Tree Track

That time of Year.
Trying to make it easier to set up and tear down the Christmas tree train. 4X8 piece of plywood. after cutting out the shape I wanted, I took it inside to verify. It was too big.






Cut it down to 67" long, left the width at 48".

Cut some brackets to hold the 2 pieces together. Sanded the brackets. Used some wood glue, and nailed the brackets in place with pneumatic air gun. Found some old screws I had, predrilled and put the screws to it.

Sanded some more, outside temp dropped some this evening. I should be able to get a few coats of white paint in it tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 15

Back at IT!
This has been a long but fun project.

I was having such a problem with the decals, had to take a break. First I had a hard time cutting them out, then they would stick better to my finger than the train.

Got them cut and stuck on the train. I had to redo a few of the letters and numbers, but finally got them where I like them. Put some clear nail polish on to hold them in place.

Here is what I got so far.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 14

After a few more coats, the silver finally covered it. I may do another coat.











It took a very long time to get these decals correct. Getting the font size and spacing correct for one printer does not work for another. A lot of trial and error.

Putting on the decals -
I stuck on the "PACIFIC" first and tried trimming the letter out with a razor blade. That did not work well. The letters kept coming off while I was trimming. I printed out an entire sheet of the decals. I knew this would be trial and error as well.
I still need to clean them up, but I ended up cutting the letters out with scissors first, leaving a thin line between them to keep the spacing. The decals did not stick well. I sprayed it with clear mat paint. Once I'm done, I plan on spraying the entire train with the clear mat paint to help seal and protect it. Should be able to wash the train in the future without worrying about paint coming off or chipping.


I think it is coming along nicely. 

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 13

I know in these pictures there is very little difference, but I wanted to show the process I'm experiencing.  This silver paint goes on real thin. I've tried putting it on thick, but the paint strokes show. When I put the paint on thick it also filled in some of the detail of the plastic form. I had to sand it all off in those area and start over. This left side has 2 coats since the last picture shown. It still needs more to cover the bleed through.

Here is the right side. The paint is pretty much done. I need to look it over some more to see if I spot anything I want to add or change.



Next will be putting the "UNION PACIFIC" and "202" on the sides. Im a little nervous about messing it up. I also want to add an LED light for the headlight, but I will worry about that when I start in on the mechanics of the train.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 12

I like the orange enough to move on to the silver. The silver is going on very light, it takes a lot more coats. So far Ive only done this side, the other side looks like last picture. Probably 2 more coats of silver and I will move around to the other side. It looks so much better without the black trim I tried.

Im taking my time, still trying to figure out what to put in the front for the lights.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 11

Where Was I?
Its been crazy around here. Finally getting back to this Train Business.

Last time, I sanded and cut out some bumps I did not like around the doors. They really showed up in the paint. I also decided not to go with the black trim, that did not look right to me either.
Tonight I touched up the Orange.



Im thinking I will wait until this coat drys and take another look at. It will need another coat of orange.

Im thinking about weathering it as well. What do you think?

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 10

So after doing some painting, I found some more flaws. When I first painted the lines, they were to thick. I did not like the look. These pictures I have already used some steel wool around the edges. Its hard to explain, but look at the edges of the doors. They are not sharp. There is extra pieces of plastic that stick up.

I was not able to get a clean line on the door molding. It really looked terrible to me. I tried to take a few pictures so you can see the extra edges. It looks like when laminated plywood gets wet, the edges peal up. of course nothing here is pealing up, its just the way the plastic looks.

This is a door Ive cleaned up the edges. So there is only one hight point. Since it is not painted yet, it might be hard to see, but once I put the orange back down, it should mate all the way right to the molding line.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 9

Touching it up and painting some trim. So far I've only done a little on this side. A long way to go, but wanted to post pictures as I go.

---

How cool is this Train?

operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q, commonly known by the shorter name of "Burlington") between Chicago, Illinois, Omaha, Nebraska and Lincoln, Nebraska. It operated from 1947 to 1971.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 8

I scored the edge of the tape and pulled it off. Still need to do some clean up, but this is what it looks like now. I like the colors.

After I get it cleaned up better, I will follow up with some more detail. Get the UNION PACIFIC decals on it. I need to think about how Im going to do the windows, and headlamp.

In 1957 Lionel redesigned their Alco Diesel trains. The Orange 202 was the result. It is lighter weight, and not as detailed as previous models.

"Prior to the 202, all Alcos were produced as an AA combination. The 202 Union Pacific Alco A was the first Alco released by Lionel as a single A unit. As production continued during the postwar era, the single A unit Alco locomotive became the norm as Lionel produced few Alcos as AA units." - "http://postwarlionel.com/"

Some more information on this diesel train can be found here "http://www.tandem-associates.com/"

I would not have altered mine if it was in better shape.

The Texas Special

I Like the looks of these. The Texas Special engines. 
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company (M-K-T or Katy).
The Katy has its beginnings dating back to 1865 when the Union Pacific Railway (later changed to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1870) 

The Texas Special was a passenger train. They named their cars after Texas Heroes. The dinning cars name was Sam Houston. The Pullmen sleepers had names like Crockett, Bowie, Fannin, Travis to name a few. Katy



Back in 1896, when more powerful engines coming onto the scene. Rail Roads had a surplus of steam engines. Most were sold for scrap. William George Crush, passenger agent for Katy, came up with an idea to stage a train crash. About 3 miles South or present day West, Texas they built a side track, and the town of Crush for a one day event. The "Crash and Crush". The event was promoted for months. They set up a grand stand. There was booths and a restaurant. The trains were painted, one with green trim the other with red. What was not supposed to happened did, both train boilers exploded. Train parts flew into the air into the audience. I bet that was a spectacular event.

You can read more about it at Texas Co Op Power
You can also read about it at Texas State Historical Association

One on the end and one in the middle has some broken plastic in the front;

SaveSave

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 7

I had to pick up some more orange paint. I like this color better. That worked out well.

This is the second coat already. I will let this dry for a day or 2. It has been humid around here. This time, I plan on scoring around the tape to see if I cam make sure I do not peal up paint with it.

I can't wait to see the what the second color looks like when I pull the tape up.

Union Pacific 202 - Orange Re-Paint 6

Lets try this again!

If you read the prior posts, you know I tried painting this once already. Im having a good time messing with it. I guess that is what I like about these model trains.

I stripped most of the paint and sprayed some primer on it. Check out the Stressed post. Looks pretty cool with the different colors. Might come in handy in the future if I ever want something to look worn.

This time I figured I would use gray with the orange to be closer to the Union Pacific color scheme. I sprayed the gray first this time. Im running low on orange paint. I will try and get away without buying any more paint. Found some of that painters tape.

I like that color. Reminds me of a Silver and Red SantaFe or Silver and Blue SantaFe, or Delaware & Hudson. Actually there are a lot of trains that have Silver in them...

Here are a couple other trains. Both of these trains are missing horns. I need to find a place to get some horns. These trains also have windshields and side windows. Im hoping I can make a windshield and side windows for the one Im working on.

Anyone know where to get some horns?

Stressed

Started stripping the paint. Thought I would share these photos. I kind of like the stressed look.

 This is the same train, but the camera on the phone made it look red.