Over a year later, my 2055 restoration is nearly complete

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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Well over a year ago, in this thread

http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/2/911937/ShowPost.aspx#911937

I told told of a 2055 which I brought home from the local shop for next to nothing.

It mostly sat in a box for the time after the last post in that thread, however a few weeks ago I came across it and began getting motivated again.

I’m proud to report that now the restoration is very much nearing completion.

On the encouragment of those here, I did go ahead and repaint the shell, and it looks pretty darn nice if I do say so myself.

I used Mr. Apitz’s excellent paint stamping method to renumber the shell using a stamp from Olsen’s. It took me a few attempts, but I finally got a decent looking stamp on both sides.

I was able to get a new set of trucks for very little off of Ebay. Today, I finally got around to drilling out the old bolt from the front truck, whose head had sheared off, and drilling and tapping for a new one. I enlarged the screw to an 8-32(I believe it was originally 6-32) as I had a hard time getting the 6-32 to thread correctly.

In any case, I still have a few miscellaneous projects to complete. The boiler front needs to be painted to match the rest of the shell. The side rods need a good polishing. The drivers all need to be blued after I used a Dremel brass brush to attempt to clean them up.

Aside from that, though, I have it running great. It actually runs better than my 2056, which is cosmetically much nicer. It’s also a better puller than the 2056 owing to the magnetraction. I had it pulling 10 postwar cars the other day with only minor difficulty, a train which the 2056 lacks the traction to start and can hardly pull once moving.

In any case, though, I’m fairly happy with how it turned out. There’s a train show coming up in Lexington next weekend, and the top i

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Ben, That came out great! And since the boiler front has no jewels, painting that should be a cinch. The best way to remove the headlight lens is to push it out from the back side.

One word of caution if I may. A brass Dremel brush will leave residue and discolor those drivers. And re-blueing them might not completely cencel out the dicoloration. The rust doesn’t look too bad. I think you might be better off using a green kitchen pad or some WD-40 to remove it. Then clean them well with alcohol. I guess you could try the brass brush on a small area, then follow up with the green pad. But I don’t know if the pad will remove the brass residue.

Most 2055s came with a 6026 square style tender. But according to David Doyle, a few did come with the streamlined 2046 style.

I’m happy to see your project near completion. I was very interested in this restoration right from the beginning. And I hope your success in bringing this 2055 back from the dead inspires you to do the same to other toy trains.

Jim

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Very well done! Looks like a keeper!

I’ve been using chrome cleaner on the linkage with great results. I’m sure a cleaner/wax will have the same effect. The scotchbrite with the wax works well too!

Kurt

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Ben,

Scrub the drivers with WD40 on an old toothbrush first. I have had good results with this method.

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Hello Ben!

Looks like you’ll have a nice looking 2055 there. A 6026 style tender should not be too hard to find. Lionel made a 6026 Tender with Trainsounds in it for this year & a couple of years ago they made another version with the exact style lettering on the side as the original tenders had. That version would go well with your 2055. Take Care.