Finally, some photos of some of my own custom painted trains

[brianel027]

Okay gang, I'm attempting to post some photos for the first time. These are some older photos shot about 6-7 years ago. I'll continue to post a couple more as I have time. I hope to shoot some film soon and show some of the newer stuff including my own 027 coil cars, 027 TTUX cars and some locos that I built as prototypes for K-Line at one time.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/brianel027/album?.dir=/ee94&.src=ph




These are a few of my many repaints done by me. The top one is an altered K-Line S-2 done in Norfolk Southern with a Penn Central/Conrail box car behind it. Since I have taken this photo, this loco has had the steps and handrails painted and an actual window was cut into the rear door.

Next is a heavily altered Lionel Industrial Switcher with a custom New Haven Dangerous Materials car. The lights on the containers flash. Since this photo was taken, I drilled out opening into the plastic decorative horn using this cone shaped Dremel tool. Steps on the sides have also been outlined with white paint. With the circuit board now removed, a great deal of additional weight was added. This little loco will now pull 10-12 cars with no trouble. It can pull 25 cars (tried it once) but there is quite a bit of slippage. When I did this one, in my excitement I wasn't paying attention to my hearlds, and applied the wrong early-style CNJ 'Miss Liberty' logo. Oh well...



This K-Line Alco FA was one of my very first repaints done some 14-15 years ago. I've always liked the much aligned Penn Central and thought to myself "I wonder what paint scheme the PC might have used if they hadn't been so cash strapped?" My thought was that it would still have to be a simple scheme, so I came up with this fantasy Penn Central scheme.

[pbjwilson]

Very cool,
I like the dangerous materials car.
The engine looks great too.

[Anonymous]

That is fabulous, Brian! Excellent work! You have some amazing talent there, my friend. You should send some photos of your work to CTT. I love that CNJ switcher. The dangerous materials car ain't bad, either.

Unfortunately, the first picture comes up on my computer as a box with a red X. Even if it's only half as good the other, it still must be something else! Please post some more photos of your work. I'd love to see them!

[Anonymous]

Wow! Less than a minute after I posted a request for more photos, you edited your post to add the PC picture. Very nice, as well. I, too, like the Penn Central (although nowhere nearly as much as I love the good ol' NYC and PRR) and have always thought that they were a cool road, despite the fact that their management and how they ran the road left a lot to be desired!

[brianel027]

Thanks Sask! Sad thing is that the management of the Penn Central lobbied the government for changes in rules and regulations, which were denied. When the Federal government obtained ownership of the bankrupt northeast railroads, they quickly acted on many of the requests the Penn Central had made. Conrail was to have been in the red for decades... didn't happen. I often wonder if the PC couldn't have made it if the same rules that were changed for CR had been done years earlier.

Here's a few more pics. Some might say I waste my time with these K-Line/MARX origin box cars and other cars. But they look good on a small layout (especially when I'm done with 'em). I replace the door guides with thiner ones colored matched to the car. I also add underside detail, wood floors inside and metal brakewheels over the molded plastic one. I've since taken a black pen and highlighted the planking of the wood floors inside.





Next are a couple standard "Classic" type repainted K-Line box cars. I always felt one of the early mistakes K-Line made was not going in the scale direction sooner, but their heavy reliance on reissues of standard-fare postwar roadnames instead of going with some current contemporary roads that might be of real appeal to new younger modelers.




These cars both have modified Industrial Rail trucks on them. I used the K-Line ones on other cars. Both also have wood floors inside. Doors are kept closed on one side by using a small brass rod inside the door guide. I've gone to the trouble to create a "nub" on the insides of some box cars I've repainted which keeps the doors closed, until I want them open. The molded lower chassis details that come on the newer K-Line box cars have been removed and put on my woodside reefers instead, using a piece of black foam core board first (attached directly to the sheet metal frame) and then attaching the molded detail so that it is more visable, and makes the reefers look a little more realistic - since they did have more undercarriage detail.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by brianel027

Thanks Sask! Sad thing is that the management of the Penn Central lobbied the government for changes in rules and regulations, which were denied. When the Federal government obtained ownership of the bankrupt northeast railroads, they quickly acted on many of the requests the Penn Central had made. Conrail was to have been in the red for decades... didn't happen. I often wonder if the PC couldn't have made it if the same rules that were changed for CR had been done years earlier.

That's interesting to know. I don't recal hearing about that before, although I've heard a great many horror stories about what went on at the PC. It really is a shame! Imagine what things might be like in railroading today if PC had made it.

Excellent work on the rolling stock! All the pictures are coming up as red X's, but at least now that you have the link, we can see them anyway. Keep up the good work!

[gvdobler]

Flip your slash mark the other way / or in the image brackets.

[Anonymous]

Excellent Work, I like the Alco, it exemplifies the Hobby. Regards Steve

[Jumijo]

Brian,

Those repaints are absolute works of art! They all look like factory-finished items. My highest compliments.

You are incredibly talented and should consider doing that sort of thing for money. I'm sure you'de have no shortage of customers, and the income could subsidize your hobby purchases!

Really nice work!!

Jim

[spankybird]

Brain - great work.

I believe the problems with your pic's is that yahoo only assigns temp URL address to the pics. After about 10 minutes the url address is gone if YOU do not have the pic open. That is why they turn to the red X. Try Shutterfly.

[spankybird]

I grabed the URL on these two pics just before 7:00am est. Lets see how long they last

They were gone by 7:15am [:(]

[Anonymous]

Wow! Your trains realy look nice you did a fine JOB.

[Dr. John]

Brian - thanks for sharing the photos. You are doing some of the very things I hope to do (although with GM&O rather than NS, PC or CNJ) Great job!

What kind of paint are you using? Do you use an air brush?

[dougdagrump]

Brian, Who cares what others might think. As long as you are happy with your results and you enjoy running them that's all that matters.
Besides they look pretty cool to me.

[philo426]

I like that K-line Alco!Did you hand paint the Penn Central logo on the nose or is it a decal?Great work!I hope you post more photos on future re-paints!

[lionelsoni]

Brian, your CR boxcar reminded me of a "repaint" that I did to one of two Lionel 9400 boxcars. I put a black rectangle over the "CR", transfer-lettered in white with "NYC", to imitate the scheme seen on those boxcars that went to one of the daughter railroads in the CR splitup. Since the prototypes were rather crudely done, this suited my limited artistic abilities well.

[Anonymous]

Brian: The photos did not appear but I was able to view your work by clicking on the links. All I can say is NICE,...... VERY NICE. Your work is the true personification of what model railorading should be. Keep those pictures coming.

[brianel027]

Thanks a lot for the kind comments gang. The Bible says not to boast or brag of your own efforts... to be humble. But I know from the comments I have gotten from so many different kinds of train operators at train shows, that folks do see the quality and skill that goes into my repaints.

There are no decal lines. I refuse to have them, so I take a lot of extra effort to not have them. I started off years ago using spray paint, and have stuck with it. I did have to experiement at first to find brands that worked well on the plastic. I've also refined my technique over the years. I use heat lamps to dry and bake the paint. On the older more "toy" like trains, the details are a little less refined and more exaggerated, so I've found using spray paint isn't that big a deal. On something like HO, I can see a real benefit to being able to control the paint flow the way you can with an airbrush.

I use almost exclusively MicroScale Decals. I've used others, but MircoScale are undoubtedly the best by my experience. I do have to take liberties because of the less-than-scale size of the trains I like.... I mix HO, S and full O scale decals. Sometimes I have to take small liberties with placement on the car too. But I've found with some of the roads I like, such as the Lehigh Valley and Conrail - that there was a good deal of rule breaking even on the prototypes.

I've also done things like what lionelsoni does.... I've taken my 9400 Conrail box cars and added lube plates, ACI markers, additional info, etc. Sometimes, I alter the paint job on an existing car... like I took a Lionel D&RG box car, made a paint mask and did the roof metalic silver.

In the past I've stated it seems every time Lionel makes something I really want, they have to make it inferior or cheapen it somehow. I was jumping up and down when they made the #16258 Lehigh Valley Box Car. When I went to gloss the car so I could add other decals, I discovered Lionel used some kind of weird plastic to make that one... I got this very unusual speckle effect (very undesired) that I have never gotten on any other Lionel car. When they made the CNJ#16943 Gondola, it was also made with unpainted plastic that was unfortunately translucent. I went to some trouble to mask the car, prime the inside and bottom, and then color match the red. It's these experiences with Lionel cars that I really wanted as was but were so compromised in quality (usually unpainted translucent plastic) that makes me glad (with no regrets) that I do so much extensive repainting.

I have a very long list of Lionel cars I wanted that were in my roads, but were such poor quality that I would have had to repaint them anyways. I kind wi***hat Lionel would remake them all starting with the 6-28831 Conrail U36B exactly as before only with the dual motors it should have come with. Follow that with the 2-bay red CNJ hopper only painted and primed this time. And the blue CR gondola only painted and primed this time. And the gray EL box car only with the correct gray paint this time... last one was way too dark. And the CNJ NW-2 switcher with a painted body primed this time, with the same red color on the logo as is on the body and dual motors. And the Reading Alco FA only with a sheet metal frame this time and a restored front coupler apron. And the CNJ overstamp box car only without the overstamp.... I was so glad to see them finally make a CNJ coast guard scheme box car (Traditional NON-SCALE size!!) until I saw how hideous their actual car was. Not only was it a poor subpar overstamp paint job, but Conrail never ever did that to any CNJ box car to my knowledge. The quality on those overstamps did a nose dive downward after the issue of the EL/CR and PC/CR overstamps.

Where I've gotten some real kudos frokm even die-hard postwar Lionel guys is with my repaints of the Lionel Waffle Box Cars. They are a true challenge to decal and decal well. I had one guy at a show insist that one of my own paint jobs was actually a uncataloged Lionel factory prototype!! I should have asked how much money he had??? [:D]

The nose of the Penn Central Alco was done first with an all white decal, and then the red/white was placed on top so that the red would appear more red. I've discovered this technique especially when decaling a dark colored item. Ususally the quality of the printing of the MicroScale decals is good enough that I don't have to always do this, but there are times when I can see I will have to.

I love adding little details to my engines and cars. Even though I have many engines that are the same models, the small details can make them look like slightly different models. On some of my Alco FA's, I've started painting the upper body grill work silver... really makes for a sharp looking little engine. All locos have actual headlights. Many have working marker lights. Some have operating ditch lights. Others have the glazed window cut away some so an engineer figure can be see inside the engine.

Spanky, I'll take your advice and try Shuttfly and repost these at some point soon.

[FJ and G]

Brian,

That's terrific buddy! Great work.

And the jade green PC warbonnet is a screamer!

[Dave Farquhar]

Brian, that's great work. And I wouldn't consider you posting your work boasting (I am a Christian also); you're helping others to learn how to do what you do. I know I appreciate it, and others do as well.

Now I'm encouraged to try my hand at painting.

[ChiefEagles]

I use to use Champ. Brian put me on to Micro Scale and I'm well pleased. I wa***he shells good and dry them before painting. Speaking of spray paint, all the CN stuff you've seen me post was done with spray paint. Shot them black, taped it off and shot it with white. Now the noses were hand painted. Shoot the shell with Gloscoat to make the decals float on. I use Solvaset to melt the decals into the shell. Lots of coats. Then I shoot them with Dulcoat so they don't look too shinny. If you want toy train look, shoot them with Gloscoat. This seals the whole thing. I have two compressors [one is a big one and one small portable] and never invested in an airbrush. May one day. If you spray right and not too heavy, spray can will work great. GREAT JOB BRIAN. Brian, I have noticed that Shutterfly downloads faster than any other site when pictures are posted here.

[brianel027]

Here's a couple more:


I like the "shorty" Lionel MPC period flat cars and have created my own loading attachments that universally adapt and fit on any flat car. So the trailer mount on the NYC flat could just as easily fit on the NS flat. Off to the far right and not seen is a MOW wheel car. And that wheel loader can go securely on any other flat car. The CNJ trailer (another repaint) was from a $1 Dollar Store toy. The silver spools on the NS flat are the plastic centers from Scotch Tape rolls that I paint silver, black or rust.



This is a simple idea of indicating (with the stripe on the dump tray door and the warning stripes that are on only the dump side of the car) on these dump cars which side is the "dump" side. Since I took this photo I have engineered and devised a simple change to these cars that strengthens them substantial and prevents breakage of the tabs on the car. Beats me why Lionel hasn't done this. I take very good care of my cars and have still had some break. But I use the broken cars as the basis for my own 027 TTUX cars.

[alton6]

Brian,

Very impressive! Like many others here I've been curious your redecorations. The critter is especially cool. Fine work.

The wood car floors--what kind of wood did you use? Attached, or just laid in?

Carl

[brianel027]

Carl, I prefer 1/32" bass wood, although I have used balsa too. I cut a piece a couple inches longer than the door width and attach it to the car frame with 3M Carpet Tape. I use a black ball point pen to "suggest" the planking. I also put inserts into the cars to prevent crates and loads from going to the far ends of the box car. I have a couple of simple but effective loaders I came up with that load crates, K-Line pallets and such into the box cars.

[alton6]

Thanks. Goes nicely in those shorty box cars. I have a fondness for the inexpensive stubby flatcars, as well. This might work there, too. Could be knifed into "planks". Does basswood take stain well?

Also, those lower profile door guides on the boxcars, did you recycle old Marx guides or fabricate something new?

[brianel027]

Carl, for the box cars I fabricate new ones using Plastruct styrene that is thinner than the K-Line ones. I also cut mine a little bit narrower too. When I repaint the whole car, it's easy. But when I leave the existing paint scheme alone, like with the Lehigh Valley, Southern (I did paint the inside of the 'o' green), the early bird NYC, Southern Pacific and the PRR I had to match the original color to paint my new door guides.

You could add a wood floor to the flat cars, but you would want to sand down the surface of the flat car first to remove all the rivet detail. Since I drill out rivets holding trucks and reattach the trucks of every single train car I own, I like to keep the truck mounting holes accessible.

Having the trucks secured to the car better than the hollow or solid rivets is one of the top 3 reasons for and to elimate derailments. The other 2 big reasons are wheel gauge and coupler space opening. Make sure those three things are okay and you do not need to add weight to prevent derailing. I run my little 027 cars at the lead of the train with much heavier cars following and have zero derailments. So I can completely debunk the myth that you have to add weight to the cars to prevent derailments. You do not.

[cnw1995]

Wonderfully done, Brian. What a great marriage between those older cars and these outstanding painting and detail jobs.

[Anonymous]

Brian:
I am also a devout and observing Christian and share the desire to be a humble follower of Christ and a servant of the Lord. Showing your work here is never boasting. Quite the contrary it is simply sharing with others. I've always said that if you cannot share your hobby with others then what good is it? Keep those photos coming.

[Anonymous]

Brianel,

Your dedication and determination is amazing.

Here in Southern Michigan there is an abundance of Lionel's production runs of Boxcars in the Penn Central Markings, so the repaints are only optional.

Andrew F.