Last Updated on April 1, 2024 by Dave Farquhar
One morning in December, I got a text message from my wife. She’d found some trains in a secondhand store, cheap. They were damaged, but I like fixing up old trains. The highlight of the find was a Lionel 6014 boxcar. It had a busted truck, but was otherwise in reasonable condition. I didn’t have to feel bad about modifying it, and I had just the thing in mind. Restoration is a strong word for what I ended up doing, but some might call it a restoration or a customization.
Disassembling a Lionel 6014 boxcar
It’s really easy to disassemble a Lionel 6014. There’s a screw on one end of the boxcar that holds the frame in place. Remove that screw, and the frame tilts down. There’s only a tab on the other side, so it tilts and slides right out.
Removing the damaged truck isn’t as easy as it could be. It’s riveted on, so you have to drill or grind it off. If you want to drill it, I really recommend using a drill press. Place the frame, wheels facing up, in the drill press and line the rivet up with the drill bit. Support the frame under a block of wood so you don’t damage it while drilling.
If you don’t have a drill press, I recommend grinding the head off from the side of the frame opposite the trucks with a rotary tool.
I replaced the broken truck with a Scout truck. My dad had two Baby Ruth boxcars, one with Scout trucks and one with standard knuckle couplers. I’ve rigged up various conversion cars over the years so I could run them together, but not as a string of boxcars. This 6014 solves the problem.
Rather than rivet the truck back on, I secured it with a 6-32 machine screw and a stop nut. This works really well, and it’s less hassle than messing with rivets or eyelets.
Cleaning the Lionel 6014 boxcar
The next order of business was cleaning it up. The boxcar looked like it was in pretty good shape under all the grime, but it was dirty, and possibly even a bit yellowed. If I were into weathering my postwar trains, I could have called it weathered and let it be. But I like them looking nice.
Since this 6014 was white unpainted plastic with black print, there was no concern with washing it. Be careful with painted Lionel postwar cars. I just took the boxcar body into the kitchen, wet it down, then applied one drop of Dawn dish soap to the surface. Then I scrubbed the side by hand. Dawn made quick work of the decades of grime. As I finished one side, I moved to the next. It only took about five minutes to clean up. The car still had a few light scratches in the plastic but nothing too noticeable. And the yellowing went away. It may have been the dirt or it may have been tar from cigarette smoke. Dawn takes care of both rather well.
I dried it with a soft cloth, both inside and out.
Reassembly
Reassembly is easy. Slide the tab on the frame into the slot on the boxcar body, then tilt the frame up into the body until it sits level. Then replace the screw. If the screw is missing, you can thread a 4-40 machine screw into the body. It’s not a perfect fit but works in a pinch.
And that’s it. Now I can run a string of postwar Lionel O27 boxcars and mix and match standard knuckle couplers and Scout couplers however I want.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.