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Brought a Lionel 253 electric Loco back to life, tell me what you think as this is my first 253 restore.

Purchased a badly painted/modified Lionel 253 from eBay for $39.00 plus shipping.

The wheel were good just rusted a bit, the previous owner put in a e-unit that was secured to the motor with wire and soldered in (e-unit did not function, this was not a 253E).

There was no manual reversing switch and had broken trim and the collector plate was bad.

The paint was so heavy and bad that the shell had to be pried of the frame after the screws were removed. Did a quick rewiring and the motor did run.

Removed the couplers, brass number/window/grill plate, trim, and then stripped all the paint off.

What was interesting was the brass plate was painted and re-lettered by hand. When I stripped the paint of the black Lionel letter stayed on. Used “0000” steel wool and the brass shined up great. Cleared the brass with a gloss clear (did not want to paint the window/. grill with the cream color as I liked the brass).

Cleaned up the rest of the Brass trim with the steel wool the cleared painted them.

Decided to paint the frame maroon and the shell terracotta (like the colors)

Re-wired the motor using a 20 gauge stranded super flex wire (has a silicon jacket and about 60 strands per wire).  Great stuff.

I also wired the lights together (using 20 gauge cloth cover wire so that only one wire for the voltage and one wire for the ground will come down. The reason for the ground wire on the lights is to have a good connection.  The wire used coming down from the lights to the frame and switch is the super flex wire. After this was installed I decided to hang a inferior light in the cab (painted the bulb that face the ground black so that it will not shine directly down but to the sides. Also put a small resistor in series with this light to tone done the brightness and wire these to the headlights.

The Brush, field wires coming down all are connected to the switch with the super flex wire.

The engine is a strong runner.  I also took photos of the various stages of the restore, was able to post just one.

My opinion is If a Lionel prewar is already painted, that I feel it is OK to paint and modified as one wishes.

The engine, parts and time that I have invested in this project I will never get back, but the satisfaction of bring a 85 to 90 year old engine back to life is the best part. Imagine that some kid back in the 20’s  may have got this engine as a Christmas gift, only if the engine could talk.

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Last edited by RonH
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Originally Posted by RonH:
 Will think about your offer having fun the the 253, here is another picture, did it for the fun not the resale
 
Originally Posted by Happy Pappy:

Ron,

How does an offer of, $150.00 sound?

 

I know, I know.....Go back to your corner old man. What can I say except.....You did one heck of a good job. Almost pushing, Great!

 

 

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Before and after

VERY nice! Not bad for a $39 old beater! I would think after all the time and effort you put into it that the thought of selling it would be like selling one of your children!

 

Kinda nice to see posts like this after reading all the "Let's get rid of Pullmors and conventional control" stuff on the O-27/Traditional forum.

Originally Posted by RonH:
Originally Posted by RonH:
 Will think about your offer having fun the the 253, here is another picture, did it for the fun not the resale

RonH,

Your work is fantastic! I could not do anything too rob you of any satisfaction. There's nothing that can take the place of your,"first time". If you contact the TCA Office, they will send,"TCA Restoration"stickers to you free of charge.(If you are a member)

That's awesome.  I want to get into something like that.  I have a really nice dark olive No8 shell, a good running motor and a nice frame.  I just need the lights.  Not really a restoration because all my parts are here and in really good shape.  But it's a start.  I have a 212 crane that is pretty beat up.  I'm thinking of restoring that as my next step.  I also want to know more about how the motors work and how to repair them etc.  Thank you for sharing this.  We really need more pictures though.  Cheers.

More picture, used had from my camera,not a home,but in New Orleans for the Mardi-Gras (lots of fun).

Let me know if you can open the attachment and if you would like some more pictures of the engine pain strip off or any other pictures of the finished train. If you have any other questions, just ask.

I worked and modified a Lionel 2015 years ago and let me know if you would like another post on this engine.

Started work on a Lionel 221 engine, taking most of the cast piping off and replacing it with piano wire and small cotter pins to hold in place and scrapping the coffin type tender and bashing together a 6 wheel tender ( lowering it to meet the engine height and adding detail and steam type sound.

I enjoy the rebuilds and mods more than I do running them (strange I quess).

 

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Thanks Jack, glad I won it too. When the seller shipped the engine out he sent it to someone in Florida and he sent the Florida train to me. Mistakes happen, but it all worked out.

Replaced the hand rails, head lights, manual switch and the contact rollers using the old Lionel manufacture plate. Some money invested but worth it.

These old prewar engines are fun to do. I have a 150 badly repainted engine that I will be working on and it has all of its parts. Purchased the rubber stamps for the lettering for the restore, just need to strip the paint and do a repaint.

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

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