Gotta love Postwar steam!

I had to add L brackets on the bottom top shelf it was starting to sag a bit.

I'm down to just a few from some years ago. Interest had 'evolved' over the years to Scale 3 rail. Not surprising since I received an American Flyer PRR K5 set for Christmas in 1949. Was always glad Santa brought the 2 rail train!  Ha!

Keepers now are a 726 Berkshire (1947 I think)

1872 'Super O' General

pre war 1666 with metal tender

The Lionel 726 and Lionel 736 are my favorite steam engines.  My first train set has a 2037 Steam engine; with a 2-6-4 wheel set it was a work horse for many 027 train sets.  The Lionel 726 and Lionel 736 were more substantial with a 2-8-4 wheel set and headed many top-of-the-line, premium O-gauge train sets. I always wanted one and had to wait until my 50's before getting one.  Below is a mix of postwar and the more recent conventional classics, they came out for some family photos.

I have many of them, maybe all 1950s except for the scout engines.

I especially like the 746 J for looks and performance.  Smokes great.

The 2035 and 2025 are also favorites.  Pound for pound nothing pulls better.  Just had them pulling 14 PW cars on O27 curves. (just ran out of space on the layout to add more).

IMHO, the best things about postwar steamers are:

Toughness, reliability

Magnetraction

Smoke rings!!

The sound of their Whistles

My favorites:

The 2025---1948-49

The 224 - early postwar 1945-46

The "Big" Berk...736... 1953-54

I’m a fan of the PW Berks as well.  Here is my collection. From left to right: The 726, the 1950 736, the 726RR, and the 736 - new in 1967.

The 2037 is a gem…….engineered well and if serviced, very dependable…..

Peter

Just a couple PW Lionel muscle

My Mother bought this as a house warming gift when my then-wife and I bought our first home.  Wifey bought me a starter set as a gift for our first Christmas together so it didn't surprise me too much that wifey liked the Wabash train set gift.

- walt

Another plus for postwar Lionel steamers: you can buy most of these, in great shape, for less than $200 each at swap meets.

Have you seen the steamer prices in the new catalog?

@Putnam Division posted:

The 2037 is a gem…….engineered well and if serviced, very dependable…..

Peter

Peter, the 2037 was my first engine, it had magne-traction, which made it a great climber up the Lionel 110 Trestle Set.  Those engines are 60+ years old and with some maintenance they will run for anther 60 years.

A great joy of mine it to repair these old engines. The smoke units, the e-unit, replacing rollers, rewiring, etc,  they all have some challenges, but with the help of the OGR Forum, everything is possible.   

A few years back, I repaired the Lionel 2026, the version produced from 1948 to 1949.  It has more detail than the 2027, like the handrail, and a more complex drive rod set up.  I don't have any before pictures, but the stainless-steel parts were easy to clean up. This is such a beautiful engine and is a great example of the tremendous quality that Lionel put into their "toys".  I have this engine in a lighted display cabinet, and I will point out to visitors the level of craftmanship of Lionel.  I venture to say, very few people own 60-year-old stuff that still works.   It is remarkable.   

PW Lionel 4-6-4 2065 from 1954-56 still running strong

@Sitka- Wow Mate, given the length of those trains, she is not just still running but she is still "pulling"!!

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

@Sitka- Wow Mate, given the length of those trains, she is not just still running but she is still "pulling"!!

Don

Thanks Don, all my engine has index cards for service and repairs. Does make life easier on my maintenance program, still have to much Army in me when it comes to maintenance. God Speed!

Mark

Two post war sister small Hudson’s, 2056 on the inner loop and 2046 on the outer loop.  Both fine running engines.

Two more classic post war steamers from 1946.  Lionel’s rendition of the Pennsylvania 4-6-2 K4s Pacific except in their unique 2-6-2 wheel configuration.  No matter their foot wear these were silent, smooth and powerful  running engines.  The 2025 runs on the inner loop while it’s sister 675 operates on the outer loop.

My favorite Lionel post-war engine the 746 Norfolk & Western class J 4-8-4 Northern.  Here it is at rest on the Shenandoah Short line.  Produced in 1957 and 1958 this was the last brand new example of motive power manufactured by the old Lionel Corporation.

I only have three PW Lionel steam engines: 2055, 2065, and this:

It may look like the common 736, but this is one is far from common for me.

You see, back in the mid-late 1990s when I was really into 3-rail, PW in particular, I purchased a 736. My long time friend, David McDonald, was also beginning to get into PW 3 rail. (He had been a Prewar fan and owned some his original Prewar trains.) I first met David at his Golden Spike hobby shop in April of 1969. At that first meeting of him, David invited me to the recently formed Fort Smith model RR club. So, the next club meeting, I went! The club was building a large layout in David's huge garage/storage building out back of his s home place property. (David had lived in his house that his Dad built since before he started school.)

So, I became a member of the club and met many new friends, some of which have now been life long friends.

Anyway, David went nuts when saw my 736 and loved its burly proportions and running characteristics. He was 64 years old at the time, I was 44. As good fortune would have it, at the next train meet we went to, he found him a 736... and he paid far less for his than I paid for mine!

Next time we got together to run our 3-rail trains, he brought along his "new" 736. Wow, it ran GREAT, and out-smoked mine by a long shot! He was so proud of it, and his 736 became good natured raze point  "thing" between us. In order to raise the needed funds for front money for our forever home that we still live in, I sold about 99% of my 3-rail collection in early 1998, my 736 went with it.

David and I had SO many good times together. In the mid-1990s I built a 3-rail layout for him at his Golden Spike hobby shop that he received tremendous enjoyment from. A few years later I helped him re-structure his long-stalled On3 layout and together we installed a large 3-rail stub yard on the peninsula, with a wye connecting it a larger loop around the room. By that time, David and his wife Shirley were raising their grandson Christopher. Christopher at the time was in elementary school. He was already a train nut and he would come home from school and join David and I upstairs and "help" build the layout. I have SO many good memories from those times with David and Christopher!

In September of 2023, David turned 93 years old. He had been a widower for several years. For a couple of years, I had been picking him up almost monthly and taking him to our monthly model railroader's "Rails n' Tails" luncheon we had started having. On a good day we had about 12 or more regional modelers show up. Fully 90% of them were all friends because of David's Golden Spike hobby shop he ran from the late 1960s into the early 2000s.

In May of '24, David passed.

I was ask to officiate David's Memorial Service. I was honored to do so.

Last year, about November, his grandson Chris (now in his late twenties had has been in railroading for several years now) and I went up into the layout room for the first time in a long time. Wow. The memories flooded me.

After a while of us just looking around and reminiscing, I noted Chris still had David's 736. Chris kindly sold it to me for a pittance. (I had offered much more, but he wouldn't take it.)

SO, David's 736 sits proudly upon the mantle above our fireplace, along with pictures of my wife, myself, and our only child, our daughter, that passed in August of '24.

As you can see, to me, this is no common 736. Instead it is a precious reminder of my 55 year long friendship with David McDonald.

Oddly, when I look up at our mantle... the emptiness that can often result from seeing pictures of our daughter that passed, can be tempered when my eyes fall upon David's 736 as warm memories of him help soften the hurt of the passing of our daughter.

No, it's certainly no common 736.

Andre

A big brawny early 726 Lionel Berkshire from 1946 with its burly 2426 tender in tow  sits on a curve on the Shenandoah Short Line.  Those Baldwin Disc drivers certainly surpassed the later simulated spoked drivers for good looks.  Nothing like a Berky on a post-war layout.