Kitbashed Postwar Locomotives

midnightwrecking posted:

Berkshire and 225E. Post-war and pre-war.

Mind to share how you made the 2317? They look spectacular! You could email me at MasonRascona@gmail.com

well, not exactly kit-bashed, but modified. I repainted a Lionel 2018 for my first 3 grand kids. The first initials E, R & C are on the tender. The tender has been modified to accept a modern air whistle and a real coal load added. some crew figures added with a "picture" of a locomotive backhead included. The locomotive number "709" representing the years of there births (2007 and 2009)...

made from two junk 1666 shells

several 2-4-2 locomotives that I added 224/675 type motors

1664

1689E

1668

junk 1615 Postwar switcher, got a Prewar 0-6-0 motor,moved the headlight

I made a NYC style PT tender out of two smaller PW tenders that will still do O-27 curves. My son wanted a doghouse on it, so we put one too.

G3750 posted:

Cool thread.  I recall someone at York around the turn of the century who kitbashed post-war Lionel engines.  He took 2 locomotives and turned them into a fairly accurate PRR K4.  This had to have been 2001-2002.  The memory is vague.  I believe he was located in one of the member halls.

 

Anybody else recall this?

 

George

I bought one at my first York. They were his specialty.

I think the fellow's name might have been Bob Gale(?).  I've seen a Reading T1 and a Big Boy that were both built by him, and powered by extended 2056-type parallel plate motors.  Interesting, and unfortunately kind of a lost art when the major brands started tooling up new scale designs.  

If I recall correctly (Rich, Ed will know), in OGR the video (16 issues 94-97) had 2 segments on a man called Bill Roberts who kit-bashed Lionel locomotives....maybe we'll see these one day as they convert some of the old videos to the digital format.

Peter

I don't have that video, but I have the two issues that featured Bill Roberts, I've often wondered what became of his collection. He had some really great stuff. The story was called something like Bill Roberts Permanent Rug Layout

Pretty neat thread and ideas. I have kicked some ideas around but never did anything. Might try.

buy some junk and have at it Jim!

Great thread! Am currently attempting a New Haven EP3 on a GG1 chassis (KLine not Lionel though). Have been seriously planning a SAR Beyer Garratt using some PW Lionel loco pieces.

I got rid of a lot of my excess when I moved(twice) and at present have no good work shop. I am considering putting a prewar  boxcab O gauge under a Standard gauge #33 shell I have. That would make it an NStandard gauge  plus cars converted with O gauge trucks. O gauge track is equivalent to 36" narrow gauge  with Standard gauge being 4+ ft. How cool is that ??  EBT in Std. N gauge ??

I haven't been to York in many years but back in the seventies when I went often I would likely spend more time looking through junk boxes under the tables than looking at what was on top. I sold most of my bashed locos but have two left one a 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler shown here and a 2-8-0  made from a 1615 and a 671 turbine frame. Never finished it but  I'll make photos of it some other time.  The ten wheeler shown here is a MPC 8506 0-4-0 body with steam chests and pilot from a 2037. The pilot truck was fashioned from sheet brass and 4 flyer plastic wheels.  The tender is also a Flyer tender cut down the middle and widened about half an inch. It has an MPC sound of steam board and speaker in the tender and one wire between the tender and loco to trigger the chuff with the valve gear. It was having a little trouble pulling 6 of the MPC madison cars up my steep grades so I cast a lead weight to fit in the cab. I took it to York several years after I made it and pitched Mike Wolf and can't remember who was President of Lionel back in 1990 but I pitched them both on the concept of scale sized models of small locos such as Ten wheelers and Consolidations  that would look more appropriate with large Hudsons, Reading T1, and NYC Mohawks than things like 2037s and 671s but could be more affordable than the large locos and operate on O-31 track,

yet bear a more scale like appearance. Both men seemed intrigued with my little Ten wheeler and called associates over to have a look. One of them was Lenny Dean and we talked nearly twenty minutes about smaller scale sized locos. She's a little dusty now been sitting on the shelf over twenty five  years.                 j

beautiful work!

Mark,nice idea using a picture for the backhead detail.

Ducting and the body at the rear beyond the wheels is extendended with heat bent, layered, styrene. About 3/16" thick in spots for the body; strong too.

JohnActon posted:

 

Now that's really nice!  The proportions are perfect.

Rusty

Adriatic posted:

Ducting and the body at the rear beyond the wheels is extendended with heat bent, layered, styrene. About 3/16" thick in spots for the body; strong too.

Cool, what was the function of this " G-1" ? Thanks, Scott.

  The cooling air was redirected to melt yard ice & snow. Searches for "GG-½", Half a GG-1, etc, brings up more tidbits on it.

Low rider.... under construction, but mine

"The Happy Miser"

Compared to an unmolested version

There was a series of articles in OGR runs 96 - 98 in the late 80's on building a PRR T1 from a Berkshire body and 2 2046 motors. I had never done anything like this before and decided to give it a try. I managed to get the parts from a dealer named Allison Cox. It came out OK for a first try but there is a lot I would do differently now.

Mark Wags posted:

There was a series of articles in OGR runs 96 - 98 in the late 80's on building a PRR T1 from a Berkshire body and 2 2046 motors. I had never done anything like this before and decided to give it a try. I managed to get the parts from a dealer named Allison Cox. It came out OK for a first try but there is a lot I would do differently now.

Mark, now that's spectacular.   Why do I have this irresistible urge to run grab a hacksaw ?  j

do it!

Mark that looks great!

I Like that JohnActon ten wheeler.  I bought a couple of conventional low price set Lionel 0-8-0's  off the net to bash.  They have Belpaire fire boxes so the first, to make into a Great Western 2-8-0, demanded much much filing and filling, and brass boiler appliances, as well as a front truck.  I consider it passable with its custom GW decals.  I have shown it on here.  The second will be filed into a small Mikado for my freelance road.

Great looking T-1 Mark, appreciate the pictures here and on the "lens" subject.

scott5011 posted:

Adriatic posted:

Ducting and the body at the rear beyond the wheels is extendended with heat bent, layered, styrene. About 3/16" thick in spots for the body; strong too.

Cool, what was the function of this " G-1" ? Thanks, Scott.

It was used at Wilmington yards to clear snow off the switches.

What a great topic!

I have a question please.  I've always wanted to make  Frisco Firefly.  What engine would you start 

I'd say a Postwar 2-6-2 or maybe a Hudson like a 2046

scott5011 posted:

Adriatic posted:

Ducting and the body at the rear beyond the wheels is extendended with heat bent, layered, styrene. About 3/16" thick in spots for the body; strong too.

Cool, what was the function of this " G-1" ? Thanks, Scott.

Nice work - I built one of these in HO when I was a kid (from a Penn Line). Saw the real thing down in Wilmington - a long time ago.

Jim

Steamer posted:

I'd say a Postwar 2-6-2 or maybe a Hudson like a 2046

since American Flyer made a Royal Blue on an O gauge chassis I'd just use that but hey, that's my two cents

forgot all about the Blue...that would be better yet

Bought this off eBay some years back.  Have no info.

colorado hirailer posted:

I Like that JohnActon ten wheeler.  I bought a couple of conventional low price set Lionel 0-8-0's  off the net to bash.  They have Belpaire fire boxes so the first, to make into a Great Western 2-8-0, demanded much much filing and filling, and brass boiler appliances, as well as a front truck.  I consider it passable with its custom GW decals.  I have shown it on here.  The second will be filed into a small Mikado for my freelance road.

Great Northern had a bunch of 2-8-0s  that had Belpaire fireboxes. Do a Google search for Great Northern F8  a Pennsy 0-8-0 might make a fair starting point.  One of my favorite locos is the GN H4 pacific that would be a great small Pacific for Lionel ,MTH someone, to make.

Mason Rascona posted:

Steamer posted:

I'd say a Postwar 2-6-2 or maybe a Hudson like a 2046

since American Flyer made a Royal Blue on an O gauge chassis I'd just use that but hey, that's my two cents

Mason, is that not called the Firefly ?  I think a Flyer Blue might be perfect.  Just bring the  ( I hesitate to call that a boiler front )  so why not NOSE to a point with Bondo and form that Shark Fin in front of the stack and ya got it. I got some Flyer.   I think I gotta try that.    J

I think someone was selling this on eBay a few years ago. I thought it looked good and kept the photo. Turbine switcher?

This is MPC/LTI.....

I remember that...thought about making one.

Forgive me I lost all of my pictures of my kit bashing of my CSS. The first picture is what it looked like when I got it.

The rest of the pictures is all but complete. One is never really complete with this type of stuff, Always adding.

I've added the link to the bashing at the bottom.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...-6-18011-mods?page=1

Not postwar, but... still need to finish it...

Dennis...great job on the waffle top....

Postwar decal front EP-5 with custom frame for GG1 running gear,the yellow EP-5 is a Len Cap job

I had a Marx 1998 switcher missing the Marx shell.  I found a Lionel SW2 shell and cut out about 1 inch of it to shorten it to fit the 1998.  I painted it black, white and red in the colors of ALCOAs Bauxite and Northern short line railroad from the Bauxite, ARK alumina and chemical plant in Bauxite, ARK to the a major railroads main lines.  The Marx 1998 is a great running engine and always beats other engines in racing through the oval and figure 8.

This post is from topic on how I built my layout on OGR forum linked below.  This link has details of many kit-bashed and home made cars, buildings, operating accessories including a $10 operating turntable and a round house.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...ra-027-layout?page=4

Charlie

joe krasko posted:

Dennis...great job on the waffle top....

and the locomotive!

Well, l was going to say, the title is "postwar", not "postwar Lionel".  I use a lot of Marx #999 chasses for bashes that have included steam dummie and power for a steam coach. Those photos have been posted previously.  Several others including "dinkies" for GW tank switchers to switch the sugar beet plant are from MTH and Lionel tank engines.  I thought I had a "pickle" engine for my Menard's (bashed into a pickle) plant, but didn't find it quickly (found the pickle tank car build and other whimsical cars for the plant).  Have an unfinished cabbed, kitbashed logging engine, not sure what will power it. 

Super Idea on the GG-1 New Haven!!!  Love it!!!

I do not know if this qualifies as kit-bashing a locomotive but it was fun and now much more beautiful and better operating on ac.

A cheap Lionel General 4-4-0, 8005 dc powered set with coal tender and Lionel 9541 Santa Fe Railway Agency Express Passenger car was purchased at a train show.  I added a full wave rectifier and changed the Lionel 8005 to ac operation although in one direction.  A selector switch was added for manual reversal.  The engine was dressed up with gold stripping, a lighted head light and painting all red engine black for the boiler and stack.

 A fuzzy picture of Lionel 8005 before painting and dressing up!

The Lionel 8005 was painted, along with the red and silver front wheels and painted domes.  The body and stack were painted Black.  Gold stripping was added to dress up.  Much more beautiful !

 The post above came from my OGR forum topic on how I built my layout below:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...ra-027-layout?page=5

Charlie

This is a bash that I started back in the eighties and never got around to finishing just too many projects that I was more interested in. I usually like to have several projects going on at any given time should I need to think through the next step or need a rare part. Several Rivarossi  bashing projects just sorta jumped ahead of other projects.  This little 2-8-0 Connie is made from a Lionel 1615   0-4-0 and a 671 PRR Turbine. One feature I would like to point out is the front coupler is mounted on the pilot truck and stays centered in curves. Though it is a standard operating coupler I could easily convert it to a coil coupler. The idea for this loco came from a photo in a book of a three foot gauge Consolidation used in a logging operation.  j

Hey John, I love that 2-8-0!  I've had the same idea about maybe doing the same thing but with a 675 or 2025 boiler so represent a PRR C1 0-8-0.  I don't see a motor in your loco yet,  Have you figured out how your going to make that work?

I like that! might have to try one myself.

I had her in a test run mode for a while.  Used a Mabuchi can motor mounted horizontally in the boiler with a 1/4" thick X 1" diameter lead flywheel that I made, and 10 tooth bevel pinion gear on the end of the motor shaft driving a 20 tooth bevel crown gear (from slot car days) that was mounted on the motor shaft out of a 200 series O-27 Alco motor, which I striped the wire and armature laminations off. The motor worm shaft on the axle gear gave an 8:1 drive and the 10 tooth driving the 20 tooth bevel gear set gave a 2:1 that doubled the 8:1 to make a final drive ratio of 16 :1. I had a section of aluminum channel 1" on a side that I cut a 1" piece off the end and drilled a hole through the sides of the channel and pressed in bronze bearings out of a Flyer motor for the Alco motor shaft to turn in.  It positioned the alco motor shaft vertical with the worm pressing against the axle gear and the 20 tooth bevel gear adjusted up and down on the shaft to mate with the gear on the motor shaft. I used the 671 side rods and the thing ran OK but the bevel gears whine a bit more than I would like. I intended to make a more appropriate set of side rods then got interested in a project with a Rivarossi Casey Jones ten wheeler kit and robbed the motor and gear train out of the connie for the Casey Jones and she has sat on the shelf since then. I was thinking, for a while, I would redo the gears on the connie to a 10 tooth pinion and a 30 tooth crown that would give a 24:1 final drive but never got a round2it.

Making the photos and writing this have me thinking that a Flyer motor shaft / worm and it's axle gear give 18:1 and might make a better starting point. Who knows maybe I'll get a round2it.   j

Wow @JohnActon I would love to see some pics of this!

Kitbashed Cab Forward Locomotive

Years ago I purchased a Lionel 2025 2-6-4 steam locomotive that came with a homemade enclosed cab and white wall painted wheels.  I left both intact.  The Lionel 2025 and 2035 are my favorite engines to run on my layout.

My closed cab Lionel 2025 with white walls

Since I already, more or less, had a enclosed cabin steam locomotive, the Lionel 2025 mentioned above, all I would have to do to make a Cab Forward Locomotive is find oil tender (an oil tender must be used as there is no way to get coal from a coal tender to the fire box with the cab in the front of the train).  Next was to make a hookup connector from the front of my 2025 steamer to the front of the oil tender at the tender slot coupling.  I know a Lionel 2025 2-6-4 is not a 4-8-8-2 which would have no chance of running on my O27 track !

Kitbashed Cab Forward Locomotive

This is an easy to make, inexpensive kit bashed Cab Forward Locomotive.

Charlie

Ted S posted:

Wow @JohnActon I would love to see some pics of this!

Ted ,  the 2-8-0 pics are just a couple of posts up the page. The motor and gear train are in a Rivarossi Casey Jones and it is several hours of work to get it apart make pix and put it back together again. Not to mention the loco is mostly plastic and the more you handle it the more you break.   I'll try and draw a diagram or perhaps take a motor and gears and lay them out in the way they fit together inside the loco.  j

Ted S posted:

Wow @JohnActon I would love to see some pics of this!

Ted here is a sketch of how it fits together. It will fit in many small locos. It also gives you two points which you can adjust the final drive ratio. At the bevel gear set or the worm wheel which requires slotted screw holes in the section of channel to adjust the vertical worm shaft fore/aft against the worm wheel. This is much more work than changing the bevel gear set. One could use standard pinion and crown gears but they make more noise than the bevel gears which are a matched set. You'll need a good small gear puller/press and a good drillpress that will drill perfectly vertical holes. Surprising how many won't do this. something I would do differently is to use washers and 4 Lionel ball thrust bearings instead of the bronze bearings with a one ball bearing at the bottom to hold the vertical worm steady on the vertical plain . I tried a stack of washers above and below the bevel crown gear but they created to much drag.    I wish I had not hopped onto this kitbash thread, so time consuming, I don't know how Gunrunnerjohn does it.          J

Ted S posted:

I think the fellow's name might have been Bob Gale(?).  I've seen a Reading T1 and a Big Boy that were both built by him, and powered by extended 2056-type parallel plate motors.  Interesting, and unfortunately kind of a lost art when the major brands started tooling up new scale designs.  

Yes, he lived in Horsham, Pa.  In the very late '70s I stopped at his house.  His wife greeted me at the door and if I recall, said he was ill at the time.  I tried contacting him some time afterward, but cannot recall what how exchange went.  I do know that train funds were scarce, in those days, so perhaps I just couldn't afford one of his pieces.  

joe krasko posted:

Postwar decal front EP-5 with custom frame for GG1 running gear,the yellow EP-5 is a Len Cap job

I like that.  The wheels are beginning to turn.  The ones in my head, that is.....LOL

@Mark Diff posted:

well, not exactly kit-bashed, but modified. I repainted a Lionel 2018 for my first 3 grand kids. The first initials E, R & C are on the tender. The tender has been modified to accept a modern air whistle and a real coal load added. some crew figures added with a "picture" of a locomotive backhead included. The locomotive number "709" representing the years of there births (2007 and 2009)...

Hi Mark,

I love the paint job! I plan to do the same to a Lionel 2037 for my younger cousin, which is the same as the 2018 but also includes Magnetraction, I believe. I was wondering how you masked the front section and the boiler area (The grey)? Also, where did you find the numbered decals?

Thanks,

David Silvestri

Another vote for the ten-wheeler, that’s a very nicely balanced composition. Would look good as a 2-8-0, too

@David Silvestri posted:

Hi Mark,

I love the paint job! I plan to do the same to a Lionel 2037 for my younger cousin, which is the same as the 2018 but also includes Magnetraction, I believe. I was wondering how you masked the front section and the boiler area (The grey)? Also, where did you find the numbered decals?

Thanks,

David Silvestri

Thanks for the kind words David. The boiler wasn't hard to mask. There is a raised line along the boiler casting that makes the masking the color transition easy. Simple blue masking tape is all that it took. The "grey" is Scale Coat smoke box grey and the rest is painted with a generic black spray paint from Wal-mart. 

The engine number as well as the tender reporting letters are Dry transfers from Woodland Scenics. Any number decal could be used but I chose the dry transfers only because Woodlands had the large ER&C I wanted. Hope this helps.

Thanks so much. I was also wondering where you got the figures.

Since my previous post I have revamped 6153 and did a replica of 6035.

Ex silver 2023 Alco. Now dual motored PRR.

I think I have a few....

Building a GP7u.

Building a SWEEP.

Great job all!  Really inspiring.  I think this is my favorite thread of the year so far!!

@David Silvestri posted:

Thanks so much. I was also wondering where you got the figures.

If memory serves, they are MTH engineer figures.

I mentioned and should have posted my Lionel starter set O-8-0 bashed into a Great Western 2-8-0.  Here it is.  Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette just had an article on Forneys that went west to logging roads after electrification....with no small geared locos in three rail, maybe l could gin up a Forney.

Apologies if this has been posted before, but does anyone remember a man in one of the dealer halls at York that used to kit-bash two post-war steamers into one PRR K4s?  This would been 2000 (probably before)-2003?  Lionel had not yet released their realistic K4s yet, MTH's K4s had come and gone (1997), and the only other versions of this locomotive were 1990's brass Willams and Weaver.

George

@Putnam Division posted:

If I recall correctly (Rich, Ed will know), in OGR the video (16 issues 94-97) had 2 segments on a man called Bill Roberts who kit-bashed Lionel locomotives....maybe we'll see these one day as they convert some of the old videos to the digital format.

Peter

George.....in answer to your question, maybe this was the fellow..............and, maybe, someday, these shorts will be digitalized and made available. His work was amazing.........

Peter 

There was a gentleman named Bob Gale who created scale-sized and custom-detailed large locos out of Lionel components.  I'm not sure if he ever did a K4 but I've personally seen a Big Boy and a Reading T1 that he did.  They're not as accurate as the purpose-built models made after '89 but impressive for the time.  Although they had motors I'm guessing most of the owners displayed them because wide-radius layouts weren't at all common then.