here are 2 more...the loco is a homemade Pacific I think with a 675 motor...the geep is my own invention...
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My oh my, this is a great thread, how come it took me so long to find it? I will have to post some things here.
The first picture is one of several Lionel car haulers that were converted to S gauge and loaded with 1/64th scale autos.
The second picture is an observation car I made from a Polar Express coach for my Pioneer Limited. The other cars in the consist are also repaints of the PE coaches.
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@JerryG posted:I understand the boys are doing well, hahaha. It always bugged me they won't allow license for a car, so I had no choice but to make my own. I've made a ton of scratch-built buildings, but this is my favorite car.
Jerry
good old fashion sipp'n whiskey....what's not to like
Took a Reaper Ellen Stone painted figure, two flag stickers and a slightly modified Lionel flatcar with stakes to create this for my pike.
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@das boot posted:Took a Reaper Ellen Stone painted figure, two flag stickers and a slightly modified Lionel flatcar with stakes to create this for my pike.
That is sharp very American!
Took a Lionel Erie command control bay window caboose and shell swapped with a Southern Pacific. I have tried to sell it, gave up, run it instead. Looks kinda goofy near scaled-sized cars, so it tag behinds some 1990's Standard O cars. Bought a small diameter aluminum tube to extend the light out. No idea why one of the ladders started rusting, I guess I know what to get next time I am at Du Page County Fairgrounds.
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I made these log cars, the bodies are 1/4' plywood, the logs are crape myrtle branches and the chain is from the jewelry section at Walmart. (I think) 
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When I first put up this post I made the mistake of creating a new topic. In fact, this thread is where it belongs, so if you've seen it before I ask that you forgive my shameless act of self- promotion. Otherwise, enjoy. 
Never one to miss a chance to showcase my shutterbug skills, I offer these pix of my Lionel New York Central J1d Hudson. Of course, they come with a story.
The Mexican-built 783 Hudson from the late General Mills/MPC era was the first example of a "scale" 4-6-4 Hudson that Lionel had produced since the 1964 edition of the 773, some 20 years earlier. I couldn't wait to get one, but when it was delivered I found it to be both cosmetically and mechanically disappointing. Since it was a direct descendant of the fabled 1937 700E, I figured I should put some effort into making lemonade from a lemon. Here's where I started -
Using many original Lionel parts including a set of spoked 763E drivers, several homemade details and grab irons, and a Madison Hardware motor and tender, I came up with a good running model that is perhaps better detailed than a 700E -
The various Lionel Hudsons in the 700 series all were modeled after NYC J1e 5344, the twice streamlined "most famous" Hudson of all. Given the additions and changes I had made, I didn't want to wind up with "just another" J1e. There weren't a lot of visual differences between a J1e and a J1d, so I decided to back date it. Also, as another O gauge modeler once noted, I like my passenger engines "all gussied up." He was right, so I did this one in a striping scheme that was sometimes applied to J1d Hudsons in the late 1920s and early '30s.
Having styled it as a J1d, I needed to give it some justifying detail. If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see that the finished model has an tubular Elesco feedwater heater mounted through the top of the boiler just behind the class lights. No doubt the NYC experts here will know better, but I think this was the main visual difference between the J1d and J1e.
Incidentally, the engine in the background is an original 700E with refreshed lettering. I found some old Letraset Railroad Roman lettering sets in an art supply house that matched the original font and size almost perfectly.
You can apply your eyes drops now. I won't mind. Really.
Cheers,
- Mike
Atlas steam era ex reefer I made into a Fort Wayne Horse and mule auction car before I destroyed the decals
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Took some old Williams heavyweight coaches, added interiors, passengers, LED lighting and painted them up for my CNJ commuter service. Not prototypical, but they'll do better than the old 12" baby madison cars I'm currently using.
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@joe krasko posted:here are 2 more...the loco is a homemade Pacific I think with a 675 motor...the geep is my own invention...
I love the electrified Geep - great scheme and weathering, too? Also, the Pacific. Great runners, too, those!
I custom painted this LIRR "set" a while back. I don't think that they ever ran a GP9, or freight colors like these, but I really didn't care:
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A scratchbuilt pickle car in S gauge.
A D&RGW dome observation
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@WP posted:I love the SP and the WP. And I like the very early SW1 diesels. One day, my young son told me that he thought we could take a Lionel 623 Santa Fe NW2 diesel and sort of modify it to a WP SW1. We had to shorten the body and change and add some details. Then we painted and lettered it. The original 623 was in very rough shape, so modifying it was not a bad thing. These Lionel diesels are a little bit larger than scale size, but they make neat models anyway.
So here are photos of a regular Lionel 623 NW2 and another one that we modified to be a WP SW1. The photos were taken on our little 4 ft x 4 ft 027 layout.
John, I totally love what you did with the #623 shell to make it a SW1. Your son had a great idea. I'm also a firm WP fan from way back.
Here is one more...FRANKIN "G" fabricated frame 2 motors ....YELLOW BIRD...
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Well just a repaint but I think it looks good
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I've had this smokebox front from Oleson's for a few years, kicking around the parts bin. Finally found a 675 with a smashed face so I wouldn't feel guilty messing with something in good original condition. Some new handrails bent from music wire. The headlight has a white 3mm LED behind it powered by a tiny GRJ single LED CCS board.
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@pennsydave posted:Well just a repaint but I think it looks good
A nice job on the paint, I am looking for some military decals, the star and US ARMY, might you have a source?
Ray
Rayin S: I get mine from model kits I build of vehicles and aircraft, just spares mostly. I use 1:48 decals for the most part cause the aircraft I build are that scale so they fit in with the trains! The 45 and US Marines are the original Lionel markings! I just added the star.
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Slowly making progress on these two:
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@Rob Leese, Take it from this passenger train guy, your work it just terrific!
- Mike
@Rob Leese posted:
Slowly making progress on these two:
Hi Rob, where did you get the shades from? looks really nice your cars, added seats to my Williams cars along with painting the interior, Thanks Mark
Striped primed painted a PW K-4, added a bell, engineers, and boiler backing, marker lights from a AF tender.
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@Sitka posted:Hi Rob, where did you get the shades from? looks really nice your cars, added seats to my Williams cars along with painting the interior, Thanks Mark
The shades are from Circus City Decals.
www.circuscitydecals.com
Replacing Lionel 2025 and 2035, 2-6-4 Broken Marker Lights
I have several Lionel 2025 and 2035 2-6-4 engines. I usually buy used engines, without coal tenders, and some came with broken front Marker lights. These Marker Lights on the 2025 and 2035 stick out more than say 2026 engines and break off easily. I bought a new boiler front for one engine for $10.50 years ago and they cost about $20 each, with shipping, on ebay now.
Lionel 2035 with Original Marker Lights sticking up
Lionel 2065 with maker lights inside the diameter of boiler front, (these marker lights light up). These are the model for my repairing broken Marker Lights
Three or more of the 2025 or 2035 boiler fronts, with a missing marker lights, were fitted with replacement Marker Lights. I used a plastic spurn, the round plastic waste material that holds parts for model planes, cars, etc., for the marker light body. A drill bit and sharp pointed X-Acto knife were used to make the dished in part that holds the green jewels. JB Weld was used to glue the plastic marker light body to a cast metal boiler front. It was painted with Krylon semi gloss black paint. The green jewels were then glued on with E6000 glue.
New Marker lights and chipped headlight lens!
Three of my rebuilt marker lights, with the third from left having original marker lights. What a handsome group of 2035 steamer front ends.
These is an easy fix and three rebuilt Lionel 2035 marker lights have saved me $60 in 2022 money.
Charlie
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Well before 3D printers I made hand rail stanchions from small cotter pins. Music wire was used for the rails, I bet they are stronger than plastic 3D stanchions.
Lets see your homemade or modified cars or engines. Surely some have made some in the last 6 months.
Charlie
ChooChoo Charlie,
Thanks for the marker light and stanchion repair tips!
I purchased a second Lionel 6-16686 Mickey Mouse and Bad Pete animated boxcar for kit bashing and just completed another "Spy vs. Spy" theme with different graphics and colors.
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I too have used crape myrtle branches to simulate realistic logs on my O scale.
das boot
I love your Spy vs Spy car. Very cleaver and great job. Neat cutting out roof to fit the Sombreros, figure heads and graphics. Brings back Mad Magazine memories.
Glad I helped revise this topic yesterday.
Charlie
Here is my homemade rocket from my post, on this topic from 9/7/2020 on page 11. I made fun of how Fat my rocket and the original Lionel 6470 rocket were. Lionel's rockets were toy Sterling Plastics pencil sharpeners.
In the 6-14-22, WSJ, they had the following picture of the SpaceX Starship rocket, largest rocket ever built, getting ready to launch into orbit for the first time .
It sure looks Fat to me, so Lionel's and my rocket have similar length to diameter ratios! This makes my homemade toy train rocket and flat car not as toy like as I thought.
Charlie
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Hey Charlie, just for your (and anyone else who might be interested) information, the Mickey and Big Bad Pete boxcar came from the factory with large round cut out holes in the roof. I don't know if any other animated boxcar came with the same large round cut out holes.
I just compared my Mickey and Big Bad Pete to the photos above, and it doesn't appear like das boot had to enlarge the roof openings anymore than they originally were, so this was the perfect candidate car for his project.
Anyways, just in case someone's interest was piqued for attempting a similar project to the one posted by das boot, the Mickey/Pete boxcar would be a good place to start. And since I suspect Lionel did a pretty large production run of that car, they're not too hard to find.
@brianel_k-lineguy posted:Hey Charlie, just for your (and anyone else who might be interested) information, the Mickey and Big Bad Pete boxcar came from the factory with large round cut out holes in the roof. I don't know if any other animated boxcar came with the same large round cut out holes.
I just compared my Mickey and Big Bad Pete to the photos above, and it doesn't appear like das boot had to enlarge the roof openings anymore than they originally were, so this was the perfect candidate car for his project.
Anyways, just in case someone's interest was piqued for attempting a similar project to the one posted by das boot, the Mickey/Pete boxcar would be a good place to start. And since I suspect Lionel did a pretty large production run of that car, they're not too hard to find.
"a good place to start"
Spot on, the Mickey/Pete car is near perfect for dueling figures. The big question for any "Spy vs. Spy" kit basher is how much Spy figure do you trim with a Dremel tool? With my blue example, I kept more figure but had to trim the bomb. With my gray example, I cut more of the figure and did not have to trim any of the bomb for full operation.
Either way, it was fun to do.
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das boot
Great job on that Spy vs Spy car. That car should get a smile from us old Spy vs Spy Mad Magazine feature fans.
Charlie
