Lionel's New Legacy SP 2-8-0

mtnhi7 posted:

There is a "garbage can" under the fireman's side of the engine. What is the purpose of this?

Most likely the main air reservoir.

It is attached to the frame by a Phillips head screw. Something that other railroads applied to their engines and Lionel simply did their generic thing?

Every locomotive has to have a main air reservoir SOMEPLACE.

I have been making some modifications to this loco:  headlight/backup light visors from styrene, removing the aforementioned "garbage can" and adding PSC blowdown mufflers, painting all the white sidewalls and running board edges black, and will add an air ringer bell.

I'd like to remove the injector piping, but that means a lot of grinding on the firebox. Probably won't do it.

Why would you want to remover the injector piping? How would they get water into the boiler?

Too bad Lionel didn't put the engine marker lights in the correct position on the sides of the smokebox;

Do you mean the class lights?

the train indicators are in the correct place for SP, and the catalog specifically mentioned that aspect.  Long before the engine went into production I sent Lionel a photo of the 2521 that's on display in Yuma, AZ. Not that difficult to have the correct boiler front and headlight/backup light. Lionel put the correct boiler front/headlight on the PM Berkshire.  The smokebox and firebox should be painted a graphite and oil color; aluminum paint would simply burn off due heat; the aluminum paint on the display engine is purely cosmetic.

 

 

 

 

The air reservoirs are under the running boards. Maybe the "can" is an extra reservoir? But it doesn't look like a pressure tank.

The injector piping consists of 2 parallel, insulated pipes cast into the boiler shell, going through the running boards, then curving rearward at the bottom edge of the firebox toward the tender, and ending at the back of the frame.

There should be one pipe to the injector input, and the second pipe should be the injector overflow pipe going down through the running board and ending just above rail height. Lionel didn't make the casting correctly. If I ground off the incorrect pipe casting, I'd replace the piping with proper parts from PSC, but that's a lot of work.

Yes, class lights.

Maybe a few photos of the injector lines you are referring to would help describe what you are talking about.

Jack, here is a photo. Same on engineer's side.  You can see the screw hole where the "can" was attached. I haven't filled it in yet.