Finally got a 262!

Hello Brian,

Allow me to welcome you to the forum. You can contact, Jeff Kane at the Train Tender. Another choice would be, Harry Henning at Hennings Trains. You can Google both. Your locomotive & tender are good looking and appear to be in good condition as well. Your best choice would be to do nothing to either. Prewar steam is worth much more when left alone. They are your choo-chooz, do as you desire.

great find Brian. Second on Jeff at The Train Tender. If tha 262 were mine I'd leave it as is as far as the paint.

Thanks for the replys, I'll check out those websites!

What you can't see too well in the photos is there are many hairline cracks in the paint and it's flaking off in quite a few areas. Besides, I collect things because I like them, I don't consider them an investment nor do I plan on selling them anytime soon. As well as playing with them at home I also use mine in museum displays so I like to have them looking as new as possible.

flaking off paint would make a difference to me. 

Unfortunately I was stupid and tried that paint & primer garbage... it went on ugly and boils when you bake it...

I'm going to have to re-strip everything

Hi....I have a 261 and it's been running around our Christmas Tree since 1934. I have pictures to prove it.. I love the engine and have done nothing to it except clean it and oil it. I restored all the cars and I made a 259 into a Christmas train.  I get my parts for my tin plate trains from Dr. Tinker.... dave@drtinkertrains.com

Enjoy your 262... Gene

Looks great.  I still have my father's 262 that I run.   Welcome aboard.   Kevin

Very nice Gene, your locomotive looks to be in great shape! Cool job on the 259 as well, I recently restored mine to look a bit more like a standard gauge locomotive with bright red wheels and cowcatcher. There's so many cool locomotives Lionel made, I don't think I'll ever be able to collect ALL of them.

Work in progress, the frame is drying right now.

I haven't started on cleaning the motor yet, although I don't think it'll need much. It's overall in excellent shape, the wires aren't even remotely brittle! I'll probably give it a quick once over with some mild solvent and it should be good to go. 

Nice job! I have a 259E, a 260E, a 262, and a 263 in gunmetal. My 262 was nice, except that it needed a pilot which was missing, and a hand rail for the back of the tender. Both were easily gotten, and the little devil runs well. Enjoy it! 

It's pretty much done now! I am a bit disappointed with how the paint came out on the smokebox door so I might fix it later...

Anyhow everything else is done, just need a front truck and some flags.

Before:

After:

It's massive compared to the 259!