On-line Guide for Pre-War Lionel

[mitchelr]

I love using the on-line postwar guide http://www.postwarlionel.com Does anyone know of a similar site for Pre-War Lionel?

Thanks,

Mitch[swg]

[mitchelr]

I found something at http://www.train99.com/. Anyone else have another site?

Mitch[swg]

[lionelsoni]

Postwarlionel can be useful, but should be taken with a grain of salt. It seems to suffer from cut-and-paste-itis, as in this example:

"The 2332 Pennsylvania GG1 Electric diesel was the first of several GG1 diesels produced by Lionel in the postwar era. At the time of its introduction in 1947, it was the ultimate Lionel engine. Besides being the first postwar Lionel diesel, its heavy die-cast body and impressive looks made the GG1 an immediate success.

The 2332 is a smooth running diesel. However, with the lack of Magnetraction and a heavy die-cast shell, this single motor diesel has limited pulling power...."

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lionelsoni

Postwarlionel can be useful, but should be taken with a grain of salt. It seems to suffer from cut-and-paste-itis...

lionelsoni - I agree totally. Just like any other website, just because someone knows how to post a web page does not make them an expert. I like to look at the photos and get an idea of how an original might look.

As an example I bought a two boxes full of pre-war trains this week. There was a Lionel 248 with 629 and 630 passenger cars. Obviously it needs some work. All cars had been "custom painted" with black raised panels on the roof. Some pictures I found on the train99 site at least gave me a clue as to how they cars should look.

The box also had two other frieght cars that had been hand painted orange to make some extra cars for this set. I want to see if I can strip away the orange without removing the original lithographed finish. Anyone have any ideas for removing a layer of paint without taking off the original finish??


Mitch[swg]

[More to restore]

Mitchellr, you are right this is an incompleteness of internet. As far as I know there is no such site for pre-war Lionel. I have often similar questions (what was the original paints scheme of the gun metal 289E, how did the original roof of a 610 look like, how brown was the candy bar on 1679, etc.?). And now I have to get my information from: books, various scattered sites and this forum. I usually start with Google and then you first get a few Ebay pictures, of which there are a few helpful, but certainly not always. And you can never fully trust such a picture: because how do you know for sure that that object was not "restored-altered".

One approach would be that some guys of this forum would join and make such a site together, but then we should need some real expert to evaluate the pictures and concomitant text. That is almost like writing a book! Would be quiet a challenge. Or would this be more a task for the toy train musuem or TCA?

Stripping paint from a lithographed sounds like a challenge too. I have only bad experiences with that. Obviously, it depends on the type of paint. For latex-paint and acrylate-paint welding in water and gentle scrubbing would be a gentle solution. For alkyd-paint you will have to give it a try with a gentle paint stripper. From former threads, I have understand that there are some gentle strippers out on the US hobby market. Here we have very different brands, so I would seek advice at your local hobby store and give it a try.

[1688torpedo]

I Hope that PostwarLionel knows that a GG1 is not a Diesel but a Engine that is a Electric one & uses Pantographs on the Real Railroads. It would be neat if Tom Mc Comas had a Prewar site for Toy Trains as he has the Know How, Finances, & the ability to make it happen. Maybe we could lobby him for one?[8D] Take Care all!

[dwiemer]

one idea for removing paint that works for such things as splatter from other projects would be to use a little goo gone then lightly scrub with scotch brite. this should only be attempted after other "safer" efforts have failed. It depends on the type of paint used and process to apply, as lionel baked their paint and may be better bonded than the new paint. good luck,
dennis