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Was looking through the parts bin and saw a 490 shell. It looked like this one, for those who have never seen a 490 before, but the cab was broken, so I thought, "why not make a 0-4-0T out of it?" This is the start of that project, just finished cutting the boiler. Going to have to fabricate a cab, bunker, and mechanism for it, as well as figure out how to add couplers.

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El Classico, sounds like a fun project, I look forward to seeing the finished locomotive.

I haven't made a Marx locomotive into a saddletanker, but I did trim down a 401 Marx into something that looks a bit more like a switch engine:

301-1

 

...and then there is the Lionel 8200 project.  Started with the bare shell, machined a new smokebox door and smokestack out of brass, then added a Marx Riser Gear windup motor so it could run around my clockwork layout.  Just for fun, I put the coupler on the front of the locomotive, and installed the windup motor so the engine runs around backward.  To my mind, it makes it look like the engine is in the process of switching cars.

Lionel 8200

 

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El Classico posted:

Yours has a good look to it... I can only hope mine turns out well, since I plan to screatchbuild a mechanism for it, rather than track down a Marx one.

I'll have to check, but I recently bought a 490 because I needed the front motor mount part (the piece the side rods go through at the steamchest) If the motor works, which I didn't check it before I bought it or since I've had it, you are welcome to it. For that matter, you can have the boiler too if you need more parts for this project.

 

Shoot me an email if you're interested,

 

J White

 

Gosh!  You guys are gonna have all the "Marxists" crying in their beers.  Actually, I'm not really one of those types and I admire all of your creative work here.  Good use of your old beaters and of your imagination.

I have an old snow plow that I made out of a Lionel plastic caboose that had one end's platform roof broken off.  That, too, was a fun project.

Paul Fischer

El Classico posted:

It looks melted and gangly on the Marx frame; definitely NOT posting a picture of it. Going to wait until I get a proper MDC type frame built for it.

Is it totally impractical to modify the shell to fit better on the Marx chassis? Maybe the e-unit can be removed for more clearance (I favor manual reversing switches for some locos). Or maybe adapt a Lionel MPC-era 4-driver steam loco chassis. What is your idea for wheel arrangement, 0-4-0T or maybe 0-4-2T ?

Would like to see it on the Marx chassis anyway, just to see how the wheel positions line up with the body. This is giving me ideas for another project using some of my "junk" items ...

Last edited by Ace

Just for ideas, this shows a Marx double-reduction motor I fit into a prewar American Flyer Minnehaha loco, which has a fairly small body shell. The motor has to pivot inside the shell so I improvised a hanger bracket. Part of the E-unit frame is cut away for clearance. Point being, this is a fairly compact motor unit which can be adapted to other small locos.

Another idea, a prewar motor which I put in a Lionel #259 loco has smaller drivers which would look right on a switcher loco, and it fits into a somewhat smaller body shell. I removed the E-unit on this one and installed a manual switch instead.

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So it has been a while since I have made any updates on my progress. I took a break for a while, and returned the oversized wheels. I sat around for a while, uncertain of how to progress, before I remembered I had some of the oversized Marx plastic wheels from a 4 wheel caboose hanging around. Those will be attached to postwar Lionel axles to get my wheelsets.

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