Hello Everyone,
Can anyone out there tell me if Lionel ever manufactured a #252 Tinplate Engine with two headlights similar to the Lionel #254 Engines?
Thanks,
John
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Originally Posted by Rice Burner:
Can anyone out there tell me if Lionel ever manufactured a #252 Tinplate Engine with two headlights similar to the Lionel #254 Engines?
A good question. My 252 only has one headlight, and it has always had only one. (Yes, I do know, because I was acquainted with the original owner).
And yet I recently saw a photo of a 252 in a guide to prewar Lionel. And it had two headlights.
Maybe they were made both ways? Anyone know for sure?
Early 250 / 252 shells are punched for strap headlights but in regular production run... Lionel did not make 252's with dual headlight that I know of.
I have Dark Green, Light Olive, and Yellow-orange shells with the still painted over holes in them.
Hello,
I have two Olive Green #252 Engines and they both have one headlight but I was looking through my Collectors Guide To Prewar Lionel Trains Book tonight and they have a picture on page #86 of an Olive Green #252 with two lights.
I never have seen another one with two headlights in any color before this.
If anyone has this guide take a look.
Thanks,
John
Originally Posted by Rice Burner:
Can anyone out there tell me if Lionel ever manufactured a #252 Tinplate Engine with two headlights similar to the Lionel #254 Engines?
A good question. My 252 only has one headlight, and it has always had only one. (Yes, I do know, because I was acquainted with the original owner).
And yet I recently saw a photo of a 252 in a guide to prewar Lionel. And it had two headlights.
Maybe they were made both ways? Anyone know for sure?
quote:I have two Olive Green #252 Engines and they both have one headlight but I was looking through my Collectors Guide To Prewar Lionel Trains Book tonight and they have a picture on page #86 of an Olive Green #252 with two lights.
Could be an error. I've found mistakes in several prices guides, including both Greenberg and Doyle.
The 252 was a low cost engine, one step up from the bottom of the line 248. It had a manual (or very late version with an E unit) reverse switch. For what it's worth I have never seen a factory installed 2nd headlight. Hobbyists or basement tinker could have easily added a rear headlight. A strap headlight would be easy to add, a later die cast headlight would require cutting a slot in the body for the headlight insert and drilling a mounting hole.
I have six 252's in various colors and from various years. All have a single headlight. The first engines I have with two lights are the 253's....and all five of those that I have all have two lights. 248's only have one light, too.
Both definitive prewar Lionel reference books, TCA's "Lionel Standard of the World..." 2nd Edition and Greenberg's "Lionel Trains 1901-1942" Vol. II published by Kalmbach state that the 252/252E came any way other than with a single headlight.
I knew personally one of the researchers in the Greenberg project that delved deeply into all the variations in the locomotives and came up with the very definitive tables listing what came with what and what the colors were.
Ron M
