Post War Lionel 736 Question

I have seen Berkshire headlights in natural color and blackened. I don't think I've seen any that were painted.
Don't know anything about Madision Hardware making their own. Madison did make some parts, and bought some parts from other folks that reproduced them.

The biggest difference will be the tender, as no 736 ever came with a 2426 tank.

The main motivation for the relettering is I have a spare Williams 2671 style 12 wheel tender so I guess I will try and make this as close as possible to the 1950 engine.

Pete

Pete,

The key features of a 1950 Berk would be the smoke box front without the wedge under the headlight, no stanchions on the pilot beam, diecast trail truck, and silver rubber stamped lettering on the engine.

As C.W. said, the headlight can be either bare metal or blackened for that era.

Jim

Photos added:

You need to paint or blue the feed water delivery pipes to the check valves on either side of the boiler too. Don't forget the longer drawbar. 

Ok, Just finished stamping the cab with silver centered on the windows. The feedwater pipes have been painted to match the engine after removing the cotter pins and filling the holes. 

Jim, interesting point about the stanchions. I have seen it pictured both ways and Doyle mentions the hex base was only found on the 1950 version which Williams uses.

Here are a pair of supposedly 1950 versions from postwarlionel.com. One has the stanchions and the other doesn't.

I have already stripped the paint from the headlight. Williams doesn't use the wedge. Right now the headlight is shiny but I hope to give it an oxidized look as most appear to be. Next decision is whether to make the window a 3 pane version.

Williams uses the open valve gear plate found on the 1946 version. To duplicate the covered embossed version found on all the subsequent berks I may have to make a casting from my 1947 726. 

As usual one thing leads to another.

Here is a pic of a 726 created from a Santa Fe painted engine showing the painted pipes.

It heads my repro (of a repro) 2129WS Berkshire freight set.

I draw the line at painting the tenders "Lionel Lines".

Pete

Pete,

Interesting about the stanchions. My '51 doesn't have them and can't say I've seen enough true '50 versions to make a general statement. I'll have to keep an eye out for different versions.

Your 726 looks good. Very nice.

Jim

 Don't recall which magazine but I read an article a while back where one hobbyist started with a Williams Scale Hudson, and detailed it to look exactly like the Lionel 5344 Scale Hudson.  He ended up with the same look as the Lionel with only $375.00 invested total. I guess that you could do the same with the Williams 773 engine. Makes you wonder what these Chinese toys are really worth. 

Here is the current status of the Williams 736. Still to be done is filling in the valve gear detail as was done on the later berks.

I decided to use this 1950 engine as the template with unpainted headlight and 3 window cab.

Pete

Sad but true I love that tender.

Good work Pete.

One thing:  The Williams has the Baldwin drivers with nickel plated rims while the 736 has standard spoke drivers with no rims.  Were you going to try to change them out or leave as is?

John, its interesting the things that jump out at you when looking at a picture vs the real thing. I did notice the drivers but I don't think I will swap them out with sintered ones. Rather I will just paint them with flat paint. This is more about creating an illusion of the real deal than actually matching it part for part.

Pete