Lionel 8976 227 0-6-0 switcher need information

@Flinx,

You may have a 701 and not a 227. The 701 came with scale couplers.

it would be paired with the 700 series semi-scale freight cars.

Here are the Pics

Converted to 2- rail.  Done often - I did two myself.  More fun to use 717 trucks - those are Saginaw.

The freight cars above were called scale.  Back then, semi-scale was these cars with tinplate trucks and couplers.  I consider these cars among the best I own, and that includes some very expensive brass.

I open the locomotive and you won't believe what I found (click bait). you probably WILL believe what I found.

In your video, I think you were not sure who made the tender. As far as I see, it appears to be the typical Lionel prewar steam switcher tender shell (but with a home-made frame/base). 

Judging by the 6 flanged drivers, it looks to be for the scale 701 even though your smoke box door has a 227 on it. For the 701, it should have an 8976 on it.  

Every now and then, there are rubber stamps that come up for sale on eBay. You can re-print the tender as I have done recently.  See the 11/25/17 post on this thread:

https://ogrforum.com/...team-switcher?page=3 

Nice that you got it running.

Tom 

Probably a 227 for which someone machined drivers.  Probably insulated for 2-rail.  

Easily checked with an ohmmeter.

Note the absence of center or outside rail shoes.

Part 2  of the 4 diodes in the unit at least 2 were zeners a 47v 2amp and an 82v 2amp, and 1 that had no markings, the small one is unknown.

To solve your e unit problem, could you adopt/modify the "guts" from a merchandise car?  That somewhat resembles the early horizontal e units and operates like a more modern vertical unit.  Just thinking?   At any rate, that unit is way less than what you mentioned the pre-war ones cost.

There is a lot of information of the 227 in this thread. 

https://ogrforum.com/...team-switcher?page=1

Wouldn't a E unit from the 1989 B6 work in it, should be the same as the old one.   Item number 6-18000....

Marty

@Martin Derouin, the 6-18000 used a postwar style unit. The 227 used a very compact specialized unit as depicted here:

http://store.justtrains.com/00...it--Prewar_p_34.html

The casting was altered on the 18000 to accommodate room for a modern e unit. The original design had an area where the headlight screwed into the frame.  A modern e unit would never fit in the 227.