New goodies

[Leverettrailfan]

I didn't wanna say anything too soon... but well. Y'know me- on vacation generally means scoping out antique and junk shops just in case there's any train stuff I'm interested in, going for the right price.
I had some things to consider, but wound up buying from this one place I'd bought from last year. I parted with a fair bit of money, more than I'd hoped I'd have to spend, but I don't think I overpaid-
I bought a plastic Marx NYC pacemaker boxcar (w/trucks & tilt couplers) because it was missing a door, and I have a spare door at home that would complete it nicely. I almost didn't go for it. It's not in amazing condition but it'll serve me just fine once I patch it up. 
The rest of the stuff is much more interesting- I found the complete consist for Lionel's 11242 'Trail Blazer' from 1962. The gondola is missing its load of canisters, and the tank car is missing one end, but that's the fullest extent I can detirmine of any notable missing parts from the locomotive and rolling stock. I'm very excited about it, because it's my very first postwar O gauge set.


I'm also both excited and fascinated by the 233 for being one of the most 'de-luxe' locomotives Lionel offered that used a 'scout' type plastic motor. It's been on the 'want list' for a while. I'm really into the 'scout' motor- I'm fascinated with the bizzare reversing mechanism, and especially with their reputation for being "impossible to fix", I want to become proficient at tuning them up.


Something simply hilarious about the 233, is that the 233w whistle tender it came with weighs just as much as it, if not slightly more. If the 233 didn't have magnetraction on both driven axles, I don't think it would have stood a chance of pulling the outfit!

The last item is a 2056 Hudson... in the original box! Insert too.



Unfortunately someone added some "highlight" paintwork which I'm not sure if I can safely remove. The smoke lever is jammed, and preventing the wheels from spinning a full revolution. The screw for the boiler front isn't tightened. There's a... disturbing ammount of wobble in the drive axles.
I was pretty excited when I found it, but now I'm starting to wonder if maybe I've gotten myself into a mess of trouble. I also didn't realize when I found it, that it lacked magnetraction (I really shoulda known!)
Not sure if I'll be holding onto the 2056 long term, we'll see how it pans out.
All told, the stuff ran me a bit shy of 90 bucks. In the event the 2056 turns out to be more trouble than it was worth, I might feel otherwise, but assuming I can get it back in shape I think I did okay for the money- I've done better, but it's not bad at all.
Would love to hear other people's thoughts. Tomorrow is the trip back home, so I won't be working on anything until Sunday at the soonest.

-Ellie

[kblester]

I think you will have a bunch of fun for the money spent.

[philo426]

I think you did well if you can get the 2056 running well.  Might want to leave the white paint on the edge of the driver's,looks pretty sharp!

[Flintlock76]

I've got a 2056 myself Ellie, I call it "The Bruiser" 'cause it'll pull anything tied to it's tail, even with no MagneTraction.  It certainly does look like someone got creative with the paint on the one you've got, but I think I'd leave the "whitewalls" alone, they look kinda cool!  The smokestack, cowcatcher and pilot wheels can go back to basic black, don't bother stripping it, just paint over it.

As far as a wobble goes don't sweat it for now, see how that 2056 performs. You should be able to free that jammed smoke lever without too much trouble I'd guess. 

Just so you know, the 2056 was made for one year only, 1951. I won't say it's a rare article since I don't know how many were made, but as far as Lionels go it's an uncommon and under appreciated piece.

[Leverettrailfan]

Thanks for the words, all! They look white in the pictures, but those 'whitewalls' are actually silver paint. I do agree there's a certain charm, I think I'll get rid of the silver and the red on the wheels and then give them all nice clean whitewalls.

Wayne, I'll have to see how she performs once I'm done. Even just looking from the outside, I think there's enough evidence to suggest somebody else before me has been inside, and they made a few mistakes when putting it back together- ie the smoke lever being jammed, and the boiler front not fully screwed in.
My concerns may be a little unfounded as far as pulling power- I have a 646, which is effectively the exact same engine- the only differences being that it has magnetraction, and like most 646s, the rear truck is sheet metal and plastic. It's reasonably tough, but the 681 can definitely outpull it. 

I thought the 2056 was 1952, not 1951- I seem to remember that '52 was the year that all steamers came without magnetraction, due to the Korean War causing material shortages. I'm not so sure if it's significantly rare at all- the reissued 2026 was only made in 1952, and those are hardly considered rare as far as I know. But it was a higher end steamer, so they may not have sold as many 2056s as they did some of the more affordable models. 

Not a lot of comments on that 233 eh? Admittedly it's not the 'crown jewel' by any means when the prize piece on the table is a hudson, but in all honesty it's the one I'm more excited about between the two- I don't think the 233 is rare, but what IS unusual about it is that looking it over, neither the engine nor the tender has any noticable damage to their plastic shells. The motor doesn't have any cracks that would indicate it had been dropped. Finding a 'scout' type loco without any broken plastic seems pretty unusual to me. 

Well, personal interests aside, everything should be fun to work on. I'm thinking if I can get it all working it'll have been worthwhile.

-Ellie

[Flintlock76]

You're right, it was 1952!

Jeez, I own one and you'd think I could keep the year straight!  Do yourself a favor, don't get old!  

[philo426]

Tough to do if you want to stay alive!

[pennytrains]

The wheels should clean up easy.  The pilot?  If it's not painted black I think you'll do OK.  At any rate it's well worth trying.  Especially for that price!  

[Flintlock76]

Leverettrailfan

Not a lot of comments on that 233 eh?

Umm, uh, well, I didn't say anything about the 233 because in all honesty they don't interest me at all.  But don't concern youself about what I  think, if you're  happy with it that's all that matters.

Hey, I've got a good friend who's a steam freak and when she saw the pictures of the "Chugger Barn" collection she gave me a little grief about the diesels. "What's that all about?"

What could I say?  "Uh, they were on sale!"  

[Leverettrailfan]

Ahahaha, so the rumors were true... so far I haven't been successful in avoiding getting older, I get the feeling that it doesn't get any easier with time.

Thanks for the enthusiasm Becky, I reckon the pilot should be easy- because it's chemically blackened, not painted, I can go slightly rougher on it. Getting the paint off the shell is what worries me. We'll see!

Wayne- fair enough. I suppose I shouldn'ta stirred the pot, but I couldn't resist- I have a strange fascination with scouts. So that makes me the odd one out! I'll be real though, to me they're curiosities, not crown jewels of the fleet.

I've been a diesel fan a long time, but I never really got to be intimately connected with steam when I was a kid- I've slowly been coming the 'right way round' to enjoying steam at least as much, since early/mid high school.

I'll try to do the usual updating on my projects as stuff gets done and I remember to take pictures. I'll have to run some trials on both locomotives once I'm done with them (assuming all goes well) to see how their pulling power compares with other equipment on the roster. Obviously a comparison of the 2056 and the 646 will be in order, as well as putting the 233 up against my 6-8141 and my 1061.

-Ellie

[pennytrains]

At one time I considered collecting all the "Scout" locos and cars.  As it stands today, this 246 is the only one I have in running order.  I use it as a stand in for the 237 that didn't quite survive my childhood.  I still have it, but it's NOT pretty!    Anyhoo.  Here's my very first Lionel.    The cars, anyways!

https://link.shutterfly.com/946LpUlH7rb

 

[Leverettrailfan]

Becky, I'm curious to see what became of that 237. I'm impressed with the lovely cosmetic conditon of the rest of the set, and that 246!
I need to check the table in my service manual to see exactly what configuration it had, but the 246 should have magnetraction. It seems like Lionel experimented with the 'scouts' quite a bit, trying different combinations of features to aid in tractive effort- one magnet, two magnets, high strength, low strength, traction tires, added weights, diecast shells vs plastic shells... I was surprised by just how many different models Lionel offered based around the 'scout' tooling. It could be amusing to collect 'em all, but you'd have your work cut out for you, and might run outta room for em all. 

I am happy to report that, after a few hours of dissasembly, cleaning, soldering, and lubricating, my 2056 is operational. The E-Unit isn't working flawlessly, but it's definitely some sort of issue with the fingers, because it cycles perfectly. Clearly the tension needs increasing, or something like that.
E-Unit aside, the locomotive runs beautifully and I was able to rebuild the smoke unit! It smokes great, and I didn't even need to re-do my work once. I'm feeling pretty pleased about that.
Currently working on editng a video that partially documents the process, hopefully I can upload it soon and you all can see the thing run. It went from being dead as a doornail to happily making laps around the test layout!
I made a test train of some of the heaviest cars I had on hand, and had to remove one in order for the 2056 to be able to pull it properly, I suspect that my 646 could handle the extra car. Funny enough, even though I haven't done anything to it, the 233 still runs. Not only that, but it walked away with the same train the 2056 was pulling, with absolutely zero wheelslip! Now how about that? Further research will be neccesary, after I service the 233.

-Ellie

[pennytrains]

Well....I'll tell ya.

Some time in the 80's I grew enamored with the Southern Crescent.  So, I painted my little loco green, red and gray.  I used latex paints but that's not the real problem.  I also made handrails out of metal coat hangers and bored holes in the shell to attach them.

Mechanically the motor had quit and I didn't have a clue how to fix anything in those days.  So, it's in a box somewhere with (I hope) all of it's parts.  The 237 was one of the better plastic bodied 2-4-2's.  It had smoke, headlight, green jewels and a 3 position E-unit.  It also had a thin rubber stamped white stripe on the running boards.  It was an uncataloged J. C. Penney set from 1965.