Reviving 1930s Lionel 238 Streamlined Torpedo Locomotive with Marx motor and Tinplate Tender
I have owed a Lionel 238, the Loewy’s 1936 designed, torpedo streamlined body and old style metal tinplate tender for several years, origin unknown. It needed a motor and I found an old Marx four wheel one from a Marx 999 that seemed to work and fit. The Marx motor did not have the mount and two front wheels like the 999 does.
I have looked into adding a pair of wheels on the front and on the rear to make a 2-4-2 but could not come up with "something" that would work but believe if I can find a mount and set of wheels from a 999 they would work. They can be added later so for now I am going with a 0-4-0, which will run with no derailments of front or rear wheels.
A metal mount was made for the rear and front of the motor into the engine and J B Welded them in. Also made was a small metal tube to hold the head light, which is a 12v mini Christmas tree bulb, bulb holder, wire and socket. A small hole was drilled into the top of the metal hole to let hot air out and added a small piece of red clear plastic to make a little red glow on the stack. A locomotive coupler was installed.
The coal tender had a set of Lionel trucks, one with a Lionel coupler, were installed and a tender coupler was added to the front.
Marx 999 motor and coal tender coupler shown below installed
The engine and tender were painted with flat darkest gray spray primer and then covered all with clear glossy paint. A small metal strip was labeled with "L I O N E L "letters and sprayed with clear. This was installed were the original engine had a strip labeled "Pennsylvania". I decal-ed the engine and tender as "Pennsylvania" and used the side strip to show "Lionel" as the manufacturer not the fictitious "Lionel Lines" as Lionel had done. The decals were sprayed with clear glossy paint to seal them on.
This picture shows the head light and the Red lighted smoke stack glow from the fire box
Below is my Marx cars tinplate train , most from a Marx 999 freight car set, being pulled with the new to me Lionel 0-4-0 Torpedo stream lined steam locomotive. This is an easy pull for the low powered Marx 999 style motor in the Torpedo.
This was a fun project and is my first Torpedo Locomotive. I now have a late 1930s streamlined torpedo loco and tinplate metal tender. I do not know if a Lionel 238 torpedo die cast body is tinplate but the coal tender and sheet metal cars are tinplate. I also run my Marx’s Santa Fe 3152 and 3197 tinplate passengers cars and Marx 999, 666 and 333 locomotives pulling mostly Marx tinplate cars.
Charlie
Attachments
