Refurbishing Strombecker and Plastic Model Trains

This Father's Day, while I watchfully waited and hoped that our kids (and grandkids) would stop in, I decided to take on a one-day Father's Day project. Years ago, my Dad had a Hall of Transportation in which he displayed various mementoes of things that go, both the prototype and model variety. A basement wooden wall shelf held various plastic and wooden models from bygone eras. It was one way of seeing how far modelling, and the trains themselves, had come. These models were tucked away safely in a box when cleaning out the family homestead, and had languished in my basement instead. Until now.

The DeWitt Clinton (orange & yellow) and the William Galloway (green & black) were the two wooden trains first up in my project. Made by Strombecker, they came with very complete constructions. First order of business was to remove years (?decades) of lint, dust and sawdust from the laundry room they were kept in and untouched for probably ten years. Until now.

Look at that vintage road grime! Mishandled over the years, there had been some running repairs including old mucilage glue used on the head-end (above). I wanted to leave that part of the models' history intact! But the operator's station? It had taken a few hits and was in pieces. Until now.

Throughout this project, I was thinking about what my Dad was thinking about when he was building these. What was going on in his world? What was on his mind? Those thoughts kept circulating. I ruminated. Here is an online auction site photo of the parts that go into this kit:

Here's the exploded diagram for assembly, from an era when people still built things. Now they want models with museum-quality, unit-specific numbers and awesome underbody detail!

More instructions:

Clearly this was intended for young people, with appropriate era-specific motivational visualization techniques included plus potential positioning placement:

My Dad had saved a November, 1989 Railroad Model Craftsman magazine Collector Consist column about the trains he'd built. They're pictured at the bottom of the page. This photocopy had reposed in a file folder for years. Until now.

For each of the trains in this project, the order of operations was:

• dusting! with a stiff paintbrush, wet q-tip and wet kleenex as needed.
• repairing missing parts with white glue and some Testors plastic putty
• repainting chips with colour-mixed matching paint or a black Sharpie! (Watch for an upcoming post on using a black Sharpie on a model railway!)

For the William Galloway, I repainted the main rod, reassembled the 'operator's station' and replaced a missing wire railing, and glued in the loose wooden barrels.

The DeWitt Clinton got the smokestack stabilized, driving wheel tires repainted, and lots of touching up of the flaking yellow and orange paint!

Second section from the laundry room - a selection of plastic model trains! Here's the hostler's view:

These were structurally sound decades later for the most part. Mainly dusting and replacement of a very few parts. First up the 'Early American General'. Or just The General. Original kit-box fronts were available for some of these. I repainted the tender wood and nameplate.

The Rocket! A neat little one I had the opportunity to see in operation at Expo 86. Well, a reproduction thereof. Full-size.

The Rocket shown with the British Standard Corridor Composite Coach. That name is almost as long as the car! A window replaced and while trying to shake it out the hole, one end came off and the weight fell out. Bonus weight for another project! The end was replaced.

The Duchess of Gloucester. Whichever green paint my Dad used, it held up really well. One elephant ear was a bit loose, otherwise just a few minor detail touchups on this beauty:

Globe A-B-A Union Pacific F-7's and accompanying instructions. Looks like my Dad had some pale blue paint to use, and the red stripes between it and the yellow were cut from paper. Some of those red strips had peeled off but I decided to leave them as-is. Working outside on the patio, this was a very relaxing project on a day when we did indeed have visits from all kids and grandkids!

You can call it a B-unit, you can call it a Booster unit. You can call it 'Barbara'. But this is what it looks like.

Running extra...

Paging...Lee G. Your Canada Day Trackside Treasure prize pack is ready for mailing - please send mailing address via comment which I'll later delete, or by email to mile179kingstonATyahooDOTca - thanks!

Pandemic patio modelling. Dollarama dollar-store designing. It's scratchbuilding on a pension! A wind-up motorboat and Hot Wheels VW truck were transformed. All for the princely sum of 2 bucks. The motor from the boat also contained some interesting gears for another project! More here on the build.

Boat under construction. Now in drydock. All I used from the motorboat was the hull. Everything else is scrap-box styrene bits and details!

S. Anglin coal delivery truck. Paint job and new wheels and lettering made a big change!