Saving 1940's Lionel Scale Tank Cars

I too like the looks of those cars. I have a fair number and hope to try my hand at restoration.

It's super easy. The frames are most times fine. Just a little WD-40 on them. The tanks only need fine sanding to get the rust and old yellowed decals off. Most of the painted is with rattle can flat paint. I air brush a gloss finish on them, let dry and add the decals. Then a flat finished is air brushed and let dry then assemble. I have it down to about three hours . Of course drying time in the Maui Sun helps speed up everything. It's a fun project and very easy. Don

petrifiedagg posted:

I too like the looks of those cars. I have a fair number and hope to try my hand at restoration.

Same here - I also have a pile of old CHAMP decals - might give it a try - they aren't worth much otherwise.

Lionel made about 10 variations of these cars. The underground train shop has the decals if you like Sunoco. 

Pete

I have a 2755 which is a regular on my freights.

Don is right. These cars make great little projects.

Those are some of my favorite cars as well.  I have a bunch too, many need to be restored.  I've also got some Walthers wood tank/ brass frame  and all diecast Scale-craft tank cars under a rehab as well.  They still need a lot of work though lol.

These cars all use the the pre war 2755 frames. The 2755 came with 4 warning placards and 4 corner steps. Many of the post war versions had some of these details reduced or eliminated, ie two warning placards and zero corner steps.

The repro parts guys have these parts if you want to add the detail back. In the case of the corner steps they can be made easily with staples from a staple gun.

Pete

Jeff Noll posted:

I have a 2755 which is a regular on my freights.

 

Hey, I recognize that photo. She was one of the finest examples I have come across and not a restoration either.

Mike

I did a restoration on one of these and took a rusted 6555 with decals mostly gone. I then turned it into a Sunoco 2855 with fresh Krylon semi flat black paint and new decals as shown in the photo.

I  keep a look out for old tank cars too although not to restore too much. Found  an old gray one which was really dirty but had decent decals so spent time cleaning it. Like to keep them original. Also picked up a Standard gauge tank car for parts but ended up fixing it up to run. Couldn't get myself to scrap a car that really wasn't in bad shape for parts. Part of the fun. The ugliest are the big, high early Standard gauge tank cars.

They are nice cars and easy to redo. O scale decals for any type car are getting hard to find though.

Jim 1939 posted:

They are nice cars and easy to redo. O scale decals for any type car are getting hard to find though.

Arent we just printing them on InkJets these days?

I have an article on repainting these in one of the mags somewhere. Beautiful cars.

I like Dennis' cars.  I suppose I should show you my Lionel scale tanks.  They are also 1940, with sprung trucks and scale size coupler - among the finest O Scale freight cars ever.

speaking of The Underground Railroad..I picked this up from Lou a couple years ago.

A friend of mine gives me all the beater 2555 cars he gets, I sand them down and paint them into Army tank cars.

Lionel's best ever tank car - the #715:

This was before a good repaint and Lou's fine decals.  I have three of these beauties.  The other two got their couplers nipped off very early in the game.  This one is absolutely original except for plastic insulators in the wheels.

And in the spirit of Dennis' cars above, here is a Scale Craft, also in its 1940 attire.  I usually repaint them, but I kept three in the original colors.