Prewar Lionel whistles???

[Tootle]

One other note. Sometimes the parts dealers, Jeff Kane, S&W, etc., have items that are not listed in theirs parts lists. You may want to try a few phone calls.

[Tootle]

If all you're looking for is a "whistle", you might try the Lionel website. Not exactly a direct replacement, but they'll serve the purpose and they're only sixteen bucks. If you're looking for a genuine pre-war replacement, I think you may have to keep checking e-bay, train shows, etc. to find one.

[teledoc]

Don,

     Thanks for the answer regarding the "O" vs "027" difference.  Without anything written in the repair manual (Aurotech version, which is what I have), I couldn't figure out why.  I tried different searches to find an answer without any luck.  Thanks again to having the Forum to find elusive answers.

       As I stated in the first post,  there are virtually no dealers (ON-line vendors) that sell a complete whistle assembly (exception Dr. Tinker with WS-175 available).  Then it seems that the only place to get complete units is thru eBay, Flea Market, Craigslist, etc.  That being said, the WS-75 & WS-85 look identical, and can't be verified as which is which, on visual inspection only.  I have not seen very many WS-125 (vertical mount) whistles on eBay, as most are of the diecast bodies, making them prewar whistle housings, and just carried over into the 2466/6466/2020/671 type tenders of Postwar tenders.  Lionel must have had a large supply of the diecast variety, before manufacturing the plastic bodies.  I have two 2020 S2's and a 681-2046w, that I am refurbishing, and the 2020 tenders need work. 

Thanks again,

Jerry

[lionelsoni]

"There are two types of whistles used in the current production of whistle tenders.  Whistle WS-85 is used for '0' Gauge outfits; whistle WS-75 is used for '0-27' outfits.  The two whistles are identical mechanically but differ in the winding of the motor field so that the WS-85 whistle operates at approximately 11 volts while the WS-75 works at 9 volts."

[teledoc]

     I am in the process of repairing/restoring 3 steam engine & tender combos.  While looking at my repair manual, plus checking Olsen's Library for information on the whistles, for parts breakdown and numbers, I ran across a notation on the page referring to both the WS-75 & WS-85 whistles.  It shows the WS-85  as "O" gauge and the WS-75 as "027".  All of the Prewar whistles appear to have vertically mounted whistles, and can be replaced with a WS-125 whistle.  The whistle bodies on the prewar is diecast vs the plastic bodied WS-125/175 whistles.  Why would the 75/85 be listed for "O" and "027" ????  Makes no sense to me!!  Anyone have a clue why they are listed that way.

     Additionally, it appears that most of the Parts Suppliers i.e. Brasseur, DrTinker, Jeff Kane, etc. do not have complete whistle assemblies for sale, just parts to repair them.  Dr.Tinker is the only one I found that does have WS-175 complete for sale.  Thus it would appear that the only place to find a complete whistle assembly is via eBay/Craigslist/flea market/garage sale etc., and not from any distributor.