A couple of weeks ago, Keith Woodward suggested I track down a set of these streamliners for my 1688 loco. Welp, I managed to find a set on eBay, and here they are! (grin) The first two pictures are with my 1688 on my temporary layout; the remaining pics are from the eBay auction.
I’m thinking restoration, as the paint on these things looks a lot worse in person. How’s this sound?
-Respray dark gunmetal to match the 1688.
-Add lights.
-Use the little hole in the roof on the back of the observation car as the mounting point for a single roof-mount taillight, a’la the later Burlington Zephyrs.
What do you think? And can you recommend someone to do the restoration/customization?
Color is a matter of personal choice. But since you ask, my choice would be pullman green. Gunmetal just seems to drab for an entire train unless you stripe it. But then I think colorful and cheery when it comes to prewar. I don’t know about good restorers. The job looks simple enough to do yourself because there isn’t much trim to deal with and I don’t see any dents to hammer and putty out. It would be a matter of stripping the old paint with automotive paint stripper, massaging any dings with glazing putty, and rattle canning it with model railroad spray primer and paint. For lighting, you should be able to find trucks with center pickup rollers on ebay. The tabs are something you have to be very careful with when dissasembling as they break easy.
If you want Lionel colors. Here’s a couple links to the Charles Wood site. He has gunmetal and and a variety of other colors.
I hesitate to mention this on this forum but there were prototypes for both the locomotive and the passenger cars, with different roads, sadly. The locomotive is based on the first streamlined Pennsylvania K4 Pacific 3768, which was painted a metallic bronze green, probably not very different in appearance to the Lionel model.
The cars were based on the original 1934 Milwaukee Road “Hiawatha” cars which were of course painted in an orange/yellow with a maroon letterboard. This wouldn’t match the locomotive, but it is a colourful option.
To match the locomotive, the colours of the Pennsy “Trains of Modernism” scheme, sometimes called “two tone tuscan red”, really a maroon shade with a tuscan red window band, with distinctive semicircular end to the window band just short of the car end or vestibule door. This scheme was designed by Raymond Loewy, as was the locomotive, and should fit together very well. If this seems too complex, just the standard Pennsy Tuscan red with a yellow line under the windows as used post WW II would still look good.
If it were mine, I’d paint them similar to the way they came…I just think it looks good with the engine. If you have the availability, it probably would be relatively easy for you to do the restoration yourself. As to folks that do restorations, I personally don’t know, but some of the adds in the CTT have folks who do them. I think some folks here have had work done and can better guide you.
I know a fellow who can restore your 1670 series Passenger Cars if you do not feel comfortable doing so. I think they would look sharp in the original colors too. Let me know & e-mail-me about this. Take Care.
I’m jealous! If I would have seen those 1670s I would have been bidding on them against you! My choice would be to keep them the same color These passenger cars are pretty rare even though they don’t command much attention. I must fully agree with 1688torpedo, keep the original colors, they will look sharp and there are people like me looking for these. I wouldn’t buy them if they didn’t match the original colors. Just a thought and congratulations. You have a very unique set you should be proud of.
