The Brianel Shops have been pretty busy lately and are waiting for a nice day to do some outside photos. There's a couple of Lionel MPC 2-4-0's that have been repainted and modified. And a Lionel low-end DC Rock Island Docksider now modified and repainted for the Lehigh Valley.
And the project that never ends is my version of the New York Central 4083. Lionel and K-Line did proper E-8 versions, so I thought it'd be fun to have my own version as in a K-Line Alco FA. This is the problem with using spray cans for paint along with trying to access correct color from internet photos. From a "maybe I'll like this a little bit more when I put more work into it" project, it became a "maybe I'll like this a little more if I stop focusing on the prototype." More to come on that one....
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Recently CoastsideKevin had a thread about traditional passenger cars. I think he opted for the MTH Railking ones, which is fine. It just goes to show how differently we all interpret "what looks correct" on our layouts. But to me, those and the newer Lionel versions both look too "squat" in my viewing. There's a fine art to the selective compression of scale that just can't be done with a scale ruler.
@RSJB18, your photos show just how nice the K-Line version of the postwar Lionel steamliner passenger cars look in a traditional setting. My preference is for the Lionel ones as they are a tad shorter, but the K-Line ones (and the later RMT production) are certainly very nice and absolutely have that "postwar selective compression" with a little more added detail.
