Beautiful Original 259e

What is holding that weight in?
It looks like it might be an elastic stop nut, which I don't think existed when your loco was made.
Plus it looks like there is a piece of material between the weight and the cab floor. It has a torn edge, is that something Lionel would do?

That weight setup is something that I believe was factory. I have the same thing in my original 258

good to see you El Classico!!

Very nice, love how that paint shined up!     Mike the Aspie

El Classico posted:

That weight setup is something that I believe was factory. I have the same thing in my original 258

Nice to see you posting again.

Tom 

C W Burfle posted:

What is holding that weight in?
It looks like it might be an elastic stop nut, which I don't think existed when your loco was made.
Plus it looks like there is a piece of material between the weight and the cab floor. It has a torn edge, is that something Lionel would do?

Apart from being repainted, that 259 is all original.

The stop nut is a trick of the light, what you think is the wrenching surface of a nut is actually the flat face molded into the weight for the screw that you think is the top of the protrusion in most locking nuts. You can't see the cab floor as it's completely obscured by the weight, so I assume you mean the reflection on the back of the weight.

Icing on the cake: 1940 CAB 27 Maintenance Manual.

Brian L,

  Got an original Grinder Just Like her, still runs very well also.

PCRR/Dave

Apart from being repainted, that 259 is all original.

I am glad to be mistaken

Brian, both of your locomotives and tenders look beautiful.  

Your newest 259E was, I'd say, a very good find at a very fair price. I have several 259E's but every one has gone through the restoration process, including stripping and repainting. I still dream of a barn find where the purchase price is cheap and the locomotive shines like yours when cleaned up. 

Thanks for the post.

swede

Great looking loco Brian.  A lot of times, dirty loco's clean up and look spectacular like this one!

I've been wanting to add a couple things about the the 259 & 259E loco.

Even though it was the bottom of the O ga. locos, it is the only O ga. loco to have the same cab as the top of the line standard ga. 400E. The 400E & 259 are the only 2 locos that have back roof corners cut the same way, the window shape is the same. and with the round L badge under the cab window. I display a black with copper & red wheels 259 in front of a black with copper trim & red wheels 400E on our mantle.

Another thing about the 259 that makes it so unique from the other Lionel models is that it does not have all of the cast parts that eventually disintegrate. No cast frame & steam chest, and the boiler front is tin too. If they would have only made larger and standard gauge steam locos all tin we would have many more antique all originals around today.

And you can't say that it couldn't have been done on larger locos. because all of Marklin large gauge 1 steam locos are all tin. And Marklin even made a 6 driver 4-6-2 HR66 in gauge 1. I have one and it's huge and is all tin except the cast steel wheels & rods. 

400Bill posted:

 

Another thing about the 259 that makes it so unique from the other Lionel models is that it does not have all of the cast parts that eventually disintegrate.

 

 

Tinplate is definitely a beautiful genre.  But as for cast parts disintegrating, I don't see any signs of that happening on my 71 year old 726 Berkshire.   And nor did the 100 + year old cast lead toy soldiers shown below, that someone donated to our church fundraising auction last year.  That WWI era set ended up going for serious dollars when a bidding war over it broke out.   

Dan Fender posted  

Tinplate is definitely a beautiful genre.  But as for cast parts disintegrating, I don't see any signs of that happening on my 71 year old 726 Berkshire.   And nor did the 100 + year old cast lead toy soldiers shown below, that someone donated to our church fundraising auction last year.  That WWI era set ended up going for serious dollars when a bidding war over it broke out.   

He's talking about zinc pest.