I have been working on a couple postwar lionel diesels that I got in really rough shape, a 627 and a 624. The 627 had been spraypainted black at some point and the 624 was pretty rusty and had badly worn paint. I have been able to get both locomotives sorted out mechanically. On the 627 I was able to remove the old spray paint down to its red plastic body but the numbers and logo were removed as well. I stripped the old paint from the 624 as well which also took the decals and numbers off. For the 627 I need to figure out how to recreat the Lehigh Valley logo and redo the locomotive number. For the 624 the decals are available online but again I need to figure out how to recreate the locomotive number. Anyone have any experience doing this, any ideas? Are there stamps available or decals out there for this which I am just unable to find? Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Well it's been 35 yrs or more since I did any restoration of Lionel Post war stuff. I'm guessing these are the O27 Alco cab units. You might try one of the older stores back east, I bought Santa Fe nose decals from a store in New York city in the late 1970's. The unit I restored was a bear to clean up, the person tried using finger nail polish to paint red pin striping on it. I ended up painting it in the Santa Fe blue and yellow and used the nose decal on that. IIRC I used some O scale Walthers decals on the sides. Greg Elems
There are or have been reproduction decals available for some units. Perhaps check with someone at the Train Collectors Association for suggestions?
