# Lionel 249 loco / 1590 set ~ Deja Vu



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hi guys,

Some of you may have seen my questions and posts on my resurrection of my old Lionel 249 loco and 1590 set. All cleaned up, and packed away for safe keeping.

But, I gotta keep the kids happy. So ...

I picked up ANOTHER 249 loco / 1590 set on eBay ... pretty trashed, but cheap: $42. I figured I'd clean / fix this set up a bit, and then let the kids loose. (Uhh ... at least when I get around to setting up the track/layout!)

Some pics follow ...

1. Set as found, on eBay.

2. Loco as found on eBay.

3. I followed T-Man's advice, and mixed together 2 colors of acrylic craft paint to get a near-match on the orange stripe paint. I sanded and painted both sides, cutting-in around the original white numbers as best as I could. Numbers still need a little touch up. Also, now that I know what a "marker" is (via recent thread), I used a little J-B-Weld to rebuild the missing sections of the right-side marker, shown here still unpainted.

4. Marker now fixed and painted.

5. Motor, all cleaned up. No major work ... just cleaning, oiling.

6. Loco all put back together, with a little Armor-All shine.

7. Tender cleaned up ... no repairs really needed here.

These old girls clean up pretty well, huh?

TJ


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Nice job.:thumbsup:

What did you use for the lettering and number?

Orange looks better then new.:thumbsup:

Now it looks to good for the little ones to run you have to get another and leave it as is.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Magnificent job, TJ!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Thanks for the kudos, guys ... much appreciated!

BigEd ... I chuckled at your "it's too good for the kids / gotta get another one" comment. Part of me is thinking exactly that! But then, I think back to all of the too-good stuff that I got my hands on as a kid. A trail of disection and destruction, I'll confess. But tinkering with mechanical things as a kid taught me much of what I know today. So, at the risk of having that crisp orange stripe paint fall into the next generation's destructo-hands, I guess I'll offer this little 249 loco up for ritual sacrifice ... and (hopefully) some enlightening of little minds.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Oh ... nothing special (so far) on the white numbers ... original lettering, as is. I tried to paint around them with the orange. It's certainly not perfect, and I might go back and touch up the white lettering a bit.

I've seen T-Man nicely tackle some lettering after a repaint. Tricky stuff ... I've gotta start looking around for a good source of dry-rub decals of the correct size, font style, etc. I wonder if "anybody" out there offers stuff especially scaled for Lionel re-lettering?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Looks just Great!!!

The white rub ons I have used arew 4mm from a hobby store. WHite is hard to find. The store went under a few years back. Train shows have a lot of support . They should have it. You can buy stamps with the original numbers. I need to find the link.

I forgot to tell about the paint mixing. I use two colors and start with 5 drops and right with 4321. From the right I go 5 drops of the second paint and mix 4321 to the left. This way I have a formula that works in the future.

From reading, most of the part suppliers carry a stamp set for engine numbers. They are sold by engine number.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

T-Man said:


> From reading, most of the part suppliers carry a stamp set for engine numbers. They are sold by engine number.


Thanks! I'll do a little 'net searching and check it out!


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## Stillakid (Jan 12, 2010)

Nice Job!
I was reading up on making my own decals with my printer. There are several videos on youtube that show the process. I checked some of the fonts on my computer and came up with Engravers MT 16 Bold it closely(Very!) matches the numbering and lettering on my 2026 & 2035. It also matches well with many other cars/tenders. What I really liked was the ability to number/name your stock as you see fit. Could be fun


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hi Stillakid,

Thanks!

I'm glad you're delving into the inkjet decal methodology. I know essentially nothing about this, but am very intrigued. The Walthers catalog sells several types of inkjet decal paper, from which you can print your own images, logos, etc. (Vitachrome Graphics; HobbyCal; etc.)

Here's what I don't understand. My simple inkjet printer can print any color ... EXCEPT WHITE. White (by default) is the background paper color.

So if I want white decals (like numbers on a loco), I wonder how I achieve that with the special decal paper? I see that they sell both "white" and "clear" sheets, but the process eludes me (for now).

Maybe you can shed some light, as you learn more.

Thanks much for the Engravers MT font tip. I don't have that loaded on my PC, but I'll surf a bit and see if I can find/download the font file.

TJ


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Hey, TJ! If you follow thru with that, how about doing a tutorial for the site? I'd love to see the process.


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