1946 2020 Turbine

Yes absolutely. Its about half the length of a full scale one. But they sure are fun. My first one was from Yaro's second hand shop on Miles Road in Cleveland. Cost me seven bucks. I was making 75c an hour around the corner at Spark's Hobby Shop. Still have that 681. Still a runner! (Note please : 1965)

Lou N

That's my favorite PW steamer/turbine.

Yeh...I forgot to mention it has a double worm drive...

Old school...and I love it...FUN!

Did the 2020 tender come with it?

I found one to match it.

It's way cool to find these things that are 'antiques' that still have lots of life in them...and also consider the things they would say if they could talk...

The thing with those old postwar and Prewar engines is that if they don't work all you have to do is take it apart, clean every part and put it back together again (If you can remember how LOL .)

great engines

Does yours still have it's smoke bulb?

If you need a replacement bulb, originals are fairly easy to find.
And Town & Country Hobbies had very good reproductions made.

The 2020 was my family's first and only steam engine. I have the 1946 one with the bulb smoke unit.

Great little runner.

Charlie

I like all my Lionel turbines.

C W Burfle posted:

Does yours still have it's smoke bulb?

If you need a replacement bulb, originals are fairly easy to find.
And Town & Country Hobbies had very good reproductions made.

As I recall it used a different smoke pellet than the later postwar smoke units.  Does it require a special smoke pellet or can SP or repro SP pellets be used?  My 671 with the smoke bulb still has some original residue in it and still smokes but when it runs out of residue what do I use?

Bill

Yep. Smoke bulb.

My understanding is that the original smoke pellets are corrosive to the zinc. Mine had a little corrosion but only internal and cleaned up ok. Everything still works and it's solid.

I use a couple drops of mega steam...doesn't last long and is subtle in this application unlike fan driven smoke...but it works good enough.

I don't know the history very well...but it seems odd to me that lionel made 1/64 scale engines (sorta) to run on 1/48 scale track. Maybe that was the compromise required to run on 27 inch diameter curves and not look weird?

Or maybe...it was just another time and another place...

The original smoke pellets were corrosive, and may have been toxic.
If you were to find any, they would likely be decomposed.
Most folks would agree that trying to use them, or trying to duplicate the formula would be very foolish.

Over the years I have tried SP smoke pellet chips and smoke fluid. with smoke bulbs (original)  In my experience, neither worked well, and if you tipped the loco while there was still liquid material in the depression, there would be a mess. So I run mine dry.

One poster wrote about putting a little wicking material in the depression and using smoke fluid.
I might try that sometime.

Yes, the postwar Lionel Turbine is on the small side. I've found the best passenger cars to use with it are the "old" K-Line "Streamliners". Mine are PRR "Fleet of Modernism". The "Cascade Heights" Pullman is K4580-8086. 

Have 5 of these 1946 double worm drive turbines and use the newer smoke pellets and they work just fine.

Have 2 of the 1946 "726" double worm drive as well and the run very well.

Putting in smoke pellet and running any of the above at night with lighting turned down low is a treat as the smoke puffing out the stack looks fantastic being illuminated upwards from the smoke bulb.