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Description
I've had these done for about a month and a half now but haven't been able to photograph them. Now that I have my camera back and running I was able to pull them out for a photoshoot.

I believe I posted a teaser picture of these coaches in a box of other assorted wrecks that I acquired last year. They were in pretty rough shape when I acquired them; horrible repaints, rust, severe frame damage and missing parts. The previous owner had messily converted them to postwar trucks. I scavenged parts from all over the place (failed projects and loose parts) to fill in the gaps. It took about fifteen hours of work to get these coaches together; I saved some time by working on both cars simultaneously so they both were drying at the same time.

Lionel never made the 608 and 607 coaches in black (they came in four or five other colors though), but now I can claim to have a pair of them. Ostensibly they match my custom "Blackbird" locomotive so they are the "Blackbird coaches". They're illuminated cars too so they light when you run them on the track. I haven't yet had a chance to run them properly, but I've bench tested the lights to work pretty well.

I may not be doing very many more of these restorations though... A, I'm running out of projects on the to-do list and B, my parents caught me doing some of the metalwork in my bedroom (my desk doubles as a general-purpose workbench since I don't have any other space in the house to work in peace) and I have been officially banned from working on projects inside the house.

Description
I've had these done for about a month and a half now but haven't been able to photograph them. Now that I have my camera back and running I was able to pull them out for a photoshoot.

I believe I posted a teaser picture of these coaches in a box of other assorted wrecks that I acquired last year. They were in pretty rough shape when I acquired them; horrible repaints, rust, severe frame damage and missing parts. The previous owner had messily converted them to postwar trucks. I scavenged parts from all over the place (failed projects and loose parts) to fill in the gaps. It took about fifteen hours of work to get these coaches together; I saved some time by working on both cars simultaneously so they both were drying at the same time.

Lionel never made the 608 and 607 coaches in black (they came in four or five other colors though), but now I can claim to have a pair of them. Ostensibly they match my custom "Blackbird" locomotive so they are the "Blackbird coaches". They're illuminated cars too so they light when you run them on the track. I haven't yet had a chance to run them properly, but I've bench tested the lights to work pretty well.

I may not be doing very many more of these restorations though... A, I'm running out of projects on the to-do list and B, my parents caught me doing some of the metalwork in my bedroom (my desk doubles as a general-purpose workbench since I don't have any other space in the house to work in peace) and I have been officially banned from working on projects inside the house.