Need info about Lionel 2-4-2 engine and tender

Post a photo.

Runs well. Smokes and has a headlight but no horn. It's just very difficult for me to believe that Lionel still has items this old in their warehouse.

Runs well. Smokes and has a headlight but no horn. It's just very difficult for me to believe that Lionel still has items this old in their warehouse.

Your gift, while very nice, is not a locomotive from 1958. It is one of the reproductions.

Michael said they paid $35 for it so.......

If it looks just like this one its the original form 1958 made without headlight and smoke unit.

They change slightly the plastic casting inside where the smoke unit would fit from the original 243/244 that smokes and had a headlight that i also have but the smoke unit does not fit as the opening is too small in the 1958 249 engine.

The new one has different looking wheels and tender .

Click picture to enlarge.

billshoff posted:

Runs well. Smokes and has a headlight but no horn. It's just very difficult for me to believe that Lionel still has items this old in their warehouse.

 

Look at the screws on the side rods and the valve gear design, not to mention the paint. That's the recent model, not the 1958 original. And, no, Lionel LLC is not selling original Lionel Corp. stock.

Its from set 7-11087, an uncataloged set made for Target in 2008.

"...made for Target..."

You're right, Ed H. I can barely see the word TARGET on an old label on the box. 

Yeah, that's definitely not the 1950's "scout" boiler.

If it's the newer re-production model I would say it is better then the old 249 from the late 50's or early 60's. Since the box had Target on it I would say it is rather new and should be good quality.

I had a 235 engine from the 60's and it was trouble to keep it running, most of the scout engines in that size used the same motor assembly.

Lee Fritz

You can also tell it's new because it has a can motor!

Jon  

While some of the scout motors in that series were troublesome and difficult to service as everything was inside the motor casing like the #242.

Some were very reliable as they had the better spur gear motor with the outside brush plate , reverse unit and easily changed rollers such as the 243/244/247/249

Two position e-unit on the PW 249, plastic shell, streamlined tender, and my motor is excellent and outlasted the shell. I got it off the top of a garbage can, no cab roof. A weathered tin can came to the rescue and it was a junkyard shunter or military target train for about 6 years till an inch of the boiler top at the screw just disentegrated one day.

The motor now powers a smaller 953 cast boiler that easily outlasted it's can motor AND frame (can motor melted everything). Its converted to outside frame rods and with the little cast boiler, and metal framed motor, it greatly outperforms both of it's donors. It pulls a tiny S gauge tender hardly long enough to mount two trucks under. A nice strong, toy look loco with a flame job tender

The streamlined tender now needs a mate