Re: Lionel PW Madison Cars

[Smoke Stack Lightnin']

Thanks for the info Jim.  The first thing I did was to take each car apart.  I cleaned the bulb sockets and springs of any rust and applied some rust preventative on the metal parts.  I will need to replace the wiring as it has aged too brittle to flex.  I have a set of Williams 60' Madisons, and thanks to their meticulous reverse enginering of Lionel expired patents, the silhouette window strips on the Williams cars fit perfectly on the Lionel Madisons.  I ordered 16 strips from Williams and will use non-hardening rubber contact cement to glue them to the metal frames.  It's cool the silhouettes actually line up with the windows!  I will keep the original window strips in case if I ever re-sell the cars, but I doubt I'd ever want to, at least not voluntarily.  I'd hate for the paint to ever flake off, because they have such a cool washed out, flat, weathered look, I don't think the natural aging could be duplicated.  Truthfully, even the yellowed original window strips look cool, so I'll try your suggestion to see if they can be flattened and pressed back to their original size.

Rich F. 

[Anonymous]

Rich,

                Sounds like a beautiful set of Madisons!  As for the boxes, they were probably left over from the prewar era, and the old numbers blacked out and then restamped with the new number.  I would suggest leaving the window strips alone because the cars would be worth more with original parts than if the strips were replaced with repros.  Of course if you aren't planning to sell the cars, and you want them to look better, you could replace the strips.  If you are brave, take the cars apart and remove the strips that have shrunk, place them on a a flat, hard, heat resistant surface, and warm them with a hair dryer.  The heat will soften the strips.  Once they are soft, place something heavy like a dictionary on top of the and allow them to cool.  If you are lucky, the strips will be flat and back to their original length.  About the paint, don't worry about it.  If it hasn't flaked in 59 years, I think it is safe to say the the paint will not flake.  Like you, I have read that flaking paint was caused by the release agent not being cleaned from the bodies before painting.  Hope I was able to be of some help.

[Smoke Stack Lightnin']

I recently purchased a set (3) of type 1 (1947) Madisons, all numbered 2625 but named Manhattan, Madison and Irvington.  The paint is a great looking flat tuscan, with sharp white lettering/numbers, no chips or flaking.  The boxes are original, and on two, the 2625 has been blackened out by a wax pencil (by hand) then stamped 2627 and 2628 respectively.  A number of the window strips have shrunk and some have pulled from the frames, which seems to be typical.  I have read there is a tendency for the paint to flake from the bakelite shells.  Can anyone tell me if the flaking paint occurs in cars from the entire three year production, or within a specific production period, and would the flaking have happened by now?  Someone had mentioned the problem was due to improper cleaning of the molds and if the finish was doomed to peel, it would have done so a long time ago (not the same guy that sold me the cars!).

Rich F.