Hi, I was wondering if anyone has known original Lionel 8801 sitting on a shelf they could view easily?
I have a few questions about some details on an 8801 project/restoration engine I am rebuilding.
-1st are the marker lamps on the boiler front green lenses or green jewels?
My 8801 came with red front marker lights,I have seen both the green postwar jewels and green backlit lenses in photos of other 8801 engines found online.....which would be MPC era correct?
-2nd Do the white stripes on the driver wheels show signs of being masked & spray painted or are they tampo printed or stamped on the rims? My engine has plain drivers with no stripes, I'd like to reproduce the stripes same as the the factory process.
-3rd Is the Lionel name plate on the bottom between the pickup rollers a chrome foil decal or a thin metal plate? My nameplate is missing - I have already recreated the original nameplate artwork and I can reproduce the tag, I just need to know what material it was printed on.
I am 99% sure someone built this engine from scratch with spare MPC & postwar parts, it has a postwar air whistle in the tender and postwar style smoke unit, no box. The Boiler shell has a $39 price sticker on the underside...Lionel lists this as unavailable seperately, I wonder if might have been a lionel service station assembled engine. Madison hardware did this type of thing with spare parts.
Anyway I'd like to try to return it to as close to MPC era factory spec as I can. I paid about 1/4 of what a good original in a box sells for, the paint & body is original MPC and near perfect. If I can get it looking correct & original externialy I might try to find a donor sound of steam set up for it.
Thanks for any info!
-Jason Rackawack
