, tooth brush, Dawn and warm water and an open air dry overnight. Will that protect the bluing or a drop of oil on a cotton cloth wiped over the dry assembly (Cotton swab in the hard to reach spots) protect against future rust or recurring rust..or something else?
like so many others, I learn from everyone here and am so grateful for the many topics.
Dick Lawrence
@prrhorseshoecurve posted:Experimenting what I asked Walter M to do a long time ago....
Do you happen to have a picture with the shell off showing the wiring ?
In the process of painting , adding weight, and installing kadee's on menards oil cars. I am changing wheel frames, ladder . Oil car Platform to black from gray. Adding weight to cars and putting kadee # 742 couplers. I have 12 to do. These pictures are a sample of the starting process. 
My public service announcement for the day: Always check engine gears and electronics before running them!
This Williams 5207 Hudson came to me from the fine folks at Trainz. Brand new sealed in the plastic. Took the gear box apart (boy, what an over engineered marvel that was taking apart 😂), and low and behold the brass and nylon gears were dry as a bone. Wonder how long that bad boy would've lasted without oil and grease? 
Just finished up this Williams kit. Lionel trucks and K4 decals.
Strasburg picked up one more car from the PRR. Just out of the shops and ready for service.
Pete
https://ogrforum.com/...6#177539554876817526
Ross, what paint did you use on your beautiful 665 restore?
I just un-boxed some items picked up from a local online auction. The description wasn't clear, and the pic was only a box full of pieces and parts, but I took a chance. It came with a 225E loco and the 2602 baggage that are in pretty rough shape. I need to find what proper tender came with it. The other pullman cars and tender are also in rough shape but will make for a great cleaning/restoration project. My list of things to find to complete the sets increases. 
prewar
225e needs a 2235w low couplers (2651 freight 2751 series freight 2245w for 2600 passenger cars (high couplers) both are cast tenders. there was a tubplate tender 2225w which is a waffle top usually in gunmetal. Go find a 2600 and 2601 if notseveral 2600 and a 2601
Ed
Note if you cannot locate the proper cast tender, a 2224W can stand in as a 2235 by changing the drawbar to stand in for a 2245W change the rear truck to the high couplerand the drawbar. NOTE the prewar box couplers I would use are the ones with the simulated knuckle coupler on the box aka 1940 pattern
Ed
Regarding a suitable replacement for the boiler front, would one from an early 736 work?
I used Krylon Colormax satin black, then waited several days before spraying Rustoleum Matte Clear over it.
@woodsyT posted:Yep. It's dry to the touch in minutes but continues to off-gas and 'cure' for a few days 👍
HAs the paint krinkled? Krylon paint is usually incompatible with other brands such as Rustoleum. Rustoleum makes a satin black the looks very good on Lionel locomotives.
No, it didn’t crinkle. I have had that issue in the past, but waited probably a week or more before spraying and used very light coats.
PEOPLE , PAINTING , PLAYING WITH LIGHT WIRING .
Never worked on one of these Streamliner cars before.
MTH Railking with different ( for me ) incadescent light strips . Changing to GRJ's module with LED light strips.
The incadescencts had the spring and pad type connector for the top tier metal strips with the micro bulbs. The lower cabin had the metal strips with the micro bulbs also.
Definitely something I had never encountered while doing LED installs on standard Madison and Streamline passenger cars.........kind of fun giving the gray matter a new experience.
@Dallas Joseph posted:PEOPLE , PAINTING , PLAYING WITH LIGHT WIRING .
Never worked on one of these Streamliner cars before.
MTH Railking with different ( for me ) incadescent light strips . Changing to GRJ's module with LED light strips.
The incadescencts had the spring and pad type connector for the top tier metal strips with the micro bulbs. The lower cabin had the metal strips with the micro bulbs also.
Definitely something I had never encountered while doing LED installs on standard Madison and Streamline passenger cars.........kind of fun giving the gray matter a new experience.
Dallas, here's my thread on upgrading the Premier versions.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Dallas, here's my thread on upgrading the Premier versions.
MTH Amtrak Superliner LED Upgrade in Pictures
Looks like your Premier had the same setup inside John. The one I'm working on is a 1998 30-6503.
I like how you kept your wiring professional looking and retained an easy access to the interior floors.
I eliminated the molex connectors and the spring connectors ..........at the expense of an orderly looking wiring job. 
Everything I did was soldered from the truck to the light strips.
Thanks for sharing John.......first time I saw a post on this Amtrak Superliner subject.
@Dallas Joseph posted:Looks like your Premier had the same setup inside John. The one I'm working on is a 1998 30-6503.
I like how you kept your wiring professional looking and retained an easy access to the interior floors.
I eliminated the molex connectors and the spring connectors ..........at the expense of an orderly looking wiring job.
Thanks for sharing John.......first time I saw a post on this Amtrak Superliner subject.
I try to have the ability to separate each part of the car, drives me nuts when they're hard-wired together when I'm working on them later.
My current project is a not working K Line shay from ebay. It works now 
.
I verified that the sounds worked, but no motor movement at all. Thought I would just replace the K Line cruise board with a cruise M, but they might be available again in December. Since I have always wanted a shay but they need a bigger layout, cost an arm and a leg, that when I found this one I knew it was mine and could not wait to get it on the layout running! So, I installed a Tsunami2 4400 inside after stripping it of all electronics except the tach board, thinking I might be able to use that if I decide to install a super chuffer. I did not replace the lights with LED's this time around, the dyno light is way cool effect, way better than with LEDs! I even have a firebox flickering glow that's pretty neat also. I found a polar express berk bell that will fit in the yoke, just need to install it and I have to make the two pipes that are missing from the top of the boiler. What I paid for the loco and the upgrades is still less than what they are selling for on ebay so I'm really happy with it so far!
Need to stop buying loco's so I can get my projects list reduced, LOL!
Darrell, it looks and sounds great. Am I correct that Tsunami is a DCC operated product?
Williams N5C caboose. Beautiful car but the stock couplers are 3/32" too high. So I retrucked the car with Lionel trucks and pickup shoes.
@Mark Boyce posted:Darrell, it looks and sounds great. Am I correct that Tsunami is a DCC operated product?
Mark, thank you and yes the Soundtrax Tsumani2 is a DCC decoder, command and sound all on one board. It is the older brother to the Bluenami 4408. It does not have bluetooth so I use a Digitrax 8 amp DCC system to run it. There is a hobby shop up north in Phoenix that always seems to have them in stock so that is what I use now. There just was no room inside for a Cruise commander and a Sound commander inside the shay, so that was not an option and would have added to the cost of the project.
I'm just happy that after all these years of wanting one that would run on my 042 and 031 curves, I now have one!
@Darrell posted:Mark, thank you and yes the Soundtrax Tsumani2 is a DCC decoder, command and sound all on one board. It is the older brother to the Bluenami 4408. It does not have bluetooth so I use a Digitrax 8 amp DCC system to run it. There is a hobby shop up north in Phoenix that always seems to have them in stock so that is what I use now. There just was no room inside for a Cruise commander and a Sound commander inside the shay, so that was not an option and would have added to the cost of the project.
I'm just happy that after all these years of wanting one that would run on my 042 and 031 curves, I now have one!
Darrell, having a hobby shop that has the Tsunami decoders in stock almost all the time is a big plus when compared to other systems that are only available once in a while. I'm not naming any names here.
I most certainly agree Mark!
I installed the Polar Express bell and replaced the missing piping with some 20 gauge flower stem wire from Micheal's. At this point the project is about done and I'm having a blast running it around the layout!
Years ago, I made and printed decal sets for GARX insulated boxcars (the boxcars Atlas makes for the HO people but not us) **snarky voice inserted**. Today I discovered how K4 Decals is making these same sets for QA&P Rwy. Many other major railroads leased these cars which carried GARX reporting marks and numbers but sported the leasing railroad’s logo. For my next major project I have been buying Atlas Napierville Junction 50’ PS-1 cushion cars for very reasonable prices, and all the while thinking I would have to print more decals. Not so! Later, I will need to buy short shanked couplers for the Atlas trucks since GARX cars were not cushion cars, and the Napierville Jct. models have simulated cushioned shanks.
Side thought: I remember working in East yard as a new hire and watching a load get kicked fairly swiftly into a cushion car…everything on the track moved with the force of the joint except the body of that cushion car. Then very slowly the body crept to get in line with its underframe. It looked weird.
Pictures later this year.
K4 is “the Bomb”.
I need some 763e parts advice. I bid on an item in a local online auction that seemed to contain a prewar 268w tender, and the 618 caboose, 810 Crane, and 812 gondola. The pic also showed an outline of a loco in the corner of the pic so I took a chance. There were some neat old items so I was willing to pay a bit more hoping that I would be redeemed. When I went to retrieve the box, I found it included the 763E, and also some neat old accessories including a 6457 caboose and 2671w tender in really nice condition. I ended up paying $260 for the lot.
However, the 763e loco has two driver wheels with broken flanges, the lead truck wheels are chipped and cracked, and the trailing truck wheels are notched and one of the spoked wheels has dissolved around the axel. Wondering if it got dropped or something. It clearly hasn't been run as the driver wheels turn but seem to be really gummed up. Other than that, it looks to be in great shape.
Questions:
Any advice would greatly be appreciated.
Also, the loco, tender, and cars all seem so large in comparison to other Lionel prewar tinplate items (comparing my Lionel #2657 caboose to the #617). Why is that? When I first took the items out of the box I thought they might be standard gauge. The tender wheels are huge!
I'm also realizing that the loco is missing the cow catcher, the pin that connects the tender, and the tender might be missing some grab bars.
Just picked up this 1952 Lionel 2032 Erie set with custom painted 2400 passenger cars. They have not been ran in years so I have to replace the battery, clean, lube and see if she goes around the track.
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