After partaking in the Connie post, I realized it would be pretty fun to see what people have done with other locomotives and rolling stock. I think my favorite rebuild was probably my “broken after falling off the shelf” Bachmann American. Here is a before and after shot. I would expect to see some pretty creative and wonderful works of art on this post… BEFORE
AFTER
Matt
Cool. Mine was a multi-step rebuild. 
I started with an Annie.
(http://jbrr.com/assets/images/P1000858W.jpg)
Added a new boiler, cab, and BBT drive and painted it green.
(http://jbrr.com/assets/images/P1010421.jpg)
A few years later, it fell off my raised section of track - at the highest point.
(http://jbrr.com/assets/images/IMG_6152.JPG)
I ended up building a new cab, and a new tender, and repainted it all black.
Matt; None of these were the rebuilt because of breakage, but because I wanted something that was not available at the time. Also, I don’t have a “Before” for each of them, but it is not that hard to visualize the “Before.” I wanted some low-sided supply gondolas. Even the LGB three-board gondolas were too high for the hand crane on my loading dock. So I took some Lionel LS Jackson & Sharp flat cars and converted them to two-board supply gondolas.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/2BGon_01.jpg)
I liked the LGB Toy Train bobber caboose, but I wanted to make it look more like a North American car and put trucks under it.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/CabLbl01.jpg)
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/CabSd01.jpg)
The playmobil double-tipper ore car is marketed as a toy, but I thought it had possibilities as a model.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/DblTip01.jpg)
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/DblTip03.jpg)
I had seen photos of VW beetles pressed into service as speeders and MOW vehicles. I wanted one, so I converted a 1:24 diecast model and used a powered MDC speeder trailer to propel it.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/RailBeetle2011.JPG)
I liked the LGB ballast wagon, but thought it could look a bit more North American.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/Kbash1.jpg)
25 years ago there were no single-door baggage cars available, and I wanted one. So, an LGB goods van got sacrificed. I didn’t have custom decales printed yet. I hand-painted the logo, and used a paint jar lid lightly coated with white paint to get the circle.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/Kbash2.jpg)
Best wishes, David Meashey
Take 1 awkward looking HLW switcher: Start:
Middle:
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HLW%20Betsy%2003.JPG)
Finish:
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HLW%20Betsy%2007.JPG)
and get a nifty little logging engine
Start with a close-out 1:24 Aristo Delton Classic refer…
(http://photo.cvsry.com/SoundCar-1-640.jpg)
End up with a short 1:20.3 box car…
Not a major rebuild but a different look…
As delivered new by Baldwin.
After years of hard service in the woods and on the POC mainline. If you think the locomotive is the worse for wear you should see its owner! Number 5 got a new stack, pilot, front coupler, number plate and an oil bunker. Bob! I love the software program you have on this site that allows us to upload photos from our own computer and post here in one easy operation. Superb! and so easy. Thank you so much! 
From this:
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jebouck/logbob12.jpg)
to this:
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jebouck/logbob14.jpg)
Well, until some of my current stuff is done … I guess it’s this:
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Hdj0jDlqqs/ScAq6rItqbI/AAAAAAAAAGY/gMlgnQE9y3A/s400/MVC-008S.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3Hdj0jDlqqs/ScAq7Jssr8I/AAAAAAAAAGg/a3EBqUS-v4M/s400/P3170005.JPG)
The cab interior was made over with a new, larger seat on the back wall, some added controls, and the “dashboard” elevated to a reasonable level for a 1:20.3 engineer… and it has a working, directional rear headlight. (That also has full Battery/RCS and Phoenix aboard as well.) Bigger and better things soon, I hope. Matthew (OV)
Before and After :
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" border=“0” alt=“Photobucket”>Before :
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" border=“0” alt=“Photobucket”>After :
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Started as a lil Crtiter
" target="_blank">
" border=“0” alt=“Photobucket”>Ended up an RS3m
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Good thread. Before LGB 0-4-0
(http://i34.tinypic.com/9fzhgn.jpg)
after
(http://i44.tinypic.com/9teryd.jpg)
before HLW Big john
(http://i35.tinypic.com/v4pf7l.jpg)
after
(http://i51.tinypic.com/24odftc.jpg)
before Bachmann logging caboose
(http://i40.tinypic.com/fvzok2.jpg)
after
(http://i54.tinypic.com/539zyt.jpg)
before HLW woody
(http://i30.tinypic.com/2jfc6r7.jpg)
after
(http://i56.tinypic.com/esj4ph.jpg)
Before acuucraft forney live steam
(http://i41.tinypic.com/jgsbd5.jpg)
afterhttp://i44.tinypic.com/4ptx7o.jpg
I don’t really have any true restoration rebuilds. I got lots of piles of junk reconfigured into different piles of junk. LGB 2017D Before:
(http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/layout%20037.jpg)
After:
(http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/P4230004_01a.jpg)
Before:
(http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/tigerlillie06/His%20Stuff/P1270019.jpg)
After:
Okay, this is still very much a hard question to answer, because I’m not sure how I’d define “rebuild.” I rebuild most everything on my roster to one degree or another; very few locos go through the shops unchanged. However, I think in the context of this thread, the most fitting loco on my roster would be Tuscarora RR #2 because it’s been an “evolutionary” locomotive–something that’s changed and evolved over the past 10 years since I first built it, but also had an impact on my modeling philosophy.
(http://home.comcast.net/~kcstrong/trr/pics/TRR2/Original260.jpg)
Tuscarora RR #2 started out as a Bachmann 2-6-0. This loco was really the one that got me “hooked” on 1:20.3. There was just something about it–even though it was smaller than the 4-6-0, the Shay, and some other locos, it just looked well-proportioned and made my 1:22.5 and 1:24 rolling stock look small. So this loco was really responsible for starting a “revolution” so to speak. I started working on it about the same time I moved out to Colorado, so it was an easy time to make a choice to change scales.
(http://home.comcast.net/~kcstrong/trr/pics/TRR2/TRR2portrait.jpg)
I wasn’t a big fan of the original wagon-top boiler, and when I was doing research for developing the concept of my Tuscarora Railroad, I found that the ET&WNC had two moguls which were very close, but had larger, straight boilers. Since the EBT and ET&WNC shared some common ties, I figured it’d be a cool tie-in. So TRR #2 (in my world) came from the ET&WNC. The model is a combination of features of both Tweetsie moguls. The boiler is a PVC pipe, and the cab is scratchbuilt. The chassis and tender are pretty much stock.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRRConstruction/InspectionatNeeleyton.jpg)
TRR #2 had the honor of being the first locomotive to run on the railroad once I got all the track put down.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR/OpenHouse05.jpg)
For some reason, the proportions of the cab never sat right with me, so a few years later, TRR #2 would get a new cab–a C-16 cab kit that I think Vance Bass produced at one time. (It was a product review sample.) The loco looked much better to my eyes at this point, even though the cab no longer matched the original Tweetsie prototype. Fast forward a few more years, when Bruce Chandler and I were discussing what it would take to “modernize” the Bachmann 2-6-0. He had just won a 2-6-0 in the “1:20-point-me” photo contest, and was wondering what he might do with it. I had just finished TRR #10, a K-27 makeover, and thought a smaller, “modern” TRR locomotive might be a cool thing. It was these two locos that gave the TRR a sense of timelessness; that it was a railroad with a history, not just a figment of my imagination stuck in one point in time.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR2/TRR204.jpg)
This time, though, I didn’t scrap “old” #2. Rather, in a twist of events, Bruce opted not to pursue a “modern” 2-6-0 and offered to sell me the loco at a very attractive price. I could have two versions of the same loco! So, again–PVC for the boiler, but a modern steel cab (Bachmann 4-6-0 cab), round domes, modern appliances (headlight, etc.) and a new tender; a cut-down Bachmann 2-8-0 tender.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR2/TRR231.jpg)
Everything really came together on this loco, giving me a small but “modern” looking mogul, somewhat reminiscent of Colorado & Southern #9, which had recently been restored for operation at the Georgetown Loop. (I had done a few stories on its restoration, and had become somewhat partial to it.)
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR2/TRR243.jpg)
The two 2s next to each other. I called the later version the “post-wreck” version, on the premise that it had been in a wreck, and was sent back to Baldwin for a proper rebuilding.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR2/TRR248.jpg)
Since “new” number 2 was finished, I decided that “old” #2 had served its purpose. It’s since been scrapped, with numerous parts being used on my currently-in-production model of EBT #7. Other parts made their way on to TRR #4 which I just finished last month. Ultimately, I’ll also probably end up using the drivers and motor/gearbox in “new” #2, as it currently has a bit of wheel slip that knocks it ever-so-slightly out of quarter and keeps it from running slowly after a fashion.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR2/TRR253.jpg)
Whether this truly qualifies as my “best” rebuild, I think it definitely works as one of my most storied ones, and significant from a modeling philosophy standpoint. There have been other models I’ve built that I’ve re-done years later, but none really prompted me to rethink my approach to the hobby, both in terms of changing scale, and developing a whole back-story and evolution of the Tuscarora Railroad. Later, K
"I love that consist Dave "
Thanks David;
I have to remember to keep it below 12v, as MDC used an Athearn open frame motor in their speeders and powered speeder trailers. It’s usually not a problem, since this equipment was meant to trundle along the right-of-way.
Best,
David Meashey
Wow great rebuilds. It’s pretty unbelievable the amount of skill that everyone possesses here. Thanks for sharing
