This will be my first post about model railroading. At this point, we already have a basic train table and layout, as well as several locomotives and cars. I’ll write about the layout later.
Some months ago, in the spring, I saw a Craigslist post about some old model trains. I decided to drive 30 minutes north from Berkeley and check them out. The trains were old and dusty, but they came with scenery and many parts that I could use. The collection included an Alco 630, which I found fascinating. At that point, I had very limited knowledge about trains in North America.
Fast forward a few months, and the same person offered me more trains that they had found. I should mention that these trains had originally been collected by a train enthusiast who had passed away.
I drove north for a second time. It became even clearer to me that this person had really cared about the trains. The collection seemed to tell stories about logging, steam, and the transition era.
In the second collection, I found a small steam locomotive. I found it very cute and surprisingly detailed. It’s the locomotive at the bottom in the photo below. The other locomotive is an ALCO PA by Lindsay:
Unfortunately, when I inspected the bottom of the locomotive back at home, it didn’t look very good:
I needed the bottom part—the frame—to even have a chance of repairing it. I found one old Varney locomotive and one non-Varney locomotive, both as part of collections on eBay:
Now I had three 0-4-0 steam switchers with functional engines, but only two good frames. Two of them were die-cast, and those two were the original Varney models.
The paint on the die-cast bodies (shells) looked very bad. It was peeling away, and the locomotives needed to be repainted. I decided to strip the paint and apply new paint to both shells. I used CitriStrip. It took perhaps two or three applications, washing and scrubbing with a soft brush and a wooden toothpick. This video helped me a lot as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZr48IYgQzY&t=854s
The results looked good:
Notice the Varney logo on the front-right side of the boiler.
Next: Assembly and testing the engines: Varney “Li’l Joe” 0-4-0 (II.)