027 trains are still fun! Photos of my own creations... more added 12/27/20

Nice work!

Great work!

Really nice work.  Thanks for sharing.

Those all look great. Nice job!

Very nicely done!

Chief Bob (Retired)

NICE!

Steve

The 44 tonner looks terrific.

Very nice work and choices of roads!  The manufacturers should be making these!

Excellent work!  I like them all.

great work thanks for sharing.  How do you make, I assume, your decals?

Very nice.

"Some simple suggested details that allow your imagination to do the rest. Like with the air-whistle, I know it's not real. But when I hear that air whistle, in my mind it becomes the real thing."

Yes, I also find this to be the magic of Lionel. All model railroading is caricature because the largest club layout is just a few scale miles long. The magic is getting the brain to see a real railroad in miniature. Thus for me the "lobster claws" become real couplers when I watch them closeup couple or uncouple. The giant tinplate wheel flanges are converted in my mind's eye into the prototype squealing on a ten degree curve.

Nice modeling.

Lew

Very inventive and nicely executed.

This is what model railroading is all about; taking off the shelf items and modifying them to meet your needs.  No complaining about the manufacturers not getting all of the details right or not making a particular paint scheme.  You have done an excellent job of creating one-of-a-kind pieces, and you should be very proud of your work.  There is a sense of gratification when you watch pieces running on your layout knowing that they are unique.

Keep up the good work!

Tom

Great work. I like the way you correct some inherent flaws/weak spots on the original. Keep posting.

Tony D.

First off, thanks for the many kind responses. There are guys here who are way better modelers than I am. Brother Love comes to mind. But I'm not trying to achieve exact scale realism either. I kind of view doing these train projects like doing watercolors or Impressionist paintings. And then, letting the "magic of Lionel" take over and do the rest.

I started off repainted and making revisions to used Plasticville buildings. Satisfied with those results, I quickly moved to trains.

The comments here are above the photos.

Some of you might recognize this car from the Kughn-era, from a 027 rolling stock pack. To lose the molded plastic appearance, I primed the inside of the car with dark grey. I removed the "built by Lionel" words on the side of the car. Then I painted the ends blue and the roof silver.

Likewise here, a familiar car, which I thought was visually way too "busy." So I masked off the top and repainted the roof silver. Then I created a new less busy background for the interior of the tank car, which makes the moving fish more visible. Any of you who have this car as was, know what I'm talking about. Then I touched up the inner edges of the windows. As was, the factory paint didn't cover the inner edges, which were white.

A repainted Gil Finn aquarium car. If any real railroad deserves to be on an aquarium car, wouldn't it be SeaSX? I replaced the trout film strip and put in two light bulbs for better illumination.

Some years ago I decided I wanted some 027 friendly modern motive power. So this is a chopped down Lionel U-Boat shell mounted on a K-Line MP-15 chassis. In hindsight, I should have made one more cut in the cab to shorten it as compared to the rest of the engine. So as an after thought some years later, I partially painted the cab window piece, which when I'm running the engine with the cab illumination, makes the cab look smaller than it certainly is here.

To answer WB47, my decals of choice are Microscale. Though I've used Hearld King too, Because I'm doing smaller 027 cars, I can get away with using HO decals from larger train items, like engines. The caboose below is one of several items where I did custom make my own decals. The idea for this came from some photos of yellow painted Conrail snow removal equipment, including some flanged cabooses.

@M. Mitchell Marmel, this one's for you! Even the cheaper molded plastic cars can be improved in appearance. I painted the ends and roof, and inspired by a post from David of Dearborn (Musicalcraft), I also painted the activation device on the bottom of the car, black. Adding some paint to the giraffe helps too.

I have a special fondness for the Lehigh Valley. This is a K-Line Alco FA. In hindsight, the grey should have been a little darker as with the yellow. There's one disadvantage of using spray cans versus an airbrush. But I still like it, and the paint mask came out absolutely perfect... no touch up needed.

Another Lehigh Valley loco, this time a Lionel Industrial Switcher from the 1990's.  I removed all the slatted vent detail off the hood and made simple suggested vertical doors, so I could decal the hood. All my industrial switchers are DC operated. I've set my layout up to run either AC or DC current. By removing the circuit board on this, I could add additional weight to the chassis, so this engine can easily pull a train. Even without a traction tire, which I also removed to reduce stalling on switch tracks.

My latest project, though not finished yet. Slightly different cuts in the Lionel U-Boat shell from the CR version above. Again, chopped down to fit on a K-Line MP-15 chassis. I'd always hoped Lionel would do a modern equal to the scaled down postwar Alco FA that looks good on a smaller layout with 027 kinds of rolling stock. Well, it was time to do it myself.

And finally, the answer to the question no one asked. Why am I photographing 027 trains on Atlas O track instead of tubular 027 track? Because the Atlas track does make for a much better looking track load on a MOW track car!

Where did you get your decals?

geysergazer posted:

"Some simple suggested details that allow your imagination to do the rest. Like with the air-whistle, I know it's not real. But when I hear that air whistle, in my mind it becomes the real thing."

Yes, I also find this to be the magic of Lionel. All model railroading is caricature because the largest club layout is just a few scale miles long. The magic is getting the brain to see a real railroad in miniature. Thus for me the "lobster claws" become real couplers when I watch them closeup couple or uncouple. The giant tinplate wheel flanges are converted in my mind's eye into the prototype squealing on a ten degree curve.

Nice modeling.

Lew

Thank you Lew for posting this insite. I’m starting to feel the same way the “loster claws” don’t bother me as they once did in fact I’m liking them more and the “cookies cuter” wheels I hardly even notice them. Like you said you have to get a different mind set.

I experimented doing repaints back in my traditional 3-rail experimental layout stage. Ended up with this as my first try:

Had more repaints planned. But my experiments in 3-rail fizzled. However, it did leave behind a profound appreciation for Lionel PW.

All fer now.

Andre

Mike23 posted:

Where did you get your decals?

Mike, as I said Microscale is my first choice. I certainly have used their O scale sets, but those have become much harder to find, as with other O decals in general. Being that I'm repainting mostly 027 and traditionally scaled O stuff, I've been able to make use of HO decal sets for larger HO scaled trains. I get the Microscale newsletter and they have offered a small selection of decal sets in O recently. So when I see something I think might be of use, I don't wait. It also sends a message to Microscale there is still a market for O scale decals.

But I do a lot of scale mixing. I've actually had some Microscale sets in S scale that I'm sure were probably made for some other company or club. Years ago, Rail Graphics made data only sets and I ordered a whole load in both O and S scales. 

There are still a few decal makers who do products in other scales than HO and N. Here's a few I'm aware of and have also made use of, except Tichy which I only recently found out about from here on the forum. So I plan on checking with them: They have an extensive selection of decals in S scale.

Listing here edited 2/15/20. Industrial Models is no longer marketing decals, so I removed the link. A few more have been *added.

https://www.protocraft.com/Majors.cfm?ID=1

http://www.shellscale.com/

http://highballgraphics.com/

http://primemoverdecals.com/decals.html

https://www.tichytraingroup.co...-6-sets/Default.aspx

*The listing of decal road names is on the far right of the page. Go to your category, click on a specific set and then the price will vary depending on the scale chosen...

https://www.cmrproducts.com/st...-PC-Decals-c32215624

*Here's a link for mostly CNJ decals

https://www.ebay.com/str/tomsmodeltrains

*Another link for a variety of differing decal sets with some O scale sets

https://www.ebay.com/str/K4-Su...rksid=p2047675.l2568

So things I've done and posted in other threads.

It's been a while since I added some more photos here, so here we go. Descriptions and comments above the referenced photograph.

First one below is an repainted MPC era 027 short flat car with a repainted trailer. The trailer mount is made out of bass wood and mounts in the holes that the rivet (in this case, blackened screw) goes for mounting the trucks to the car body.

The next photo has the trailer removed so you can see the underside of the trailer mount. I used Plastruct pipe, so that it fits around the diameter of the blackened hex screws used to hold the trucks to the car body.

The advantage of doing this is that I can easily swap loads from one flat car to another. I could easily put the trailer mount on the NS flat car below.

We see regular threads about correct scale of vehicles. My three concerns are cost, weight and "how does it look."

This tractor was bought at a dollar store, though I've seen the same one in a 4 or 5-pack at Walmart. I actually prefer plastic versus die-cast metal for vehicles that are going on train cars.

I used very small blackened nails, put into the sides of the flat car so that I can use girls hair bands (the kind without the metal joiner) to secure the tractor to the flat car.

The B&M has to be one of the most popular of the iconic 6464 Lionel box cars. Not wanting to be left out of the loop, this is a repainted K-Line 5000 series box car with new door guides made of styrene, so I could paint them the same color as the car body. Standard procedure at the Brianel shops. And a fascia wood floor inside the box car. It also has Lionel trucks instead of the k-Line Symington type.

Next below is a Lionel short 027 gondola with a cover I made from some sort of plastic pipe, which I forget now.

I noticed the LCCA is offering a traditional size box car done up in the uncommon (and varied) reefer paint scheme. But it's $90.00! That's not criticizing the LCCA: The prices of the new traditional cars are right up there on par with the newly tooled scale cars, and in some cases, even more. Even the separate sale 027 cars for the Lionel Junction sets listed for $44.95. In my version of English, that's translated as "insane."

Fortunately for me, I did this one years ago based upon a photo in the Conrail Freight Car Color Guide by Morning Sun. Again, a K-Line 5000 series box car, obviously with the wrong kind of door for a mechanical reefer. I actually made the decals myself for this car on a Xerox copier. I've never had any luck printing decals on a laser jet printer.

Although K-Line did make this one for awhile, I believe this was a beat up MARX version, which is typically the condition of rolling stock I look for to do my repaints. I'm not going to repaint something that is either in good condition or might have some value. Especially the MARX plastic cars, since finding a good one of those that isn't beat up or missing parts is getting more difficult.

The screen on the lower deck of the car is the type they use for embroidery, I think... I got it at Hobby Lobby. The cars, obviously not scale, are larger Maistro types that I got at a dollar store. The BNSF logo on the screen I made on my computer. Inside the lower deck of the car, I have some rolled up black plastic window screen, so you can't see that there aren't any cars inside on the lower level... at least when viewing the car from this angle.

Since the Norfolk Southern has a yard in my area, I get to see a good deal of older Southern rolling stock, regardless of living in New York state. Adding a dome platform, a little suggested undercarriage detail and a nice paint/decal job makes these cheaper less expensive cars look so much better.

Here, a K-Line 5000 series gondola made from the old MARX dies. I always add a fascia wood floor to these gondolas as well as a metal brake wheel over the plastic molded in one. But I show this car because I'm always on the lookout for cheap items that can serve as train loads. These are women's hair rollers from a dollar store that I randomly spray painted black, grey and rust  colored primer.

Another common short MPC 027 flat car with bulk ends and stakes. I painted the Delrin plastic stakes brown after first coating them with wood glue. The load is made from the square plastic leg from one of those dorm room or porch tables. I measured it, then made GP Gypsum load on my computer, printed it out on paper and glued it to the square table leg. Then added some basswood strips to the very bottom of the load.

More to come another time.

Another course in helpful hints at OGR Univ.  And tuition is free! Thanks!

I recently acquired a bunch of K-Line freight car kits.  Like you, I really enjoy doing re-paints of the O-27 sized cars for the Midwest lines and local shortlines.

Before I started on these, I was trying to research when these kits were offered by K-Line, how and pricing.

I know these were mostly the Marx molds which date them from 1985.  However I cannot find any documented listings, catalog references or price sheets.  If you have some info I would appreciate your assistance.

Thanks

@Ahitpy, I never much purchased any of the unassembled cars, nor really followed them. Obviously they were very early production, when K-Line was being made in Chapel Hill, NC, and most likely a cost saving move to eliminate assembly and decoration when K-Line was first getting started. I got back into the hobby around late '88, early '89 and by then, K-Line had already begun to establish themselves. I don't recall seeing unassembled cars in their catalogs either. 

Every once in a while though, you see them pop up for sale. I don't recall seeing too many of the 5000-series cars in kit form, but mostly the Kusan based rolling stock like the caboose and the offset hopper. Though I have seen the 5000-series hopper this way. And I seem to remember seeing one of the 027 auto loader flat cars too, which would be a plus for repainting.

I have to wonder at this point in time, how many of them are still out there in original kit form?

I also wonder, with the thinking some have that the whole hobby is going scale , where are all these K-Line 027 cars? Some of them are getting real hard to find, and when you see them for sale, the prices being sought for those make the scale cars look like a bargain.

In the future I've gotta remember you on the off-chance I want to get something professionally painted. These are so incredibly done.

As mentioned in the very first photo post, here's an example IMHO, where less would have been more. I should have left off every other one of the red/white markings on the bottom and sides of the car. This is a MARX solid door type box car.

This next photo is one of three of the very first repaints I attempted. This now has to be about 30 years old. These were Woodland Scenic brand dry transfers. Initially I'd seen so many poorly done decal jobs, that I was only going to use dry transfers. Until I realized some decals are better than others, and there's also a right and wrong way to do them. 

This has to be the most ambitious of all the self-made decals I ever did. The car started off as a screw up I made when trying to minimally alter a Lionel car. Now with two bobbing giraffes on each end.

Referencing the first photo here, I think less works better. I didn't use as many of the red/white safety markings. This one is a 5000-series K-Line box car.

I've long known what Menard's has recently figured out: That painted door guides look much better. Though they are a bit of a pain in that they are more prone to chipping of paint, and when you push the rivets back in to secure the door guides, I inevitably lose some paint and have to do some touch up.

And also here's a good example of compromise: The NS logo is an HO scale Microscale locomotive decal. Still, a little small for a box car, so I leave on the "Norfolk Southern" words, even though prototypically, they shouldn't be there. But all the other traditionally sized NS box car offerings have all been BLACK painted box cars, also not correct. So color-wise, I'm one up.

I remember when OGR Magazine reviewed the traditional 027 NH passenger cars from the mid-1990's, they concluded the New Haven lettering on those was too large for the car.

I agree, so I redid mine.

Visually, I like the Penn Central. PC was never offered on a traditional 027 passenger car, so I took care of that. As with the New Haven above, I actually go to the trouble of painting the molded in car diaphragms black. A very steady hand is required along with some patience.

Try joining the K-Line group on FB.  I'll be posting pics of each kit.  They include the 5000 series boxcar, depressed center flat car, three dome tank, double door auto box, gondola and stock car.

Brianel027

Excellent work and very creative.  I find modifying and dressing up cars an enjoyable part of the hobby.  You have a large body of work and I know how much effort goes into doing just one car.

Charlie

Brian027,

These are all great! I am a fan of the O27 end of O scale and have admired your modifications though your posts on the forum for awhile now. 

That Penn Central passenger car is wonderful. I love the idea of a train of many colors that so many of the PC trains looked like when in operation. 

Very nice topic. Thanks for posting. 

Here are the K-Line kits I was able to get.

@TheRWBYRailfan, In the past I'd considered doing commercial repaints.

I used to do photography including doing 100% of my developing and processing. I never lost my awe for when I opened that film can and saw good printable negatives. Even if you're a stickler for doing things by the book, it's still a chemical process and things can go wrong - usually when you least expect it. I had a friend who did wedding photography. Bought a bulk brick of Kodak film to shoot their wedding and not one single picture came out. He got a defective bulk pack of film. After that, he made sure his film was from different sources. Needless to say, that was one very unhappy couple. They actually went to the trouble to restage parts of the wedding to get good photographs.

Likewise for repainting, and here's an example of that. This is a RMT RDC Budd Car and everything was going just fine. Until I put on the final coatings of flat spray. Something odd happened to the paint on the left side below the word "Conrail" on the ribs of the lower body. It yellowed a little bit: You can see it in this photo. It's not the lighting, but something odd happened with the paint. Eventually, I'm going to try and fix this. Fortunately there's no decals over the affected area, so maybe some very light sanding and repainting those spots.

Needless to say, sometimes the best made plans go awry. And part of the reason that I repaint either beaters, or very common items that weren't that expensive.

@Choo Choo Charlie, I appreciate your kind words. Much like you, this is a labor of love. If it weren't for having a small layout, I'd have none at all. The smaller types of trains just look better on a small layout. But I happen to like modern road names too, not just Baby Ruth . Since these cars are affordable and many HO scale decals work just fine, I'm in business.

I've been chopping down the 027 switch for many years. Removing the over-sized base of the turnout opens up so many more possibilities on a small layout.

I started years ago by removing the sheet metal base plate, and then soldering on wires on the underside for electrical conductivity. Problem is that without the baseplate, the plastic is more subject to warping over time.

So now I leave the base plate attached. I use a Dremel with a cut off wheel to cut the upper side plastic part of the turnout, creating something of a path for the next step. Then I use a hacksaw blade to cut through the sheet metal.

Inspired by your painting of your switch tracks (David from Dearborn also did the same thing), I decided to give it a shot. After I did this and put it down on the layout, I decided for me, it looked odd since I use more smaller width ties closer together on my regular track.

So I still cut down the switch tracks, but leave them brown. Which I suppose some might say would also look odd. Ah, the compromises made in 3 rail!

If I was a real purist, I would have gone HO many years ago. I run trains for FUN, not frustration! It's less aggravating to just work with the compromises than to grumble and complain about them all the time. Or to find perfection in what is basically imperfect and letting your imagination do the rest.

For me, that's what the phrase "The magic of Lionel" really means.

@Silver Lake, Thanks. And that's partly why I'm doing this: There are still a great many 027/traditional operators out there. We sometimes get drowned out by all the scale postings on this particular forum sub-category.

But we 027/traditional guys have some things going for us.

• There are plenty of beater or well worn trains that can be restored or redone. And because these trains were made in such large production runs over many years, there are lots of them out there. And prices are good, especially for less-than-pristine condition.
• Talk to the decal makers and they'll tell you there's not much of a market for O scale decals. But with these smaller proportioned trains, we can get away with using larger HO scale decal sets, like locomotive sets for rolling stock. Plus, the real railroads are using smaller logos on real rolling stock, so there's a prototypical plus.
• Commercial spray paint has improved in quality vastly over the years. So you don't need to invest in an air brush to do this.

So Silver Lake, here's one more for you that started off as a true beater: Rust on the frame, no box, missing the original barrels and figure, slide shoes broken off the trucks. The Price was Right. I replaced the PW slide shoe trucks with modern plastic ones with a pickup roller. Wired in a small toggle switch on the underside of the car, so I'm not limited to having the car on a UC track. And since my layout is small, reaching the car is no difficulty at all. The barrels are grey painted sewing thread spools.

I love it when I get comments like "Hey when did Lionel make that Penn Central barrel car?" They didn't... I did.

@Ahitpy, that's quite a collection of the unassembled cars you have there. I had no idea K-Line had made such a variety of them, especially from the MARX origin types of rolling stock.

I have believed for a long time that 027 trains were underappreciated. Because of the sharp curves, layouts can be built in smaller spaces. There are some very high quality trains available that will run on 027 track. The main objection to it is that the F3, the scale Hudson and the Fairbanks Morse diesel will not negotiate it. My first layouts were 027 and I enjoyed them very much.

George

You are the Master st Custom O27 very tidy work 

Very well done Brian!

Great pictures !

Besides switches, wide radius curves in 027 can be found and makes using 027 more flexible.

Brianel027,

I just found this thread and I love your work and imagination.

I also like repainting and, even though I've previously posted some of my work, her, for the sake of convenience, are some examples. While these are all cabeese, I've also done tankers, boxcars engines, etc. I'll find some pics of some of those.

The Erie and NH cabooses are also bashed, each was made from 2 Lionel SP cabooses:

@Lionelski, nice work. You know, I've been tempted to try your elongated SP caboose project. Years ago there was an article in the OGR magazine about doing that very same project. I thought, wow, that'd make for a good "027-ized bunk or crew car. The Wabash caboose looks good too!

My whole point in doing this thread was to encourage people to try their hand at fixing up older trains. There's plenty of beaters out there and plenty of well worn common train items that don't have much collector value: All great candidates. If I found something that WAS actually worth money, I'd try to sell it so I could then buy more beaters or common stuff to repaint.

Many years ago at my first YORK show, some guy was giving me grief over repainting trains, telling me they were all collectibles and worth money. So... I pulled a well-worn gondola out of my purchases bag and told him I'd sell it to him for $500.00. He laughed and said, "That's not worth $500.00! That's a $5.00 train car, at best." I then laughed and told him he'd just shot his initial argument full of holes and then went about my merry way, looking for more candidates for repainting.

At another show, I was talking to the owner of Ross Custom Switches at a train show. I was looking over his products and admiring them, when he asked if he could help me. I told him I was a strictly 027 guy and was just looking.

To my surprise, he encouraged me. I asked why and he answered that every 027 item I buy from Lionel helps to keep them in business. Which helps Lionel to put money into the new high end scale products, which in turn, helps his business grow.

I thought that was a terrific answer, showing a great attitude towards business and a realistic outlook on the 3-rail hobby.

And now for some more photos. First below is my most recent finished project. The original brake wheel stand was broken off, so I changed that. And it was missing the searchlight dome cover, so I made one from the plastic from a milk carton, along with this clear ribbed plastic stuff that is really made for kitchen shelf covering. Now some might argue the Disney figures are completely unprototypical. Depending on your feelings about the Penn Central... I have a friend who jokes the Penn Central was a Mickey Mouse operation, so maybe it's more realistic that it seems. 

Next below is prototype and fantasy combined. I like the Norfolk Southern Enviro scheme that was used on one single engine, the 999. Norfolk Southern has no Alco FA's, but I do. I realized finding decals for the "wave" part of the white striping was going to be impossible. And doing an identical paint mask on each side was going to be a huge challenge. So I did a simplified version of that scheme and added a zero to the unit number, though I still have to make the number boards for this one.

Next is a shorty Lionel plug door box car. I know it's the wrong shade of blue for CSX rolling stock, but I like it over the dark blue that is normally used. RMT had issued one of their 2-bay hoppers in the CSX Coke Express scheme. But the RMT version had white lettering. I looked high and low to find a photo of that car with white lettering and could find none. So I did my own Coke Express hopper and stumbled upon this shade of blue. I knew it wasn't right (those hoppers were black) but I liked it. So then I did this box car also. We 3-railers are a funny breed, aren't we? Somethings bother us, even though they're accurate, and other things that aren't accurate, we like. Well... maybe NOT all of us. 

This next one was inspired by a fantasy paint scheme MTH put on a Lehigh Valley steamer. This one below was one of those Lionel late 1980's DC only starter set engines. Aside from the paint scheme, I added weight to the engine, so it can pull a train now. I also added a headlight, handrails, some other details and moved the drawbar from the tender to make the engine and tender closer.

Next is a K-Line flat done up for NS. For some reason, K-Line had a thick round mounting on the body, where the trucks attach. I used a Dremel and sanded down the thickness of those, so that the car sets lower to the track and looks much better. I don't remember where I got the bars running along the deck surface... I cut them down from something... they hold items like these Tonka tractors in place. But I can also now put a whole variety of items on this particular flat car, which I like the flexibility of.

Next below, a Lionel woodside reefer. Aside from repainting, I also cut down the body mounts where the trucks get attached to the car, so that the car rides a little lower to the track and looks better with my other smaller more 027-ish rolling stock.

I might have posted this one on one of the Saturday Switcher threads. On my local division of the Norfolk Southern, there's some tight curves that the bigger engines just cannot maneuver through. So some Alco FA's had to be put into service. This was one of the older K-Line unpainted, molded plastic colored engines, either a Pennsy or Southern from one of the starter sets. Looks good to me now.

I have also been gone for many tears ( Health issues, amputations, etc.) and this is the first post I have read. Color me inspired! Thank you sir...

Brian

Glad you started this thread too. You are so right buying those old relics and making them look like new. I’ve been doing it for years in “Scale” now you have encouraged me to do some O27 for some reason  these days I’m leaning towards O27. I really like what you did with the NH Piggly Back. Two years ago I wouldn’t even look at O27 now its at the top of my list. This is why I love this “O” scale over HO and others. Hope to see more of your work 

Brian, your restored, repainted and renovated trains look great.

Although I prefer O Gauge with 031 and wider curves to 027, I also prefer traditional sized trains to Scale sized trains because of my medium sized layout (35 feet long and to 3 to 4 feet wide around the walls of 2 rooms in my basement). Traditional enables me to make trains with more cars to traverse my reverse loops.

Now if I had a large layout (50 feet by 20 feet or larger without reverse loops), then I would go for scale over traditional. For instance, I recently became a member of NJ Hi-Railers Club (layout is 185 feet by 30 feet without reverse loops) and scale size with huge locomotives and trains with 50 plus cars looks awesome. Arnold 

brianel_k-lineguy posted:

@Lionelski, nice work. You know, I've been tempted to try your elongated SP caboose project. Years ago there was an article in the OGR magazine about doing that very same project. I thought, wow, that'd make for a good "027-ized bunk or crew car. The Wabash caboose looks good too!

My whole point in doing this thread was to encourage people to try their hand at fixing up older trains. There's plenty of beaters out there and plenty of well worn common train items that don't have much collector value: All great candidates. If I found something that WAS actually worth money, I'd try to sell it so I could then buy more beaters or common stuff to repaint.

Many years ago at my first YORK show, some guy was giving me grief over repainting trains, telling me they were all collectibles and worth money. So... I pulled a well-worn gondola out of my purchases bag and told him I'd sell it to him for $500.00. He laughed and said, "That's not worth $500.00! That's a $5.00 train car, at best." I then laughed and told him he'd just shot his initial argument full of holes and then went about my merry way, looking for more candidates for repainting.

At another show, I was talking to the owner of Ross Custom Switches at a train show. I was looking over his products and admiring them, when he asked if he could help me. I told him I was a strictly 027 guy and was just looking.

To my surprise, he encouraged me. I asked why and he answered that every 027 item I buy from Lionel helps to keep them in business. Which helps Lionel to put money into the new high end scale products, which in turn, helps his business grow.

I thought that was a terrific answer, showing a great attitude towards business and a realistic outlook on the 3-rail hobby.

 

We are on the same wavelength Brian, thanks for the comments too.

At first I hesitated to post these pics here as I was concerned that you might think that I was hijacking your thread, I'm glad that you did not feel that way.

Excellent work!

Some tinplate passenger cars that were a rusted mess, they required sanding and repainting. Transformed into the Spokane Portland & Seattle.

Nice work Bill. It looks like you put some kind of interiors into the cars, or maybe it's some kind of framing or treatment to the windows. 

We often see posts addressed to the train companies, when are you going to make this? Then people assume the train companies don't listen or don't care. Wrong. They have to have enough demand for a product, so that they can make a quantity that will cover the production costs. Or tooling and R&D if it's a totally new item. A lot of money these days especially given the small production run numbers that I am aware of.

So how long would it have taken for one of the train makers to make Spokane Portland & Seattle passenger cars of any kind? Never mind tinplate. It's the same question I've often asked myself, about the 027 products I'd like to see made, which is why I do what I do.

Maybe repaints don't have much value (unless it is something that someone specifically wants), but I highly doubt the original badly rusted cars Bill T. started off with had much value either, other than possibly sentimental, if even that. One thing for certain: I'm sure the cars look far better now than they did when Bill got them. And he has something he wanted in a road name he likes. Sounds like a win/win to me.

Brian,

Here are a few more if my O27 repaints:

I love one offs, custom is King. I have lots of fantasy bashes. It's a huge part of what keeps me happy. I also like the semi-scale size better than full O (shrugs unknowingly)

Recently I brokea cheapie 0-27  caboose in half by accident. So I made anothers t follow up behnd my 2cnd chrome RI&P General (when it's not doubleheading). The spotlight is a Maglight lens cap and reflector. I added a spotlightbecause seeing the black hatted gunfighter in low light is very hard. This helps (only seeing about 3v here, its very bright)

(an RI&P car)

I'll add more red/brown like on the bobber behind it "s0meday"The remaining leftover plastic  was saved after I repaired a caboose roof/ awning with a scrap piece.

I also recently shot this 2-4-2 and tanker with some etching primer to make a Nuclear Steamer for a Kusan reactor car. And a thingamagjigger car from what might be considered "rare" missle car (broken stands 😉)

Simple fun and few of my changes ever ruin even a semi-collectable   beyond revertability with standard repairs. I use water based craft acrylics mostly. It has proved to be removable in the sink years later. (I also often ask you folk who may want it before I paint or cut.  I even got a generous $150 offer for one I was simply gonna cut up  ...so ask first! 😉)

Todays fav. is my delivery trolly; Frankentrolly

Without reading all the posts....what brand and kind of paint do you use ? Thanks ...also ,any special tape ?

Nessmuck posted:

Without reading all the posts....what brand and kind of paint do you use ? Thanks ...also ,any special tape ?

Lots of variance in pants. Stick with one brand, one type (laytex, acrylic, enamel, lacquer.... chosen by plastic/metal/wood used)

Tape used is usually based on when you're pulling it and/or how strong the base coat is .   Regular masking tape can often make the best line, but it's most likely to pull up masked fresh paint/primer, especially if it stays on a long time. "Blue masking tape" or green have different levels of stickiness, read the label 😜

Cheap pinstipe usually makes for good fine line masking.

Try a topic search here (upper left menu); dozens of threads on painting in general as well as situationally themed. 

Thanks....I’ve been painting cars since 1976....Tri color Pearls, Base Coat Clear coat.....weined on Lacquer....Enamel, acrylic enamel....you name I’ve sprayed it. So was interested what you used.

This sub was a bobber tank car from a battery op. Wallmart train set. A model jeep sprue, 2-CO² pellet gun tanks, 2- magic marker ends for the prop cover/nozzles, 2-dollar store mini l.e.d. lamp arms, safty flint wheel from a bic lighter for a saw blade, Duco epoxy and a loose screw.... for the saw blade😬

Car is all fudgesicle sticks with bearing boxes stuck on.   

Popsicle sticks simple wont work 😜

(etching primer green, enamel silver, craft acrylic yellow.  If you put the silver on yellow/ bad reaction; put green on yellow/bad reaction; green on silver is ok if light,..... it's a matter of how "hot" paint is wet vs how strong the skinning pull is when the other is dy. Hot= penetration ability and usually also notes a flat laying paint, which often pulls hard sideway at the undercoat to/while it flattens/dries. That causes cracking, "gator skin" )

These all look great.  I'm looking forward to refinishing some of my old stuff some day.  I've got a lot of cheap stuff (mid-80's 027 cars with the garbage plastic trucks and no springs) that I can experiment on. 

I'm really keen on finding Norfolk Southern Decals for Locos and Cars in O gauge.  Not a lot of that going around.  What did you use for your NS Loco? 

Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy posted:

These all look great.  I'm looking forward to refinishing some of my old stuff some day.  I've got a lot of cheap stuff (mid-80's 027 cars with the garbage plastic trucks and no springs) that I can experiment on. 

I'm really keen on finding Norfolk Southern Decals for Locos and Cars in O gauge.  Not a lot of that going around.  What did you use for your NS Loco? 

Jeff, if you read some of the descriptions I've written, I mention mixing scales of decals quite a bit, using larger logo HO sets like for locomotives. On the Alco FA's I repainted, those were HO sets, save for the nose decal: Somewhere along the way I found some S scale Norfolk Southern decal sets and ordered a bunch while they were available.

Many times, true O scale decal sets will be too large for some applications on smaller 027 cars, though I do use either O or S scale capacity data. Microscale has been SLOWLY reissuing some O scale decals and my advice to anyone, is to buy them when you see them. It sends a message to Mircoscale that there is a market, and you don't know how long what you want will be available.

I will offer a differing viewpoint on truck sets: I don't think the plastic ones are garbage. Certainly no worry about zinc rot. Granted, I wish the Symington style hadn't been made, but it is what it is. Though I have plastic truck sets from the Kughn era of Lionel (mid-1990's) where the knuckles no longer spring open by themselves, whereas all my MPC era cars, the knuckles STILL spring open. Obviously a difference in the composition of the Delrin plastic used.

The biggest drawback to the plastic trucks is not the trucks themselves, but the rivet mounting that is standard. The truck sets are always loose, with quite a bit of wobble: This looseness is what causes derailments when backing up a train into tight curves.

I drill out all rivets and replace them with a truss screw and a lock nut. I tighten it all the way, then loosen it just enough for the truck to swivel left to right. I haven't had a derailment in years,  when running a train backwards though tight 027 curves, even with a light 8 inch MPC car pushing much heavier cars with die cast trucks!

Good idea on the trucks.  You're right, the reason I view them as junk has always been the wobble that I get.  I'll try what you mentioned (redrilling and using a truss head screw).

Will keep an eye out for decals.  Thanks.

Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy posted:

These all look great.  I'm looking forward to refinishing some of my old stuff some day.  I've got a lot of cheap stuff (mid-80's 027 cars with the garbage plastic trucks and no springs) that I can experiment on. 

I'm really keen on finding Norfolk Southern Decals for Locos and Cars in O gauge.  Not a lot of that going around.  What did you use for your NS Loco? 

Yes, not always easy to find NS decals in O Scale. You may want to try ShellScale Decals. I bought some O Scale decals from them last year. They sell sets for NS EMD locos, NS GE locos, NS Switchers & Slugs and they can be trimmed to fit your specific application.

Nice seeing modern roadnames on 027 rolling stock. I have a smattering of 027 boxcars in railroad roadnames (for a joke, I was going to video a string of them in the middle of a consist of 86' boxcars) and would have bought them in versions like your repaints as well had they been made.

BTW, have you ever considered using Smokebox Graphics' reflective striping, for that extra-modern look in low-light conditions?

---PCJ

(now you got me wondering what an 027-ized TTX high-cube boxcar would look like. Wouldn't take too much styrene to scratchbuild one )

Perhaps a silly question, but after you paint a base color on your car do you apply store bought decals, or print your own onto some kind of decal paper and apply. If the latter, may I ask your method?

Thank you

Paul

btw - greatly enjoying the thread - thanks for sharing.

Yeah I think I'll pick some of them up.

@brianel_k-lineguy: When you apply decals, do you first spray a gloss finish over the paint base, then go back over with a matte after the decal is on?  I've read that decals want a super gloss finish to adhere best. 

To answer the last two questions. @Railrunnin, I mostly use manufactured decals. Mostly Microscale, but also Hearld King (now out of business), Rail Graphics (also out of business), Industrial Models (not doing decals any longer) and Shell Scale. I do want to give the Tichy Train Group decals a try... they've got a pretty good selection.

Again, an advantage of redoing smaller cars like I am, is the ability to take advantage of HO decal sets made for larger rolling stock or locomotives. Some of the HO decals are just too small even for 027 items.

I think the color saturation on screen printed decals is the best. I have tried to use a laser jet, using the blank Microscale stock, but never had good results with that. I've since read that a special blank decal film is made by some companies especially for laser jet printers. But you still cannot do white lettering, unless you use white decal stock and print the background color around it... no easy task to get a computer printer to perfectly match a paint color, other than black. There are a whole bunch of various videos on YouTube about printing your own decals on a laser jet, the pros and the cons.

The yellow Conrail caboose on the first page of this thread, I did make the decals on a copy machine, using Microscale blank stock. I couldn't find a large enough CR logo in black. I printed out what I wanted on blank paper and then taped the Microscale stock directly over the printed area on the paper, making sure I was feeding the paper thru the machine the correct side up. I also did this when the machine was first turned on, to avoid any melting damage to the copy machine.

The Looney Toons circus car on the first page also, had color decals I had made for me, along with black decals I again printed on a commercial Xerox type machine.

@Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy, Yes that is correct. Decals won't adhere well to anything but I gloss surface. When I can, I use gloss paint. Sometimes the color I want is in a matt or satin finish, so then I put a coat or two of gloss on after the painting is done. I'm using spray cans, so it pays to be flexible. I've used this rust colored primer that is pretty darn close to a Tuscan red color. So there's an example of having to gloss coat after painting. After decaling and any detail painting is done, then I put on a couple coats of a flat clear non-yellowing finish.

RailRide posted:

BTW, have you ever considered using Smokebox Graphics' reflective striping, for that extra-modern look in low-light conditions?

I didn't know about that product. I should add it to my decal list on page one.

When I had a larger layout, I had a crossing gate with a vehicle waiting that had headlights, sort of like Menards is now offering. I had a couple locomotives with actual reflective striping on the frame. So when the train went by that, it was pretty cool.

I would be very proud to run any of these repainted cars on any of my layouts. 

The pigment count of screening ink is very very high. It's a pastey ink too vs  liquidy. (closer to art oil based tubes of paint)

Nessmuck posted:

Thanks....I’ve been painting cars since 1976....Tri color Pearls, Base Coat Clear coat.....weined on Lacquer....Enamel, acrylic enamel....you name I’ve sprayed it. So was interested what you used.

Same here, hot rods/buggies mostly, industry, and new home too.  Keep the "heat" of the paint in mind and go for it.

  Smaller pigment/effect is used in good model paints compared to "off the shelf". (a small metal flake sprayed onto a model looks like 1/16" flake job on the little car)

Model spray paint cans tend to be thinner, and lay flatter too (like a lacquer lays flatter than enamel and is normally thinner too)  (auto-vs houshold paints also have different finishes sometimes, auto needs more chemical resistance)     Flatter means less loss of detail.

Mixing paint brands is always iffy. Sometimes it works out though. Like today...

This is a Duplicolor satin Burgandy AND Rust-Oleum ruddy brown primer, both sprayed at once, brown then red then brown then red, no dry time.  I got lucky and they mixed well, giving me a closer match to Lionel RI&P red/brown than either paint alone. (I'm using hobby foil to guild the boiler on this bash shortened, bat. op., semi scale toy O engine...it will pull two lighted old west coaches (and it will likely get a tether to their rollers and a 3v regulator chip /bridge reg. to run off the track) It also has a slip clutch to protect it's creeper gearing.

Like a few others here on the forum like Choo Choo Charlie, I have always have some project going on. So here's some recent ones of my own. Captions/descriptions below each photo.

As the tooling investments from the train companies are lop-sided to the scale end, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. I've always wanted a deep well container car that would run on 027 curves, and not look out of place with other "027 scale" rolling stock.

This is a converted short MPC era flat car that I made new sides for. The ladders are cut down from longer K-Line metal ladders and the other suggested details and from little things that I had in my scrap box.

The bottom container is one of the short Lionel ones used in a pair for the traditional flat cars. I cut the bottom off and it inserts to the flat car surface via a piece of foam... the same kind of foam I use for my giraffe car actuators.  The container on top has the wheels and mountings removed, and sits on the lower container via some thin foam pieces. I have to print out the J.B. Hunt Intermodal decals for this container.

I never intended this to be a precise replica, though I did consult actual photos of the real thing. I instead wanted to make a replication, like I mentioned before, with painting in watercolors. I'm actually really happy with this one. And it clears everything on the layout (which I intentionally considered as I worked on the car).

I will always have affection for the Lehigh Valley. Lionel did a LV dump car sometime in the late 1980's, but it was a rather drab looking car in unpainted plastic. So I decided to repaint one in a little more exciting scheme, also making my standard improvements to these cars. On each side of the black dump base, you might notice in the photo, two pieces of wood on each side, that I cut and glue in place to add additional support to the plastic tabs on the car itself.

Probably not many people here take notice, but prices are way up on the shorter 027 cars, from what they were not too long ago. Then factor in shipping and you can easily pay $30.00 each for a short 027 train car. Since my layout is now the smallest I've ever had, I'm taking some of my longer traditional 0 cars and cutting them down, more to "027 scale." So the above gondola I think was an Industrial Rail one. I cut no more than an inch and a half out of the center and glued the two pieces back together, using some wood on the underside for bracing. This was the first of my "cut down" jobs and was pleased enough with the result to continue with more.

Same story for the flat car above, which was a typical Lionel traditional flat, that I cut a little more than an inch out of the center, glued and braced the two pieces together. I cut the angle supports off the flat car ends and screwed them into the car. And now I see how easy it is to photograph a car, not realizing one of the trucks is slightly off the rails. I didn't notice this until I uploaded the picture. Oh well.

This one above was one of those "I wonder if I could do that" projects. It started off as a 5000-series K-Line stock car. I carefully cut every other "board" out of the sides of the car. The chicken inserts are from the Lionel Chicken Sweep car. Yes, this is illuminated. I used a yellow 3M type scrubber bad, roughened up with a wire brush, to suggest hay on the floor of the car. The Foghord/Henry Hawk figure is from the larger Lionel operating car, which uses a rubber for operation. I mounted the figure to a thin piece of styrene, shaped like an "L" and mounted to the car floor at the far end of it. Then I put plastic wheel sets on one truck, BUT with the wheels flattened on one side. So as this car rolls down the track, the flattened wheels cause the car to rock a little bit... just enough to cause the Foghorn figure to move or vibrate in and out of the car about 1/4 to 3/8's of an inch.

Here's a couple of cars that get ZERO respect: The low end Kickapoo train set dump cars. Though as you can see here, when you paint them, they do look much better. I put metal wheel sets on them, and also some weights to the underside of the car. I came up with a little mechanism on my layout that operates these cars and causes them to dump their load. I also have a very simple operating forklift truck that I can use to load these cars up.

And this last photo for now is a good example of "this ended up being far more work than I imagined." In my quest for smaller 027 types of train cars that do look better on a small layout, the Lionel NYC Woodside reefer seemed like a candidate for shrinking without repainting and decaling. I basically shortened the length by cutting off 1 inch from each end of the car. Of course, then new truck mountings had to be made. I replaced the molded in ladder on the far side with a K-Line metal ladder from one of their traditional box cars. The doors (which shouldn't slide open anyways) are now glued in place. Like I said, it did end up being more work than I originally envisioned with all the grinding and cutting: It might have been easier to just scratch build one. But I managed to pretty closely match the brown paint on the car with spray paint, and then decided to do just the roof top in black. I do like the smaller size of the car now, and it looks much more at home with my other MARX style K-Line 5000 series cars. But next time? There's got to be an easier way, so I might just scratch build one.

Excellent models!! JohnA

Hi Brian- Figured I'd reply on your thread instead of on SWSat.

The car in question is a scratch build. I recently bought a Northeast Trains track cleaning car. I wanted to make it look like a MOW car and the results are what you see. The body is 100% scratch built except for the pipes. The body is styrene, and I added the stakes and piping/ pump system.

Been a long time since I did water-slides, the Long Island decals were a little touch and go but they came out nice. The others came from a set of Champ decals I had.

I plan to take a shot a weathering the car and will matte/clear-coat it after.

Nice Looking Rolling Stock!!  Great Job k-line guy.

VERY NICE WORK i like them all .

Brian,

Could you take some pictures of your layout? I would love to see it.

Thanks!

@brianel_k-lineguy posted:

And now for some more photos. First below is my most recent finished project. The original brake wheel stand was broken off, so I changed that. And it was missing the searchlight dome cover, so I made one from the plastic from a milk carton, along with this clear ribbed plastic stuff that is really made for kitchen shelf covering. Now some might argue the Disney figures are completely unprototypical. Depending on your feelings about the Penn Central... I have a friend who jokes the Penn Central was a Mickey Mouse operation, so maybe it's more realistic that it seems.

Next below is prototype and fantasy combined. I like the Norfolk Southern Enviro scheme that was used on one single engine, the 999. Norfolk Southern has no Alco FA's, but I do. I realized finding decals for the "wave" part of the white striping was going to be impossible. And doing an identical paint mask on each side was going to be a huge challenge. So I did a simplified version of that scheme and added a zero to the unit number, though I still have to make the number boards for this one.

Next is a shorty Lionel plug door box car. I know it's the wrong shade of blue for CSX rolling stock, but I like it over the dark blue that is normally used. RMT had issued one of their 2-bay hoppers in the CSX Coke Express scheme. But the RMT version had white lettering. I looked high and low to find a photo of that car with white lettering and could find none. So I did my own Coke Express hopper and stumbled upon this shade of blue. I knew it wasn't right (those hoppers were black) but I liked it. So then I did this box car also. We 3-railers are a funny breed, aren't we? Somethings bother us, even though they're accurate, and other things that aren't accurate, we like. Well... maybe NOT all of us.

This next one was inspired by a fantasy paint scheme MTH put on a Lehigh Valley steamer. This one below was one of those Lionel late 1980's DC only starter set engines. Aside from the paint scheme, I added weight to the engine, so it can pull a train now. I also added a headlight, handrails, some other details and moved the drawbar from the tender to make the engine and tender closer.

Next is a K-Line flat done up for NS. For some reason, K-Line had a thick round mounting on the body, where the trucks attach. I used a Dremel and sanded down the thickness of those, so that the car sets lower to the track and looks much better. I don't remember where I got the bars running along the deck surface... I cut them down from something... they hold items like these Tonka tractors in place. But I can also now put a whole variety of items on this particular flat car, which I like the flexibility of.

Next below, a Lionel woodside reefer. Aside from repainting, I also cut down the body mounts where the trucks get attached to the car, so that the car rides a little lower to the track and looks better with my other smaller more 027-ish rolling stock.

I might have posted this one on one of the Saturday Switcher threads. On my local division of the Norfolk Southern, there's some tight curves that the bigger engines just cannot maneuver through. So some Alco FA's had to be put into service. This was one of the older K-Line unpainted, molded plastic colored engines, either a Pennsy or Southern from one of the starter sets. Looks good to me now.

People forget and get jaded, but this is where it all started. This is where the fun began, and this is where the fun will always Well done!

when I set up the Christmas layout for the grandkids to play with under the tree their is an O-27 set where it all started for me a place of honor to remind everyone this is Lionel