392E Did the tender come with whistle only?

I feel the 392W tender with whistle and 6 wheel trucks is the correct "match" for the Standard Gauge 392E.

But I have seem many claimed "original" sets with 390t or 384t 4 wheel tenders.

The 4 wheel tenders seem too short for this engine.

I will chime in.  According to my Greenberg book, the 392 & 392E came with the four wheel truck 384T tender up to 1933.  No whistle.  That kind of surprised me.  That it had the 384 style tender.  Which is a nice style. 1934 had a 12 wheel 392T tender.  35 to 39 had the 12 wheel 392W tender.  W means whistle.  T means no whistle.  I just learned this myself.  I'm running a nice original 392E right now with a 385W tender because ( I sheepishly admit) my newly acquired 392W tender that came with it has the wrong size wheels that I need to switch out. In short, yes.

eddie g posted:

Now here's a tough question. Can you inter- change the 392W frame with the 6 wheel trucks & whistle with the 263W tender? I am asking because I don't know the answer.

Why?  The 392W tender is Standard gauge and the 263W is 0-gauge.

Ron M

Anyone know where I might find the whistle for the 392W tender? I have the gray 12 wheel tender, but someone a long time ago took the whistle out of it. I was told that they had problems with the whistle, that it may have burned up, so they took it out.

Does any other tender have the same whistle?

I am pretty sure that the early 392W had the "Banjo" / "banana" type whistle mechanism and the later ones had the "box" type.

RON M, I want to put the correct whistle in my 392E engine & tender. Does the 263 whistle tender have the same whistle as the 392W tender. If so I want to take it out of the 263 and install it in the 392W tender. I hope this is clear. Thanks for any help.

eddie g posted:

RON M, I want to put the correct whistle in my 392E engine & tender. Does the 263 whistle tender have the same whistle as the 392W tender. If so I want to take it out of the 263 and install it in the 392W tender. I hope this is clear. Thanks for any he lp.

Don't have them immediately available.

However, this is what I would to do to find out:

1. Measure the center-to-center distance between the screws (2) holding the 263W whistle in place.

then

2. Do the same on your 392W.

If they're the same, it's a one-to-one swap.

Ron M

392E came with the 384T tender first year, and 392T and 392W both available. Black 392T/W rarest tender, in gray most common.  Holes in floor determine which whistle unit, but if you have a runner or restore, drill holes and install whistle. Early banana style whistles are often deteriorated and went through several attachment styles and are not all interchangeable because of this. Even the box style whistle, even though had standard attachemnt holes in casting, had several different brackets to aid in various uses. Banana and box style were both used in even some small O gauge 616W and 6363w and 752W. Lionel early on would offer many sets with or without whistles as a pricing variation as the whistle was basically another motor with associated cost.  Early impellers for whistle were made of sheet metal and had 4 vanes. to increase air flow they went to a diecast multi vane style which is prone to breaking down. Luckily the later plastic ones are useable. 

Lionel also sold tenders with whistle as separate sale so people could upgrade, so 384W are out there but less common then 392W, More 400T then 400W's as well

My 385W was really strong, then started making bad noises, now no noise at all.  Darn it!  Another fixer upper.

Jagrick posted:

Lionel also sold tenders with whistle as separate sale so people could upgrade, so 384W are out there but less common then 392W, More 400T then 400W's as well

To date there have been NO 384W tenders that have surfaced. I doubt if they ever existed. TCA's Standard of the World lists a 384TX with a 392E ca. 1934 and Greenberg didn't list one in his new Standard gauge book.

Ron M

Ron M, to add to your 384TX Comments...  because Lionel was making 384T tender for several locos at the same time, with multiple decorations  (red stripe, green stripe,crackle, stripe delete) my thought is that the TX tenders would not be obvious to us as why the "X" was added to the designation, but it sure would make sense in the plant at the time.... to my exposure there is no 384W.