Breathing Some New Life into a Lionel Classic
Nov 17, 2019 17:20:14 GMT
Country Joe, dennym57, and 4 more like this
Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2019 17:20:14 GMT
I've been wanting an example of Lionel's 221 Dreyfuss "Hudson" locomotive from 1946 to add to my collection for some time. A couple weeks ago I started watching on Ebay for a good one and ended up buying a 1400 set from 1946 with the locomotive and three of the tinplate blue passenger cars. From what I understand, these were intended to go into production around the time Lionel had to stop train production for WW2 and were finally introduced in 1946 when production resumed. Unfortunately by that time the real NYC streamlined Hudson's were getting pushed aside for more modern steam and then diesel locomotives so I assume that's why the toy's only had a two year production span (not to mention all the new features that were introduced shortly after for the toy trains).
I'm not sure this was an original set, but it's made up of the proper components and looks good on the track. The 221 locomotive just needed a little cleaning, lubrication and a couple minor parts.
The cars were a little more beat up. The bodies are in good condition, but were dirty. The silver paint on the roofs was pretty badly scuffed up from years of probably getting thrown in a box under track and such. The trucks were in iffy shape as well with many of the couplers having been replaced with later magnetic couplers rather than the original coil couplers. Someone even added a rear coupler to the observation car that didn't originally have one which involved bashing in the lower part of the rear railing to allow it to swing. I don't often do any cosmetic restoration work on my vintage trains, as I like the patina that most of them come with. I had a hard time looking at the beat up roofs on these cars however as they were looking pretty bad. I ended up wiping them down and then applying three coats of Rustoleum aluminum enamel spray paint to them and it really makes the set look good. The blue bodies have a few chips in the paint, but they cleaned up rather nice as well. Overall, I think this is one of my new favorite Postwar sets. It looks pretty darn good and the locomotive runs like a Swiss watch.
Before
After
Long story short... sometimes it doesn't take much to make a battered old toy look much more presentable. This set will live on for a long time.
I'm not sure this was an original set, but it's made up of the proper components and looks good on the track. The 221 locomotive just needed a little cleaning, lubrication and a couple minor parts.
The cars were a little more beat up. The bodies are in good condition, but were dirty. The silver paint on the roofs was pretty badly scuffed up from years of probably getting thrown in a box under track and such. The trucks were in iffy shape as well with many of the couplers having been replaced with later magnetic couplers rather than the original coil couplers. Someone even added a rear coupler to the observation car that didn't originally have one which involved bashing in the lower part of the rear railing to allow it to swing. I don't often do any cosmetic restoration work on my vintage trains, as I like the patina that most of them come with. I had a hard time looking at the beat up roofs on these cars however as they were looking pretty bad. I ended up wiping them down and then applying three coats of Rustoleum aluminum enamel spray paint to them and it really makes the set look good. The blue bodies have a few chips in the paint, but they cleaned up rather nice as well. Overall, I think this is one of my new favorite Postwar sets. It looks pretty darn good and the locomotive runs like a Swiss watch.
Before
After
Long story short... sometimes it doesn't take much to make a battered old toy look much more presentable. This set will live on for a long time.
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