Priming with Hammerite

Although both the Lionel 812 and Lionel 1722 are clean now, there was lots of rust on them and much of the surface is bare iron in stead of tinplate. Therefore, these cars were prime-painted with a special Hammerite rust preventing paint. The colour is not very appealing, but it is only an undercoat.
The 1722 caboose has some dents that need to be filled with plaster. Furthermore, I am still busy with the top roof. The top-roof will obviously receive a normal primer (for non-ferro metals) when I am finished with it.
The 812 gondola has several rough spots where rust has eaten holes in the side panels, that still need to be filled with plaster. So, there is still much to do.

A new start for the Lionel 812 gondola

Cutting the brass plate and getting the holes in on the right place was quiet some work. The Proxxon SS230 mini-cutter together with the old fashioned drill and the Dremel were handy to get the shape right and the holes in place.
Today, I finished soldering the side boards back on the new base plate. A new gondola is born... Although there is still enough to be done, it is nice to see that it is starting to look like a gondola again.


Some people might argue that buying a second-hand base plate is much easier. Well that is right when you have easy access to those. Here in Europe it is rather difficult to get spare parts, unless you order them in the States. Moreover, these base plates of the 812 are not ubiquitously available in the US and hence it is quiet a challenge to repair this Gondola from the bottom on.

Other people argue that buying another old 812 Gondola can be used as a base plate donor. But what about the other old car then? I prefer to get them all running again!

Rust and holes

The rusting of the Lionel 812 gondola car is more severe than thought previous. Several additional holes have popped up while de-rusting the car with Dremel brush and grinders. The base plate is too weak to be trusted for a restoration project. Therefore, I have bought a nice brass plate (K&S, #253, 0.032 x 4 x 10) and I have made too clean cuts on the edge lines of the base plate. One side was very easily cut, the other side had more iron still in it and proved a little bit tougher. Hard to imagine that this pile of junk will once be a nice car again.