Has anybody successfully formed the warped plastic shells of the 50's era diesels back into shape? Is there a fix other than heat and bend? I've seen some that you could probably live with, but others have such a great bend in the roof that deforms the whole side down to the frame. I tried heat on a building roof that somehow got warped into a potato chip, hoping to flatten it out a bit, but that was a flop.
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Unless someone knows something new, I don't think there was ever a remedy for the old cabs to be returned to a 'normal' profile. Some years ago I picked up this set from the original owner and although very nice, the engines had a pretty bad case of the 'hump'.
That warpage is quite common on the early FA's the plastic is very , unstable , almost rubbery . The later bodies are a much harder material
My solution for these was to sell my Lionel Postwar and replace them with Williams.
Sam, I remember that view. Spectacular!
Pete
Well, I find bits and pieces and rebuild locos back to life. I wanted to create a set of New Havel ALCO's that Lionel sold for one year and can't be found, all so I could pick up the expansion set that had a B unit and two extra cars. So have been fishing for the proper shell that was repaintable. You find a lot of shells that look like these in the pic, but you do find some are very nice (and also have a very nice price) and I would hate to strip the paint and redo on a really nice one, so I look for really sad condition bodies, but this set is too far gone...unless there was a magic body re straightening process.
I don’t have any Alcos with the plastic pilots but would think you could get some of those and just cut off the pilots to use on your 2023 frames.
Pete
Don't think anyone could straighten those! I remember some postwar Sante Fe F units where it seems almost every one of them had a hump appear in the roof. I wonder if it was the same production time frame as these. Good luck on your search!
I did a bit more research on these. Sometime around 1953 they added material to the roof to make them less likely to warp. They can be identified as having a button size casting on the roof section without the vents.
Early including the 2023 without reinforcing.
Later with reinforced roof.
Pete
@BobbyD posted:Don't think anyone could straighten those! I remember some postwar Sante Fe F units where it seems almost every one of them had a hump appear in the roof.
This is interesting. I posted a year or so ago in the S Gauge Forum about an Enhorning F unit I had purchased. It has a slight(er) "hump" and I got a few comments about "Igor" from "Young Frankenstein". I didn't know that Lionel had a similar issue...
Mark in Oregon
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