Lionel Postwar Couper Question

Those are the prewar style before the lobster claw we all enjoy now.

Actually those are early postwar "scout" couplers from Lionel's low line sets. They can be converted to lobster claws by removing the couplers and crimping a postwar "armature" on the axles. Lionel offered conversion sets at the time.

Neil

another interesting note about these couplers is that they were only used on the same group of rolling stock the metal scout tender the baby ruth box car a sunoco plastic tanker a gondola mostly black although some were blue (my set apearently came with the blue one and a red caboose i think that was it they are still very common and cheap i run mine on christmas eve but that's it. i do want a black gondola to use as an add on
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Dave

There is also a plastic non-whistling tender that was made with those scout couplers.

Thanks guys. That's interesting stuff.

I acquired a 1005 tank car with the old Scout couplers and carved the couplers down to mate with the standard Lionel-type couplers on all my other cars. Works fine if you take the time to make it fit right.