“Toy Train Rehab”
- Objective: Rebuild & detail an old toy train car
- Any car with snap-in truck is eligible (any scale too)
- (Example: AHM, Bachmann, Cox, IHC, Life-Like, Mehano, Tyco, etc..)
- Prize:
- $100 Trainworld Gift Certificate
- Winner: The winner will be chosen by popular vote at the December 2025 Nutmeg Division meeting & holiday party
- (I.E. You must be present in the meeting room with your model!)
- The finished car:
- Must retain the original shell and floor (separate root too)
- Must make NMRA standard weight (will be weighed)
- Must have couplers at correct height (will be checked with NMRA standards guage)
- Must be “detailed” (I.E. paint & decals are not enough)
- Must display a “before” photo with finished car, including proof of snap-in trucks
At the December 2025 meeting, we had two members bring model entries to the Toy Train Rehab challenge. Division Superintendent Art described the intent of the contest as taking something with push pin trucks and horn hook couplers and “turn it into something that would look right at home on a modern layout”, adding “The two entries here, I think they nailed it.”
John Peters started with an AHM stock car from a different project with the intent to turn it into an outside braced boxcar. He found the scale of the model oversize for the Eastern railroads (Pennsylvania) and after a bit of research he determined that cars from Western roads were larger, so he chose to model Northern Pacific. He kept the roof, ends, and underframe, and then cut off the sides with the outside bracing to reuse. He built up the sides by swapping the bracing left to right and right to left so the angles would be going in the right direction, used scribed styrene behind the braces, H-channel styrene for the door frame, and sourced old McKean doors from his spare parts bin. He filled in the truck pins, then drilled and tapped them to use Accurail trucks and Intermountain wheels. He added grab irons, drop steps, the brake wheel, used wire for the piping, and added Kadee couplers. He finished the model with Tru-color paint, Champ decals, and added weathering.
Chuck Gray superdetailed a Mantua 40 foot boxcar by shaving and milling off the molded ladders, grabs, and brake equipment from the sides and ends, preserving the end ribbing. He kept the original metal door slide rails and doors, but milled off the molded tack boards from the doors and ends and replaced them with detailed tack boards from Tangent. He also milled off the molded roofwalk and added styrene for the peak and new roofwalk supports, fashioning angle supports for the roofwalk ends from styrene strips. He added grab irons, drop steps, and Details Associates ladders, and a brake kit for the underframe, using wire for the piping. He reused the trucks by filling and tapping the snap-in holes, swapping in metal wheels, and added Kadee couplers. He finished the model with Polly Scale paint, but as of the contest deadline, decals and weathering were yet to be applied to the model.
By popular vote, John Peters won the Trainworld gift certificate! Congratulations, John!