Home Made Engines

How many of us made our own engines? I made this one when I couldn’t afford a K-Line Tank engine. Now I’m kicking myself cause I should of found the money cause it seems like they’re getting rarer and rarer. But anyway I had fun making this one out of a Lionel 8500

I cut the cab off and moved it forward about a inch

Had a little mishap with the lamp used a bulb that got too hot distorted it a little

Cut a Marx tender in half and used a couple of plastic strips to take up the space. I even converted it from a manual switch to a E-Unit and it works good. Only thing no traction tire or magnatraction so she only pulls about 4 cars. She’s beat up and dirty looking but fit perfect in my coal yard.

Great job !! Thanks for sharing that !! Nothing like building your own ! Now to install TMCC !! [(-D]

Thanks, John

I made two from old Scouts. One is an English looking one, the other just tarted up a bit!

I think it looks great! Not quite home-made but I’ve a Corgi die-cast Birney I’ve successfully powered. I’m waiting for the wind-up motor to break on my Rail Zeppelin before I power it too.

Great piece for a coal yard.Nice job.

Over the years I have made several including a Dash-9, U36B and RS-3, that are all 027-ized locos made tyo be smaller and to look good on a smaller layout with smaller traditionally sized cars. Plus a couple of somewhat fictionalized diesels and steamers (along the thought of the RMT BEEP and PEEP) that look enough like a real train but aren’t really after any specific model.

Some years later, I went through some Kalmbach Diesel Spotter Guides and was rather surprised to see photos of all these one-of-a-kind or limited number rebuilds of more well known locos. Just says to me that literally almost anything you can come up with for a three rail layout, has some kind of prototypical merit or basis. But the real railroads aren’t concerned with prototype… they’re concerned with making and saving money. So if they rebuild one kind of loco into something else totally different, do long as it works and saves them money, that’s all that matters.

Which ironically, is the principle by which I run my 3-rail layout. Therefore, even my fictional engines are completely prototypical at least by operating principle: I use what I have and can afford and make it work.

I also have a revamped Lionel 8500 that I did a lot of work on. For being a cheap MPC loco, mine has pulled 20 cars all with die-cast trucks (fast angle wheels) on level track. An amazing feat for such a little loco. I typically run it with a dozen cars and it has no trouble what-so-ever., no slipping, no traction problems.

Was talking to a guy who works for CSX and he was telling me that on a roster he saw that there was a F-7 that was rebuilt with a conventional cab. I forgot the road name he said it was on but if anyone has ever heard of this or maybe has a pic I would love to model one. He said it had the original frame and trucks. I don’t know if any of you guys are in the South Philadelphia area but the guy was from the yard at 1400 Schuylkill Ave.

He may have been thinking of the CF-7, a hood-unit rebuild of F cab-units. They came in two basic flavors: round cab roof and square.

Thanks PN

Found pictures of it online and it looks like it could be done with maybe a GP-7 body and maybe a SD cab or simular.

a fine job there! I’ve made a couple but not as good as yours. Great work!

Don’t know if you would call this a home made or a restoration. Marx never made it but it has a couple of home made parts. When I got it, was nothing but a clump of rust and it ran but the main gear on the armiture was striped. So I figure since it’s missing a ton of parts and they’re a dime a dozen why not make it special. So I bead blasted it clean from rust and used auto body glazing putty to fill in the rust pitting. Primered it real good and then found a color that the can said tuscan but it’s has a little more red then I would have liked.

The hand rails are a coat hanger, a strand of copper wire wraped around and the bent like a cotter pin are holding it to the body, Domes and stack are hand made out of a plate of quarter inch aluminum and just hot glued in place.

The tender really had nothing wrong was just one I had lying around and was the worst one out of the bunch so it got a fresh coat of paint. Decals were just printed off of the computer.

bravo! a custom designed one-of-a-kind rarities that only you possess; who could ask for more?

That paint may not be what you were looking for in Pennsy, but I bet it would look great as Lehigh Valley colors. Great job. There was a few issues of Classic Toy Trains that had a guy custom building engines. I also have some copies of “Model Builder” in which they custom build some engines.
Dennis

PhilaKnight,

I didn’t go as far as you with your locomotive but I converted a scout # 235 from a 2-4-2 to a 2-4-0, changed out the motor to a DC motor from a newer Lionel that was heat warped on the shell and would not let the drive wheels turn.

Also where is Schuykill Ave you are mentioning? Is it in Philadelphia or Reading PA?

There is a Schuykill Ave in Reading PA but please have a couple of police officers with you when you go there, there are some tuff neighborhoods on Schuykill Ave in Reading. How do I know? My sister lives on W. Windser St. in Reading near Schuykill Ave.

Lee F.

It’s in Philly. Their was alot of old warehouses back next to the river but they were torn down for the Fed-Ex hub and Trolley Works Hq. The have a swing bridge that is still in service and about 300 yards up river is one thats out of service it used to run a line right down Graysferry ave to Washington but the old timers in the area say it was put out of service in the 50’s. It’s a same wish I had taken pictures before the torn the warehouses down.

Here is a photo of my Lionel Kickapoo 0-4-0 that I made some improvements to.
Another view.
I added extra valve gear and installed an electronic 3-position E-unit.I had to cut a slot in the rear of the engine for the E-unit circuit board so I formed a piece of brass and glued it to the rear of the engine.I think it looks pretty good.
Another little scratch-built project.
And another