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When I re-started in this hobby in January, one of my first purchases was a cheap, 80's DC only 2-4-0 "Southern Streak" set that came along with a  KW transformer I really wanted.  I made a thread earlier about abusing this poor guy and learning about PS1 in the process.  Although I successfully converted it to PS1, it was still a junker and looked like a junker to boot.

So while I was waiting for my next project loco to show up, a PW 1666 that I plan on refinishing, I got bored and decided to make the "Southern Streak" something I could bear to look at.

I started by stripping the lettering and giant pinstripe line down the side.  Then I removed the bell and sanded down the mold lines on top.  I filled the motor frame with about 8 oz of lead to give it a bit more friction on the rails (yes, I know these little guys and their cheap motors aren't meant to pull huge consists, but this thing would slip with two little PW boxcars behind it in the curves).

Then I replaced the tender trucks with some spare MTH freight trucks that I had laying around 

Finally, I cut out more of the tender frame so I could move the speaker from its ridiculous position in the cab to something more sensible under the tender.  Had to make some custom clips out of spare stainless wire to hold it in place though. It also allowed me to lose two of the six wires between the loco and tender, so I created a fake tether with some 4-pin molex connectors that I had laying around.  I epoxied the pin-side into the tender shell and it's nice and hidden now.  I left the 9V battery harness sticking out to remind me that there's no BCR or battery and not to try to run it.  When I make another BCR I'll be able to *just* cram it inside the shell.

For the finish, it's amazing what a little rattle-can and some decals can do if you're patient.  I waited between coats, waited to apply decals and pin-striping, waited to coat with a satin finish.  Got a little impatient between the last 2 coats of clear satin and ended up with a small amount of crazing in a couple spots..It ain't a museum piece but it's something that doesn't make me sad to look at anymore either.  I guess I'll keep it.

Before & After:

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@Old Goat:

Here's a basic rundown:

  1. Take everything apart down to the plastic shells.  Had to grind away the "riveted" plastic on the underside of the bell mount to get the shiny plastic bell off.  Had to push out the headlisght lns from behind with a heavy kebab skewer.  Threaded it up between the drawbar "slot" so it was more or less straight into the rear of the lens, then just held the loco body and tapped the back of the skewer on the table a few times and the lens popped right out.
  2. Remove existing graphics...I use EZoff OVen cleaner.  Might have been overkill on this one (I do it on my zinc castings to refinish PW stuff) but I had it on hand and I knew it would work.  Spray a layer of foam, set outside in an aluminum pan for 30 minutes, bring back in and use a soft toothbrush to "scrape" the congealed oven cleaner off.  It takes any paint and graphics with it.  
  3. Wash all plastic shells in dawn and warm water so there is no "slipperiness" left at all. 
  4. I blow dry using my wife's hairdryer on medium heat, since I don't want water spots as the water evaporates.
  5. Hand the shells from a coat hanger connected to a convenient thing on the porch or the garage.  Spray with one coat of black PRIMER (not flat black paint, I always use a primer.  Even though the Rustolem 2X says "Paint and Primer Together" I still use a primer by itself first out of habit.  I used the black RustOleum 2X primer. Use very light coats, just until the green more or less disappears.  Super light misting a few minutes apart works best.  Even if there's a bit of plastic still just barely showing through, I leave it be.
  6. Although RustOLeum says you can put a first top coat on within an hour (but not more than an hour, paint starts to do odd chemical-things and if you wait more than an hour you best wait til it's completely cured, at LEAST 24 hours I think before continuing).  Besides, I was planning on masking the shell so I could brush-paint the front of the smokebox.
  7. After primer cures, I masked off the area around the smokebox using a hobby knife and normal masking tape (I don't use fancy stuff yet)
  8. I tried brush-painting with Testors "Flat Steel" enamel model paint in the little bottle.  I've read a TON of blogs and watched all sorts of online videos about "How to brush-paint enamels without leaving brushstrokes" and my conclusion is they're all lying.  I've tried so many ways, but I can never get a "smooth" finish with brushed enamel.  I've tried thinning 50 / 50, Thinning 7:1, Not thinning, Wide brushes, narrow brushes...no luck.  So on this one I just resigned to the fact that some brush strokes would show up on the front and I didn't care cause it's literally a piece of junk. However, I DID paint a thinned (as I saw fit, somewhere between 7:1 and 50/50 ) and a 1/2" wide brush and brusshed in 3 light layers.  I WAITED A FULL DAY BETWEEN LAYERS! Yes, 3 days just to coat the front part of the boiler.  Wasn't worth it, I probably would have done a thicker coat once and called it good if I had to do it over.  I used a much smaller pointed brush around the front of the smoke box cover and just painted right to the edge of the crcualr shape without going past.  Didn't need to mask this part, the hard edge stopped the paint just fine.
  9. Peeled the masking immediately after the last coat of Steel (it pulled up some of the first 2 layers but nt so bad, I touched up with a toothpick.  
  10. Let the whole thing dry for a day.
  11. Masked off the boiler And gave the whole thing a top coat of RustOleum 2X semi-gloss black.
  12. Waited 2 days for cure (since I use solvents for my decals).  BTW, I paint in my (humid and warm) garage but immediately bring everything inside to hang in my house at 77 degrees and <50% humidity.
  13. Using leftover "Pennsy Steam" decals from Microscale, applied decals using Microsol washed over the are to prep and once the decal started to "stick" (about 15 minutes after applying) give it a coat of MicroSet  (or is it the other way around?  Says on the bottle which to use when.  Blue first, red last).
  14. Took some work getting the long pinstripes straight, and they're actually not perfect.  But I used them to try to "hide" some warping of the tender shell by not exactly following the rivet lines and "cheating a bit to get to about halfway between "straight" and "following the warp".  
  15. After everything dries, I brushed on another layer of the MicroSet to make sure the decals laid over the rivets OK (especially on the tender).  LEt that whole setup dry for 24 hours.
  16. When all was dry and set, I washed everything with Dawn soap and water and let dry (with some help from the hairdryer again).
  17. Hang from garage ceiling and spray some light coats of RustOleum Satic Clear finish.  The rules are the same for paint...if you don't spray LIGHT coats and you don't do it within a few minutes of the first coat, the solvents can "lift" and you get that cracking, wrinkly look in spots.  It happened to me where I go a little overzealous and sprayed too thick.  Seriously, "mist" a few times, then again, then again to finish.
  18. Let dry for 24 hours inside.  Reassemble and be happy your engine and tender don't make you sad anymore.

Have fun!

Thanks @Lee Willis

By the way, I don't number my stuff prototypically.  All my renumbered locos have a 3 or 4 digit number chosen by one of my kids for whatever reason they want.  It's usually an important date or a phone number or something.  And the "NOR" I assume, indicated "Northumberland" which was an active spot on the PRR.  Some of you Pennsy guys can tell me if I'm wrong.  I put the "NOR" tag on this one because my wife and I actually lived in Selinsgrove, just across the water from Northumberland, for several years.   Ate at the Front Street restaurant many times next to the tracks.

Jeff, I am going to take exception with your choice of words. Terms like "junk" and "garbage" get tossed about quite pretty freely on this forum and usually in reference to either MPC period trains or starter sorts of products.

I had a relative who said "junk" was something you paid too much for and also didn't work as it was advertised to do. By that definition, there are an awful lot of high end, advanced and scale products that fit that description perfectly. We read about them here all the time. One might be tempted to call the recent Lionel Moguls garbage, though they were certainly nicer looking engines than these referenced 2-4-0's. But digital features, scale proportions and added details does not necessarily equate to "value." 

Look, I'm not arguing that the topic engine here is certainly a low-end product. They were intended as such. But as a long time buyer of such products, I can say that I've never had one not work out of the box nor have I paid too much for one. And to this day, they all still function.

One could also make the case that the newer Dockside and 0-8-0 Lionel starter set steamers are much nicer looking engines with more functions. One can also make the case that the worm gear DC motors in these two engines are much smaller and do not have the same longevity. The motor and the frame in the early release Dockside locos are now already obsolete parts: If you need a new motor, you're going to need a new $85.00 frame to go with it. Never mind many other more advanced higher end products that also now have either obsolete parts or simply have no parts made available anymore.

The DC can motors in these plastic starter steamers that are the topic here, are the same ones used in the heavier small die-cast steam engines made by Lionel, so you are safe to add some weight to inside the chassis, which I do to all of mine. It is a very common motor.

Since I have the option of running my layout on DC current, I add weight to these engines and don't worry about a circuit board reverse unit. The plastic bodies make alterations much easier than die-cast and details are easily added. And there's certainly already an acceptable amount of cast in detail on these low cost, low-end starter locomotives that can be highlighted with paint, as you have done with yours and which I also did with one of many that I have, shown below.

I replaced the original pullmor motor frame with the manual reverse, to a common DC motor frame, which also fits the same shell. Again, since I can run my layout on DC, forward and reverse are no problem. With the added weight, this loco can pull a quite a train.

2-4-0 MPC era steam switcher

Jeff, you did a splendid job improving the visual appearance of your locomotive. Personally I would never have added ANY digital control system to a locomotive. I've read too complaints that the MTH system is total garbage... but is it?? Would you call it garbage? Others do though. I know a guy who purchase an MTH starter set and it was dead right out of the box. He was not happy and now calls their products junk and garbage. But are they??? 

Sure, many current trains have digital and mechanical features you won't find on a low-end product. But of what use are they if they don't work? My trains do everything the high end trains do... in my imagination!

There's an old saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. I guess how you choose to see that is based upon your own personal perspective. But in 32 years now of buying starter types of trains, I've never once had a DOA or any other major quality problem, so I guess I would have to give Lionel a 100% rating on out-of-the box quality. Again, you don't have to read for very long on this forum to find others who would angrily take issue with that score. 

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Last edited by brianel_k-lineguy

@brianel_k-lineguy: Fair enough, maybe it's not really appropriate to call it "junk".  Maybe "low-end toy"? 

I get it, but even as an "entry-level" toy product, the build quality on these was pretty cheap.  The "rolling chuffer" that had beads rolling around in the tender rarely made any real noise, and the engine had a hard time pulling the small, light cars that it came with on the included 027 tracks.  When running in DC off the little transformer, I often had to slow down or stop, regain traction, and then slowly start pulling again.  This was with the traction tire in place.  What was funny is that, because of the way the resulting loads would work when the motor was applying torque and the single-sided traction tire, the engine would have less difficulty going one direction around the loop versus the other.  Other small details were also not very well controlled...The screws that mounted the front truck to the underside of the loco body were so off-center that they were pushing material slightly to the inside of the post mounts in the shell resulting in the telltale "whitening" of the green plastic.

However, all that being said, the actual level of detail in the molds is pretty good for such a low-end piece. You're correct that some paint highlights and some strategic decoration really bring it out.  So that's definitely a positive.  As for adding electronics like the PS1 board...I did it because I wanted to learn how that stuff went together.  I have a bunch of functioning PS1 boards that I got for a song, and I didn't mind screwing up a loco and possibly a board tinkering around with it.  I know the PS1 stories, but so far I've been able to avoid the worst of them.

I suppose I called it "junk" because I got it as a freebie with a transformer and I've conducted all sorts of unspeakable acts of torture on it since I got it.  It's barely a shell of its former self anymore. 

BTW, did you manage to cram a smoke unit into your 7938 pictured above, or is that just dramatic effect for the photo?

@Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy, the smoke coming from that loco is the material used in stuffing pillows, which I think looks much better than the older method of cotton. I've since taken to using some grey and black spray paint and misting the pillow batting to make it look more like steam engine smoke.

At one time I did remake the smoke stack on those model locos out of metal, and put a Seuthe 6 volt smoke unit in them with heat insulation around them. They did put out smoke, but never lasted. The Seuthe smoke units just don't have a long life. And the 12 volt versions didn't put out enough smoke as 12 volts will make those train engines run like race cars. So I decided for me, it wasn't worth the aggravation to bother.

Yes, it certainly was a low end engine, though the worst thing about those early Lionel DC only sets was the TYCO based power pack put in those sets, which delivered a minimal 6 volts to the track. There's no way the engine could ever run slowly. With a better more sensitive DC power source, you can make those engines crawl.

Part of the challenge also is the bigger department store retailers want to retail electric train sets at a certain price point, say $75.00. I've heard various train companies comment on this. They can't meet that price without cutting every corner or accepting it as a loss leader, hoping that it will bring in new customers.

___________

As a final thought, this whole world has gotten more opinionated. Opinions are not always factual and differ substantially. Of the whole model train market, HO makes up roughly 65% followed by N scale. 3-rail 0 is a distant third, and far more divided into subcategories than HO and N because of the long established history as mostly "toy" trains, albeit some less than others.

SO, the more the merrier. Starter sets still make up the majority of Lionel's sales and profits. That in turn helps make it possible to have the higher end models.

For me, what is an unnecessary aggravation makes the hobby more enjoyable, as Gunrunnerjohn has said on other occasions. Were it not for the new advances, he wouldn't be in the hobby... him and others. As Lionel has said, they can't focus on just one area of the market: They need everyone from toy enthusiast to scale modeler.

And as a curiosity, don't know if you care to answer @gunrunnerjohn, but you have circuit boards made for you. What percentage of them are defective? I only ask because it seems to be a problem the actual train makers have... or maybe it is the installation of them (ie: wiring). Not trying to be intrusive or put you on the spot, but was wondering if your defect rate (if you have one) is reflective of the defect rates the train makers appear to be having, as least from reading here... whatever those rates actually are?

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