I picked up a Korean-built Lionel Long Island 2-8-0 (sans tender) last year; some of you may recall my posting about it. It didn't seem to want to run with my conventional power, so I gutted it and ran it on DC for quite a long time. I recently added a Dallee unit and have been running it on AC, as Lionel intended. The smoke unit seems to prefer AC... 
I was able to score a Pennsy tender for it; the underside looks like this:
I might add here that I later purchased a similar vintage E6; its tender is identical to the one pictured above.
Now, almost a year later, the same eBay seller who I bought the Consol from listed (and I purchased) what I think is the "missing" tender to this engine! It arrived today, and the underside looks like this:
Other than the road name (and different pick-ups) they appear to be the same, except when power is applied, this LI tender gives off what I can only describe as "steam" sounds, over and above the bell and whistle features of the other tenders. ( I haven't opened this newest arrival up yet, so I can't say if there is a battery installed; if there is, would that account for these "extra" sounds? )
Plus, the coupler does not have the rather large "tab" hanging down; the coupler "barrel" is wrapped in black plastic (almost looks like tape, but I don't think it is) and is without that "tab". Is this some kind of electronic coupler?
So what have I got here? Whatever it is, I'm really happy with it...
Mark in Oregon
