HO scale Atlas switch / signal tower resto

[Ace-Garageguy]

I bought a bodged glooey builtup of this old kit for $3, and decided to restore and upgrade it.

It looked pretty good at first glance, like the original builder did a decent job with minimal liquid cement, but when I got it home it became apparent that somewhere along the line somebody else got to it and decided it needed to be "repaired" using half a tube of gloo to reattach what must have come loose.

Kinda common when resellers get some of these things and can't leave well enough alone, and fail to realize an actual modeler would vastly prefer to have a bag of loose parts than something fused into a solid mass.

Yeah, you can buy a brand new one for around $20, but I really enjoy saving nasty messes for some odd reason.

Not too bad, right?

Ah, but then when I really got to looking at it and the reality started to show through...as usual what started out to be a quick little job has turned into a major rework.

Oh well. It's fun to me, so no complaints. Disassembly commences.

The fact that some of it came apart very easily with no damage is due to the original builder going easy on the solvent cement. Just enough to hold things in place while it sat there.

But somebody later with a heavy squeeze-paw "fixed" everything.

Edited Saturday at 06:43 PM by Ace-Garageguy

[Dave Van]

That was a ground breaking kit when it came out.....still a nice one. I've built it a few times........but in O3r now. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

That was a ground breaking kit when it came out.....still a nice one...

Agreed. I built one a couple hundred years ago when it was new too. Can make a beautiful model.

[bisc63]

Should clean up very well. The engraving is impressive, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you can make of it. Is this going to be a standalone model, or is there a track layout waiting for it? 

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 12/7/2025 at 10:05 PM, bisc63 said:

Should clean up very well. The engraving is impressive, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you can make of it. Is this going to be a standalone model, or is there a track layout waiting for it? 

Standalone for a while, but the first bit of trackage will be a yard, and every yard needs a tower, right?

I'm testing some materials and techniques on this one, 'cause I have a fair bit of other railroad plastic that needs restoration, upgrades, and weathering.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Disassembly continues. I got most of the gloo off of the inside of the roof casting, got the chimney out intact, started chasing the recess the new soffit will nest in, and started fixing a crack I didn't realize was there.

The white rod across the top of the green part is to hold one wall in alignment while another repaired crack sets up.

Patience required, but much of it is still coming apart without serious damage.

I was able to get the green upper storey walls apart, clean up the bevels, and put it back together with liquid cement.

I did break the door threshold, so I made a new one. Weight keeps everything square while it sets up.

Beginning repairs on the gutters that had been broken off. Big ol' gloo fingerprint on the right is going to take some finessing, as will the squeeze-out from the crack repair on the center panel

First storey brick walls are apart, beginning the cleanup process. Happily for me, the original builder didn't overdoodoo the gloo on the beveled edges.

The brick wall section on the paint stick has had its holes filled and its mortar joints partially chased just to see how well it could work.

I'll need some Tamiya white putty to finish the hole patching, but my old tube had turned to a rock.

So it's not done, but I shot it with Duplicolor red primer to get an idea of what the end might look like.

The color turned out to be perfect for brick, and the hard old plastic doesn't craze under it.

I think we'll have a winner here...

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy
Punctilousness