This project is to replicate the Santa Fe Midnight Limited that was acquired by the Oasis Palms Scenic Railroad after WWII. The Santa Fe Midnight Limited provided daily passenger train service from Los Angeles to Oasis Palms from 1927-1942. The Midnight Limited was a custom-painted steam-powered Berkshire pulling a consist of heavy-weight Pullmans. The cars had satin black exteriors adorned with yellow lettering, complemented by glossy black, yellow, and red stripes and silver roofs.
To recreate the Midnight Limited we decided to re-paint and badge an inexpensive Lionel ready-to-run Polar Express set. We also acquired three matching MPC-era cars from eBay (baggage, combo, diner). These cars were made in the ’70s and ’80s and used they cost between $10-$15 each plus shipping.
How to Disassemble Lionel Baby Madison Cars
The shorter-than-scale passenger cars in the Lionel ready-to-run sets are typically referred to as “Baby Madisons”. These cars are the perfect size to run on our 6×9 Oasis Palms layout. To prepare for painting, the cars were disassembled into their sub-components: roofs, bodies, vestibules, and trucks. When taking apart Lionel Baby Madison cars, the roofs are removed by compressing the windows and lifting the roof and window assembly. There are two windows on each side that are a wedge with a lip that locks the roof assembly into the body. Pressing in these windows in about 1/8″ releases the roof assembly. Use coffee stir sticks sanded to a knife edge on one end. Press the stir sticks in between the window wedge and the body. Once all four are in place, you can lift the roof and window assembly off of the body.
The trucks on the newer Baby Madison cars use rivets to attach the truck to the body. To remove these I used a Dremel tool to grind off the rivet heads. I tried drilling one and found the rivet got so hot it began melting the plastic body. Whether you drill or grind, pour water on the rivet as you work it to reduce the heat. The trucks on the MPC-era cars use a pressed-in plastic rivet that is easily removed by compressing the two little wings.
The trickiest part of disassembly was removing the vestibule ends on the bodies. The vestibules are held in place with two tabs that need to be pressed in towards the center and worked out of the slots on the car body. The slots are very tight! I had to use a combination of pushing pressure on the end of the tab and pulling pressure with a “pry-bar” of 1/16″ flat spring steel wedged between the vestibule and the body. This operation is like making diamonds from coal, it requires time and pressure. But with care, all the vestibules were removed. Unfortunately, the vestibule tabs on MPC-era cars were so brittle the ends of the tabs just broke off leaving just the squares that fit in the body slots. For the reassembly of the MPC-era cars, I will use a drop of CA glue on the remaining portion of the tabs.
The lights inside the cars are soldered to the trucks and can easily be removed by heating the solder with the soldiering iron and when the solder liquifies, simply remove the wire. The truck sub-assembly can be disassembled by prying the sides out to remove the center rail contact pickups and prying the sides to remove the wheels. A Phillips head screw will release the magnetic couplers from the truck.
Remove the Body Lettering and Window Silhouettes
To remove the widow silhouettes and old lettering I used Acetone. A clean towel dipped in acetone removed the window silhouettes and the gold Polar Express lettering leaving behind a clean surface. For the three old MPC-era cars I used Acetone to remove the ink, but these cars also had some raised areas and indentations from the ink being applied with heat stamps. To remove this ‘ghost lettering’ in the plastic I used 400 grit wet sandpaper to smooth the area. The result was a clean surface for primer and paint.
Primer and Satin Black Base Coat
All the cars were cleaned with soapy water (dish detergent) and lightly wet sanded (scuffed) with the 400 grit sandpaper. Be careful to not over sand because the small details like the rivets can quickly disappear. The windows attached to the roofs were masked off with blue painter’s tape and newspaper and all the bodies, roofs, vestibules, and trucks were primed with Rust-oleum self-etching primer. Next, the bodies, vestibules, and trucks were painted with Rust-oleum Satin Black, and the roofs were painted Rust-oleum Metallic Finish (silver) all parts were left to completely dry overnight.
The MPC-era cars all had interior cardboard inserts designed to block the interior lamps from shining through the plastic bodies and roofs. To help block the light and to eliminate the need for the cardboard all the cars were also primed and painted black inside to create an opaque seal.
Paint the Red and Yellow Stripes and Silver Details
First, the red stripes were masked off with Tamiya 10mm masking tape and then the rest of the body of each car was masked off with blue painter’s tape and newspaper. The Rust-oleum Gloss Sunrise Red was sprayed directly over the satin black and left to completely dry overnight. The masking was removed and the yellow stripes were masked off the same way, painted with Rust-oleum Gloss Sunburst Yellow, and left to completely dry overnight. For the Engine and Tender, I kept the factory satin black base and masked off the red and yellow stripes using the same process as the cars.
The PE cars were the simplest to tape off as the body lines had nice ridges on both sides of the stripes. The Baggage car was the hardest to paint. The design used none of the baggage car body lines and both the Baggage and Combo cars have side doors with vertical extrusions that create all sorts of micro gaps under the masking tape. The solution for this was to measure and mask carefully and to spray light coats of color to minimize dripping in the gaps. Then after the stripes dried completely and the masking was removed, I used the black, red, and yellow spray paints shot into plastic cups with a fine point paint brush to clean up the fuzzy edges. It’s not perfect, but by using the same paint the touchups are color-matched and are less obvious.
To add a little extra detail the car grab handles, body side door latches, and vestibule safety gates were brush-painted with the same Rust-oleum Metallic Finish (silver) used on the roofs.
Paint the Trucks with Gunmetal Gray
The stock Lionel trucks are all black plastic but the OEM trucks on the Polar Express Berkshire and Tender are metal with a gray-painted finish. To match the engine, the plastic trucks were painted with Rust-oleum Matte Metallic Gunmetal Gray.
Next up: Applying waterslide decals, satin clear coat, final re-assembly…
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