The tender promised to be the easiest part of this project, so I went for the low-hanging fruit. The model came with a 19th-century type with flared collar, but #186 had been modernized with a newer tender (see above). Luckily, I found a tender shell from a Lionel mogul that is "close enough".
I wanted to use the chassis of the original tender intact so as not to disturb the electronics, so I hoped that the new shell would fit. Well, it almost did. I cut a hole in the shell for the parts that didn't:
... and built a wooden "toolbox" to cover them over:
Fortunately, the NYC lettering came off cleanly with nail polish remover and cotton swabs, so no need to repaint. Yeah! Dry-transfer numbers went on, a clear coat, and real Virginia Blue Ridge Ry. coal topped it off:
The final detail on the tender is to get a shorter drawbar. Anybody have a 6-pin, 25mm one they'd like to part with?
