Update May 7: PW Lionel But Not Really Lionel Frankenloco: Now with SMOKE!

Looks like a mix of stuff. The boiler may be from a CLW H-10; the cab is a mystery although its contours look Pennsy. The chassis, 3-rail electrical, saying Lionel, but the flanges look kinda small; don't believe Lionel ever used a motor like the one shown.

OTOH: if it runs OK, I'd put it back together and use it, after fixing the cab window, of course.

Thanks @rex desilets.  Definitely going to fix her up and get her running, but it's sometime easier if I can find a photo of a similar completed unit of the same brand.

I also noticed a couple things...the drive wheels have no provisions for tires, so it looks like the owner put some weight in the upper part of the shell.  Can't tell if that "goo" is some poured-in lead weight or maybe it's just some kind of insulating foam for some reason? 

I thought the same thing about the motor, maybe it's a 70's era K-line or something?  Did they even do steam like this?  It still appears to be a brushed AC motor, but the tape over it doesn't help.

BTW, what's wrong with the cab window? Wrong # of panes?

That thing is so far from post war Lionel...

Yes, they use a postwar Lionel center rail collector and a heavily modified worm driven Berkshire frame, but that the extent.

What a mishmash Frankenstein you have there. Nothing close to anything factory made.

"Can't tell if that "goo" is some poured-in lead weight or maybe it's just some kind of insulating foam for some reason?" 

I'd say that insulating foam and lead are two of the most hard-to-confuse substances I can imagine. One weighs nothing and one is heavy as, uh, lead. Poke at it.

This is a scratch-bashed locomotive effort. Looks pretty good. No, that is not a Lionel motor. Lead is/was used as weight to increase tractive effort. If you look inside most brass steamers - like the Williams ones from the late 80's - early 90's (Niagara, Mikado, Pacific, etc) you will find a large lead weight. Without it the loco would weigh half as much. Most brass locos - diesels, too - need extra weight. This also applies to smaller die-cast locos without traction tires; traction tires are a relatively recent "invention".  

D500 posted:

I'd say that insulating foam and lead are two of the most hard-to-confuse substances I can imagine. One weighs nothing and one is heavy as, uh, lead. Poke at it.

LOL I'll do that as soon as I receive the loco.  I think I'll be able to tell the difference once I'm holding it.  But for now, I'm just going by the photos on the auction site. 

FWIW, I've seen some lead pours that were done in multiple layers that can leave a sort of pattern like the one shown in the photo.  But I've also seen spray foam look like that.  I have no idea why anyone would do that, though, then go through the trouble of painting over it.

I'm gonna guess from the photo its some sort of ballast weight.

I'll let you know once I poke it

In addition to the heavily modified Berkshire frame as mentioned above, that body shell is also from one of the Postwar Lionel 675, 2025 or 2035 type locomotives.  Again, very heavily modified with a brass(?) cab built over the cut down original die cast one (you can see the thickness old cab in the underside view), a new smokestack, new domes, etc.  Somebody was trying to make a scale representation of a prototypical PRR locomotive out of the parts of the various postwar Lionel locomotives.  Looks like it had some potential to be a pretty neat looking model at the end.

Good stuff, guys!  If someone went through all the effort to make the stacks, domes, cab, etc "more to scale" then I should at least put some effort into a correct tender.  Anyone have any suggestions for a starting point on which tender to choose?

 @SantaFe158: Good eye! You're right, this boiler / cab 100% started life as a PW 2025...compare details. Almost certainly the same casting. Cab is definitely bigger as an add-on.

If you search ebay you may find a proper Lines West or Lines East tender; possibly to cost as much or more than your loco.

Lionel will sell you a tender shell (look under parts for the H-10) for $110, but you have to beg and plead. And you still have to come up with a chassis, trucks, etc.

OTOH, you can haunt ebay for nice Weaver H-10 ($400, or so) and spare yourself misery.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Weave...c:g:WF4AAOSw-Q5em9kH

Seller wants more than I would pay.

I assume you aren't interested in a CLW kit......

I have seen similar locos at a Hamburg Pa train show. They were more complete than yours but they started as Lionel parts and then were made to be more scale by adding brass parts and pieces.  Back in the late 1940s and later modelers modified stock lionel locos to be more scale in appearance. The ones I saw were actually very nicely crafted. As for a tender lionels current H10 tender would work used ones show up occasionally. About the same time our modeler was building this Senco made a die cast tender . It had a speaker in it for some type of sound system ,it is close to a prr prototype and would look nice with your loco. The motor may be dc it would run smoother ( DC motor would have a permanent magnet)   It also looks like he removed stock lionel gear cut open the bottom of the frame and changed it for a gear that  would run slower and have more pull. That will be a neat build to restore!!

Keep us posted

@Dave Funk: You nailed it.  I got it in the mail today and proceeded to tear into it.  It is indeed an old Lionel engine with all sorts of brass add-ons.

I've already torn it all the way down to the bare bones, including taking the motor apart to clean up what appeared to be a collection of gravel, concrete and old Fork V8  motor blocks in there.  Well, not really, but it was not pretty inside. 

It is indeed a DC motor with a permanent magnet. It had a hard time turning freely on account of the gunk, so I actually physically removed the armature and yanked all the stack plates and gave everything a nice mineral oil bath and scrub.  Also polished up the brush commutator, although it was actually in decent shape as were the brushes.

The modeler before me milled out for the worm gear to mate with the motor, but there were a few problems.  The milled-out area wasn't wide enough for the gear, and the worm was ever-so-off-axis, so when I manually turned it, it would grab one or two teeth on a tiny corner once per rotation.  I was just able to get in there with the tip of my dremel and knock that corner off.  I also re-seated the gear and centered it up better, now there's plenty of clearance.

Second, the motor was mounted to a custom brass wedge that then mounted to some machined holes in a milled-put area at the back of the frame in the cab.  However, the wedge wasn't at enough of an angle, and as a result the output shaft sat too high and the worm teeth wouldn't mesh consistently with the gear so every once in a while it would skip a tooth.  (I did this all manually with no power, didn't want to apply any juice yet).  That was easy enough to deal with by adding a very thin shim to the rear portion of the wedge to force the output lower and now it meshes all the way into the gear!

Third, the existing power input to one of the brushes was soldered very poorly, and vibration would make some of the strands contact the motor frame and would almost certainly have grounded out the motor and not allowed it to operate.  Instead of just re-soldering the wire, though, the previous owner tried to combat this by shoving some tape between the terminal and the motor frame.  Btu the tape was worn through and it wouldn't have been effective.  So I pulled them off and re-soldered new wires after cleaning the brushes and terminals thoroughly.

Lastly, the input roller assembly was grounding against the lower part of the chassis where the feed wire passes through.  The owner cut some braided jacket and tried to shove it around the feed terminal, but the jacket is too short and the exposed terminal could tap-tap-tap the chassis.  So I ripped that out, re-soldered and straightened the jacket, then taped it off for now until I can heat shrink around it.

I've started stripping the paint from the brass pieces.  The brass add-ons at the front end broke off during shipping, looks like they were glued with a thick layer of glue before.  I've spent some scrubbing time stripping that glue residue and trying to get the paint off.  Still working on that.  Godd news it appears that ALL pieces are accounted for, all the piston rod screws and piston rods seem to be present.  Although they need a serious cleanup and polish.

My biggest conundrum right now is how do I affix the QSI ACRU-lp to the DC motor? (photo attached below)  The motor has only two leads (+ and chassis ground).  I can't see any sign of a rectifier on the reverse unit (there wouldn't be since it's an AC reverse unit).  So can I wire the leads to the legs of a bridge rectifier and then out to the DC motor? In other words, treat the bridge as if it was the AC motor and then send the + and - outputs of the bridge out to the two brushes on the motor?  This is my biggest challenge ATM....

By the way, the reverse unit actually fits in the boiler but only AFTER I removed about 60% of the lead packing that was up in there.  Seriously, this thing weighed like 18 pounds before I pried layer after layer of hammered lead out of the boiler.  It still weighs a TON, but now I can fit the reverser!

By the way, and this drives me nuts, the original owner actually did a decent job on paint (although you could tell it was painted with the wheels and motor in place), but the cab is actually noticeably crooked!   Oh well, once I get this mechanically and electrically rolling, maybe I'll try my hand at refinishing the exterior. I've stripped the brass so it's going to have to happen sooner or later!

Anyway, on to the photos!

Everyone's accounted for!

Brass front end fell off during shipping:

SO MUCH LEAD!!!!  I think I need to file paperwork with the EPA when I sell my house now...

Pretty rough, and ( + ) terminal shorting intermittently

After a bath!

You know what really grinds my gears????

Rolls pretty nice after a rebuild of the chassis and axles!

View of the milled-out areas after everything got cleaned up.

Together again!  And a NEW FRIEND!

Any advice on how to hook this AC reverser to the DC motor?  Just through a bridge?

AAARGHH!  (Yes, it looked like this in the auction website photos.  Still aggravating!)

This is certainly a neat project.  I've always enjoyed seeing custom made things such as this, especially when brought to completion.  I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

Hi Jeff You can' t used acru with a bridge rectifier as  the rectifier will keep the dc positive always positive despite what the reverse unit is feeding it. You could just use rectifier to convert ac on rails to dc for motor. a dpdt switch would reverse direction of polarity and run loco backwards ,sort of a pain but it was done that way back in the day! DC reverse units are around fairly cheaply.. a request for one on the forum will most likely yield you one.

That crooked cab would drive me nuts … see if you can figure why he had it cocked so badly.The age of the adhesives he used may be to your advantage as they may fail with a little heat or pressure( warning cab is made of brass and can be easily bent or unsoldered if too much heat or pressure is applied)... then you could get the cab on straighter

I was rooting around in my stuff yesterday and found a senco sound tender even labeled up PRR.  All it needs are 4 small springs for one of the trucks. You are welcome to it for the $12 cost of shipping. Contact me off line

@Dave Funk:  Thanks so much for the incredibly generous offer on the tender!  I'm totally taking you up on that, check your email!

In other news...

I have almost ZERO experience with brass, so I’m not even really sure where to start with that cab.  Your comment about the adhesive maybe working to my advantage...I suspect that's correct given that the whole of the brass front end literally fell off.  Whatever adhesive he used...it looks like a SUPER thick layer of some kind of brittle epoxy.  I've spent the better part of an hour scraping and pulling the layers of adhesive off the front end so I can strip and re-affix the cowcatcher.  I'm guessing maybe he used the same for the cab.  But I wouldn't know where to start to try to separate it, or how to re-affix?  How much heat is "too much?"  or maybe use some kind of solvent? 

Is there a special brass glue or adhesive that you guys use these days?  I simply can't abide that crooked cab, it must be fixed.  And I still have to re-attach the front end.

I realize the ACRU won't work with a plain bridge now (silly me) but is there a way to replicate what the MTH PS1 boards do?  I have a boatload of diodes at my disposal, I've got to believe there's a way to direct the + / - using diodes somehow based on which AC output lead is active on the ACRU.  I made another thread with a perhaps better phrasing of the question.

Love this forum...so helpful and I'm learning every day!

So I managed to get the cab separated from the boiler and cleaned up the brass a bit. It's easy to see why it was so crooked!

Not only was the cab assembled crooked, the cutaway on the boiler was also not very even.

I feel like I can probably straighten the cab brass, but when I go to re-assemble it I'm going to have some big gaps to fill. Any advice on what to use?

I've also stripped the boiler down to the casting, and it's going to get paint stripped next. And spend some time cleaning up the front side brass.

I think the whole assembly is destined to look more like a class M1 than an H10. Even though it's a 2-8-0  I feel like that's what the original owner might have been going for.

When I get the tender offered by @Dave Funk I'll decide what to if electronics to load up. @GGG has convinced me to give up on trying to use the ACRU. If anyone has a small DCRU laying around let me know and I'll see if I can work it in.

Photos:

So Crooked! Also the front edge of the roof was bent and damaged.

One last look at 3459 as a complete unit:

Not the prettiest view...

Aaaaand...we have confirmed separation!  This was after quite a bit of time with a dremel cut-off wheel, a drill, a hammer, a hot iron, an energy matrix, a volatile mixture of explosives, a board with a nail in it...

Lots of corrosion on the lower part, and the original boiler was not cut evenly in the area under the cab.

Pretty easy to tell from this view why the cab wasn't on straight.

The actual cab assembly front plate was soldered to the cab crooked.

A little acetone bath to soften her up before getting her stripped down naked...

You're next bubba.

But first you gotta finish your diet.  Time to get the lead out...

Bubble bath!!!  (Well, in a toxic and deadly bathtub, but hey, BUBBLE BATH!) 

Well, It's actually just EZ-OFF over cleaner...

After a little scrubbing...almost ready to take a stab at straightening the front cab plate!

Alright, @rex desilets,you're up.  What do I need to do to the window?

Interesting locomotive. I look forward to see how it finishes up. Looking good so far!

Evening update:

(Keep in mind this is literally the first time I've ever messed with brass, so I was learning on the fly)

I think I've got the cab front plate straightened out and I'm pretty happy with the fact that I only burned 2 of  my fingers in the process.  That means I have 80% of fingers still available for dexterity exercises like the one I just went through.

The hardest part was actually *un* soldering the cab and taking that plate off without destroying all the thin brass in the process.  The previous owner used a TON of solder, and it was all corroded, so I needed my big-boy bit on my soldering iron to even come close to any progress.  Even so, the nature of solder makes it almost impossible to pull the pieces apart, since I'm already using all 4 hands.  After a full hour of melting solder, and not being fast enough to pull the joint before it hardened again, I found that using a small flat-tip screwdriver and following directly behind the soldering iron and pushing down on the brass while wedging the tip between the pieces worked OK.  I just had to *slowly* walk around the three sides and burn my way though about 2 lbs of tin.

But it eventually came apart, and I spent some time cleaning all the solder goobers and stuff off, then flatting out and re-bend the brass to a nice shape, then cleaning and tinning around the edges again, then I was able to re-join the parts with minimal fuss using just enough solder to get the job done.

I'm no pro, but I'm starting to feel like this is something I can do.

And by the way, got my bridge installed to test out how the newly cleaned and lubed motor and chassis work.  Pretty **** smooth!  Video attached!

This thing sure came in handy today! So glad I bought it. (Quadhands Helping Hand tool...made in USA!)

Looks pretty straight to me!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So I got the front end put back together after some pretty heavy work with a Dremel... The previous owner chopped the leading cowl, but left a couple of boss-riser-thingies in place that don't line up at all with the brass:

So the cut-off wheel did some cutting and I evened up the front surface a bit.

Also I think I got the cab alignment right, and I'm still fidgeting around about how I'm going to permanently affix it. An early attempt to solder proved disastrous, the old cast boiler is just too thick and I can't get it hot enough. So for now it's being held by a couple drops of super glue. Idk, maybe I'll just glue it permanently.

So before I go all gung-go on painting, I thought it wise to completely assemble and check for mechanical function with all parts present. That way I won't have any nasty surprises that force me to cut or grind away at the masterpiece that I just finished.

So it's fully assembled and running like a champ now! Had to drill out some holes at the front end where the Piston housings are, since previous owner for whatever reason thought it necessary to tap both the upper and lower housing, and there was no way to draw them together tight. Just removed the threads on the top half and now she's nice and snug! I feel like it's going to be a nice looking piece when I'm done. Certainly nice by my standards, although some of you folks in this board are a a totally different league...

It is great to see someone finish someone else's dream and make it their own.

Here are some e-units, I think with the old motor you would want the 12 amp but won't know till you put an ammeter on the motor.

https://www.dallee.com/E-Units.html

Gene Anstine

@grfd59: Thanks for the link!  But I think I'm trying not to pour that kind of money into this project.  I bought the loco for less than half of what that Dalee units costs.

On a similar note...I'm still trying to find a way to use this ACRU with whatever pieces I've got laying around.  So here's another idea:

What if use TWO rectifiers, and use the ACRU to feed one or the other bridge on the ~1 leg, and then send the ~2 leg to the common AC ground output on the reverse unit, but put a diode between each of the + DC legs to prevent back-feeding the non-active bridge?

I realize that the "right" way to do it is to buy a DCRU, but I'm interested in learning about this stuff, but more importantly, using the things I already have at mys disposal whenever possible.  And those things just happen to include an ACRU, a bunch of diodes, and a few bridges.

So maybe something like this?

EDIT: *sigh*...I again realized my problem here.  I guess there's no way to do this with my parts on hand, looks like we need some sort of transistor circuit and that's a bit out of my level of comprehension.  I really hate that feeling where it just seems like there ought to be a solution right in front of you, but it's not meant to be...

And although I realize the DCRU's are available, I just can't justify the $$$ for one.  I'll see what kind of room is in the Senco Sound tender coming from @Dave Funk and maybe hook up a complete PS1 board.  I really like the reversing at the transformer without the switch.

Tried my hand at working with some epoxies and putties in preparation for the big repaint job.  Mostly wanted to even out the pores in the top of one of the domes, and fix a big dent in the front sand dome (sand dome?).  

Also wanted to fill the gap left when I straightened the cab.  The epoxy stick that cuts off and rolls up like silly putty worked GREAT for filling those big gaps. 

I ended up using the 2-part liquid epoxy that mixes by hand to permanently fuse the cab to the boiler, and it was perfect.  Flowed just enough to get in the cracks, thick enough to not run everywhere, and easy enough to manipulate into a smooth bead.  The cab will now be permanently married to the boiler for the rest of the existence of mankind. Tomorrow I'm going to sand off the putty and clean up the lines around the cab interface.  Then a final quick pulish and I'll be doing first coat of primer.

Great progress!  Looking at your assembled side profile, I believe it would look somewhat similar to a PRR L1s 2-8-2 if you put a two wheel trailing truck under it, perhaps the type used under a 675/2025.  As far as proportions, the firebox and cab hang off behind the rear drive axle a bit too far to work as a 2-8-0 (in real life), however it looks great regardless.  Certainly better than where you started.

@SantaFe158 posted:

Great progress!  Looking at your assembled side profile, I believe it would look somewhat similar to a PRR L1s 2-8-2 if you put a two wheel trailing truck under it, perhaps the type used under a 675/2025.  As far as proportions, the firebox and cab hang off behind the rear drive axle a bit too far to work as a 2-8-0 (in real life), however it looks great regardless.  Certainly better than where you started.

That would make sense, since I'm pretty sure that it started life as some kind of 2025.  I'll see what's out there and maybe find another single axle truck to put under the cab.  I agree, it looks really long.  The brass cab is longer than the original 2025 cab and does look like it's hanging way far back. 

OK, First coat of primer is on.  It's looking pretty good, the places I tried to smooth out with putty are definitely improved.  Maybe not perfect, but I'm not going to put much more effort into it for a junker ebay purchase.  I spent a lot of time polishing (>90 minutes) and smoothing everything before the first primer, and I think it paid off.  I used my dremel with a whole slew of 150, 200, 300, 400 grit polishing wheels (they go fast), a wire brush bit, and lots of >800 grit sandpaper.

The brass cow-catcher wasn't holding on well with the super-glue job, so I epoxied it like I did with the cab and it's going nowhere now.  Then I put back the lower water tank (water?  I don't know what it is, but it was supporting a small platform for little O Gauge Guy to stand on and replace the headlight).  IT needs to get the epoxy joint cleaned up, so I couldn't paint that one yet.

Masked the small brass thingies that were just ahead of the cab (whatever they are...I want to keep them bright brass) and plugged all the holes with taped dowel, then went to town!

Tomorrow, next coat of primer and first coat on the front end assembly. 

On to the photos:

Holes seem to have filled in OK on the domes:

On the professional-grade paint stand. (Don't worry, the tube is inert!)

Almost forgot to mask the brass pointy-roundy-thingies:

Et Voila! First Coat of primer!

Hey! No Dent in the dome! And the tops definitely look smoother!

After a wet sand with 1500 grit, tomorrow gets second coat!

I plan on using a semi-gloss finish on the domes, boiler and cab, and leaving everything at the smokebox and below the gangway a flat black.  Oh, and I taped the inside of the smokestack.  IDK, just thought it would be neat to see brass in there.  If I don't like it I'll soot it up good.  Thinking of trying a smoke unit at some point.

So far, not a bad-looking 20 dollar engine!

@Dave Funk: Got the tender today!  It's going to look really nice once it's all finished up!

I hope this doesn't bother anyone who's a purist, but I intend to strip and refinish the tender to match the loco.  I've got new Pennsy Decals coming my way from Microscale, so it will live on as a Pennsylvania tender!

Looking good!  Your brass "thingies" in front of the cab are supposed to represent the boiler safety valves.

Wow, I wasn't expecting a fully rebuilt boiler!  Nice.

What was the "mystery crap"; Hot glue? Epoxy?  Obviously not lead eh?

That’s rather effective, isn’t it? 

@Adriatic posted:

What was the "mystery crap"; Hot glue? Epoxy?  Obviously not lead eh?

Lead.

Lots and lots of lead.

So I spent most of today working on the Senco tender that @Dave Funk donated to my cause. Here's a few "before" shots as I received it:

Got it stripped down and fund LOTS of casting flaws that were going to be a problem when re-finishing, so I whipped out the Liquid Metal and the putty and got to filling in and smoothing out the worst offenders.

While that cured, I tore apart the trucks and gutted the OEM speaker and giant capacitor (battery?) that Senco provided.  Don't worry, I've kept them so if Senco Sound tenders ever become the Hot New Item I'll put all the original guts back in just like they were.  Cleaned the rust off the axles, stripped the chassis and primed & painted them all nice and satin-y black.

I replaced the other OEM brass springs with some springs from MTH trucks that I have left over, and now all the trucks and chassis look bright and shiny and practically new!  Also, I removed the collector shoes so they don't cause me problems down the line.  They're stored safely with the speaker.

While I waited for the putty and slurry to cure, I went ahead and taped up the loco boiler in preparation for its semi-gloss coat of black.  The tender will be painted the same semi-gloss (the body will.  The chassis stays flat / satin coat black). 

A good wet-sanding of the tender body and another coat of primer, most of the really egregious pits and flaws from the casting seem to have smoothed out nicely! But before the primer, I needed to account for the tether to connect the tender PS1 board to the loco.  I happen to have a tether plug left over from some other project, and it's going to fit nicely in here!  Just had to cut away a bit of the front wall of the tender above the drawbar connection, and it's nice and tight!

So it was ready for first coat of primer!  A wet sand after 30 minutes and she's looking real smooth!

After the second coat, I'm thinking I'll stop there.  When my semi-gloss black gets here it'll be ready for top coat of paint!  

So now the big question...how easy will a PS1 board fit in here?  Well, the answer was "not easily, but it fits."  I found a side-mount bracket that got me started, but the inside slope of the upper part of the chassis shell was just enough to interfere with the corner of the PS1 board on each side.  So I had to slot the mounting hole through the bridge to allow the whole assembly to drop down another 1/16th of an inch, and put a big plastic spacer on the other bracket (through the voltage regulator) to slope the board assembly downwards toward the back.  Finally, I had to clip the corners of the boards for the last tiny bit of clearance.  

Had to cut off the sides of the volume pot mount and managed to find ONE spot I could drill up into the chassis to mount it, taking advantage of existing openings in the chassis.  The battery / BCR JUST fit in on the front side, and finally had to find a super low-profile speaker (it doesn't sound the best, but it's all that would fit) and slide it in under the whole mess.

But...IT WORKS!  I can completely close the shell and you wouldn't know the better.

Tomorrow...PAINT!  I see the finish line approaching!

Got a first look at the results of the paint job, looks pretty nice!

I made up some stainless handrails to replace the brass ones that came with model, I just like the silver look better. Also made a rail across the front of the steam chest (I'm learning some of the terminology, eh!)

Replaced the little cotters that the railings mount to, and installed the leading axle. I also popped in the smokebox cover to see how the paint matched, and it looks just fine so I'm probably going to leave it as-is. 

Unfortunately, the decals I got from Micro-Scale only have one size of the red PRR keystone placard, and it's too big for the plaque on my loco. Also, kind of a bummer, the manufacturers placard decal on each side of the smokebox is about 4x the side of the raised plaque on the casting, so that won't work either. Sigh...

Going to wait for the semi-gloss finish from this morning to cure completely, then decals going on tomorrow.

Wondering if I should paint the cab roof Rusty-red or leave it black as-is. Would welcome some opinions on that.

Also got the coil coupler working on the Senco tender, and installed the BCR so she's ready to be buttoned up! Had the consist running around the O27 loop today and all is well, everything clearing between loco and tender.

Update: got everything finished up on the decal side and installed a headlight, now all that's left is to install the rear truck. But I had to get clever with the truck configuration, side it didn't quite fit my unit and clear the screws that mounted to the motor mount.

Not anything a Dremel and some epoxy can't cure, but wouldn't you know I don't have the right mounting screw! That'll be for tomorrow.

Anyway, a few photos... It's come a long way from a dirt cheap eBay purchase, and it's kept me busy.

Number 2011 because that's what my youngest daughter wanted.

What an awesome job!  The only thing that would make it slightly cooler would be the alternate smoke box front from Olsen... but WOW what a nice job!

Jon  

Super job!  It looks great!

Picked up a steam chip (H8) from a forum member to replace the diesel chip, now she sounds great!

Struggles a bit around the O27 curves, but to be expected for a big engine. Also, my fat camera finger bumped it on its first pass.

But I love it!

Wow Jeff great job on the rebuild!!!  You did what the 1st guy couldnt ....make it look like a proper locomotive...glad my tender found such a good home! she runs real nice and a wider curve would help it corner easier. If you can find some o42 curves it would look more at home. 

Thanks Dave! The tender is not buttoned down to the chassis yet, I've left it loose in case I need to get back into the PS1 board, but I'll screw it down soon. Everything seems to be in good working order and I haven't had any problems at all. Unfortunately I only have room in the dining table for O27, but someday I'll get it on my dad's layout that he's planning and it'll really shine! (Layout plan posted in another thread here: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...c/133333829899900741)

Through this whole project, I've often wondered what caused the original owner to give up. He or she obviously had some know-how, and some more advanced tools than me and my Dremel. The machining of the chassis more than likely involved a mill of some sort. I'm hoping that this was a learning loco and they just figured they'd make all the mistakes on this one then ditch it and start over and build a masterpiece. I just hope there wasn't some sad reason that forced the sale of something that clearly involved some dedication and passion. 

I've learned a few things as well, and I'll be on the lookout for another cheap project loco in the future.

So I gave up on installing the trailing axle for now. I just couldn't get it to behave in the O27 curves no matter how I tweaked or mounted it. I'll give it another go when I've got bigger turns to ride.

However, I really wanted this pretty loco to smoke like a real PW engine. So I stole a smoke unit from a PS1 loco that I'm selling and proceeded to turn an easy job into a really stupid hard one.

Turns out the inside of my boiler frame had a ridge that would prevent the smoke board from fitting into the boiler. So out came the Dremel:

Once the ridge up the side of the boiler was removed, had to figure out a mount. I pulled out a bunch of old PS1 board mounts and was able to cut one apart and epoxy it to the reservoir side of the smoke unit. There was already a tapped hole on the inside of the chassis (I'm guessing for when the original owner was trying to install smoke), so I sort of lucked out on that front. A little cutting, a little bending, and got it to fit just snug enough! 

Added a switch to the inside rear of the cab so I could turn off the prolific smoke when I needed to. Had to drill a hole in the motor mount wedge and hang the switch off the side so it could fit.

Closed it all up and now she's for real!

Very nice, just read through it all. It's interesting the effort that someone went to in order to make a Lionel locomotive much closer to scale. I wonder why the original builder didn't opt to simply build a kit available at the time, such as a Thomas Industries 2-8-0. Maybe the builder really wanted a PRR engine, and saw the Lionel as a tempting option to convert over. I also wonder the condition of the engine when the builder decided to make these modifications, was it brand new, or maybe torn up and used?

Also, a DC motor is an interesting choice since it still had its pickup roller. Did the builder simply not convert it to two rail yet, or did he run trains on three rail DC?

I suppose none of these questions may ever be answered, but certainly interesting to think about.

Fun project, very cool.  Talk about bringing something back from the dead!