Was there a prototype for the Lionel 2037? Should I custom paint one?

[rack776]

I was wondering if the lionel 2037 steamer was based on anything in real life or if it was simply a product of Lionel's imagination?  I was wondering about the goofy looking rear truck with mismatched wheels and the huge boxy  "radiator? - heat exchanger? - feed water heater thingy?" on the front pilot.

I picked up a 2037 with no tender for $25 and I had planned on custom painting it and a spare tender dark B&O blue & yellow lettering to match some 1970s MPC era passenger cars I also got very cheap.   Any harm in custom painting one of these 2037's?

It's got a bunch of chips and a missing front step on the pilot & and had no tender or box?  It kind of needs fresh paint anyway.  I just want to make sure its not rare or valuable before I strip & paint it.

I usually run my postwar steamers in as found condition, but I figured I have enough scratched up black engines and the B&O pass cars would look nice with a matching Loco....Simmilar to my MPC Blue Comet set.  Opinions?

-Jason

[rtraincollector]

Normally I'm not one for repainting an engine but its getting to be more and more common so I say go for it. It sounds like it will be a nice set up. Give us some befor and after pics when you get it done.

[lionelsoni]

The 2-6-4 "Adriatic" wheel arrangement was used only for tank engines, except for the Austrian class-310 4-cylinder-compound express locomotives designed by Karl Gölsdorf.  The 4-wheel trailing truck supported the firebox, which had to be well behind the last drivers' axle because of its enormous 7-foot drivers.  It looked nothing like the Lionel 2-6-4's, which Lionel incorrectly called "Prairies".  I saw this (one of two survivors--the other one still runs!) in the Prague Technical Museum:

[Bob Keller]

There were a few 2-6-4Ts used in the US on the Boston & Albany, Central of Georgia, and the Philadelphia and Reading. 

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/search/searchterm/2-6-4/order/nosort

[lionelsoni]

I have corrected my post.

[sir james I]

2037s are common and not the least bit hard to find. Go ahead and paint it.

S.J.

[rack776]

Thanks for all the photos and information, after finding a photo of a 2037 in a lighter  shade of blue fron the Lionel "Boy's Set, I'm thinking  I'll go with the custom paint with B&O lettering for it.....maybee swap a 2 wheel 675 style rear truck on to it as well....I'm also considering a "normal" front pilot as well if I find one that  would bolt on with no cutting & drilling.   I have plans to add on valve gear and wire hand rails someday.

Does anyone know what the big boxy radiator up front is supposed to be? I searched different  feed water heater types but I can not find any steam loco photos  having anything like that on the front of them at all.

I'm not a rivet counter or ex-HO modeler but I was always curious about what that box was supposed to be, the 671 turbine has a "steam condenser" up front  but that is not a conventional locomotive with side rods.

-Jason

[lionelsoni]

My guess is that the "big boxy radiator up front" is literally a big boxy radiator, that is, the aftercooler for the air-brake system, which is likely to be located at the front of the locomtive.

[rack776]

I found a photo of a C&O berk at the B&O museum that has a similar front pilot

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1283696

Now I just have to figure out what the heck it is for....LOL!

The air brakes might be the answer.

Anyone else ever get stuck on one goofy question and not be able to rest untill you get the answer?

-Jason

[jscola30]

I got my first adriatic this year (along with the #221), I love it. This year's Lionel Hallmark Ornament is going to be an Adriatic as well.

[rack776]

Well, I had a big change of heart on repainting the 2037. I got motivated and started to rebuild it (Shame I forgot to stop and take a before photo first DOH!)

I took it all apart and did some heavy cleaning and after a good look at it I realized it is in much  better shape than I first thought.   The spots I thought were paint chips were mostly grey dirt splashes and smoke pellet gunk. The previous owner did some paint touch up on the edges, I can live with the smaller rub marks and will retouch up the rest with a closer matching black paint.   I'll try to fix the original steam chest missing front step with epoxy.

The poor thing must have had about 2 full bottles of smoke pellet gunk inside, on top & all over the body shell, the rest was covered in about 3 tubes of dried hard lionel lube, no rust.

I started to think it would be a shame to wipe out all the history on this 60 some year old engine with a new paint job and custom changes.   It needed no new parts except for a light bulb, fresh smoke unit packing and fixing a loose E-unit lever, the brushes screws and cloth wires all look brand new.

 I have since found a similarly "weathered" orphaned 6026T tender for it, I plan on collecting some 1954-55ish lower end O-27 cars for it to pull, maybe even assemble a "correct" O-27 set out of cast off misfit junk box cars.   I'm on the fence about adding a proper whistle to the  tender I have coming.

All in all not a bad deal getting a vintage 1950s stream engine for less than $40 total on ebay. sometimes there are still deals out there.  I guess I'll have to keep looking for a junk MPC era loco to pull my passenger cars, I can see how guys end up with a wall of trains, its addicting.

I'll post a photo as soon as I get the tender and clean it.  The hallmark ornament  this year is an exact copy of the 2037 I just got, I hope to get one of those small ones as well.  

-Jason

[rtraincollector]

The 2037 was used in a few sets I have 2 of them ( it also was used in the girls set.

[LL675]

IIRC....the 2037 came from the 1666. the 1666 didn't have smoke, so it changed to the 2026, and to make room for the smoke unit, Lionel added the radiator/battery box on the pilot. 

I have repainted some Postwar steamers using Krylon semi gloss black. very close.