New to clockwork.

Jim, first of all, welcome to the World of Windups!

The following is just my personal observations, so take it for what it is worth: There is an old saying that Lionel made trains by the thousands, while Marx made them by the tens of thousands.  Marx produced windups from 1935 (or earlier, if you want to include Joy-Line) all the way up to 1975.  During those four decades, the Marx windup sets were among the lowest priced way for parents on a budget to get a train set for their children at Christmas.  It is still amazing to me how many Marx windup trains are out there.  Now, contrast that to Lionel's mechanical train production... which I believe ran for a few years from 1931 to 1937 (I'm far from being an expert on Lionel, so I will defer to others if I'm mistaken).  There were very few years of production compared to Marx, or even Hafner, Ives, and Flyer.  Plus, those years started in the depression, which I would assume limited the market for toy trains in general.  So, I think it's safe to say that the scarcity of Lionel compared to other domestic mechanical train manufacturers are why they are rarely seen in the posts.

The scarcity of Lionel mechanical trains also mean that I've had very few come across my workbench.  I don't have nearly the experience with the Lionel offerings as I do the other domestic windup trains.  So, take this observation with a grain of salt - it seems to me that Lionel windup motors tend to be more fragile than most of the other makes.  Now, it's a bit strange because the motors are actually well built for the most part, but the ones I've tinkered on seem to have some Achilles heel that renders them inoperable.  I don't know how many of the little Lionel Commodore shells I've seen over the years without a motor... and when I finally got my hands on one with a motor in it, the motor had whistle flap lever wadded up in it.  The Torpedos seem to have gear failure on the whistle drive, and since the whistle functions as the governor, they can't be run without it.  I even added a governor to one (in place of the whistle) for one of my friends on the forum... and it worked for a while until the ratchet decided to turn itself into scrap metal.  I still have to tackle that repair someday...   

So, you put those factors together, and it makes a running Lionel mechanical a pretty rare item, at least when compared to the other four common US makes.  

But, getting back to your question, there may be some Lionel collectors out there than can help you with an original motor for your 1816... I'm afraid I can't begin to point you in the right direction to find one.  I would suggest that you consider - as a temporary step - installing a Marx windup motor in it's place.  They are common and cheap, so no harm in modifying one to fit the Lionel shell.  You will need to fabricate some sort of custom mount, but I would think that could be done without making modifications to the shell itself.  Even if you find the correct Lionel motor, you could run it with the Marx motor so you don't have to risk damage to the original Lionel motor.

I have a few Lionel windups in my collection, and they are pretty much shelf queens.  I just don't want to take the chance of having a motor problem, especially when I have so many common windups I can run instead.  I do have a Torpedo that I bought as a shell without a motor, and I installed a Marx motor in it so I can run it on the windup layout.

One final thought, if you don't have this book already, I highly recommend "Lionel Mechanical Trains, 1931 to 1937" by Richard T. Claus.  It's an excellent reference for Lionel mechanicals.

I hope that you find a motor for your train, and I certainly welcome seeing more posts about Lionel mechanical trains!

I am no expert on Lionel either, but my understanding is that they mainly made electric trains.  

I realize they made the various wind-up hand cars in the 1930s and the Mickey Mouse circus set, but other than those offerings, I am largely unaware of Lionel windup offerings.  

I would guess that their lack of windup offerings is the reason for few posts about Lionel windups.

NWL

Have CW Flyer, Hafner, Wyandotte, Marx and Hornby in my collection but no Lionel  except for a Mickey handcar.  Have repaired Hornby motors, but nothing else.  Hornby repairs can be tough.

I only have the two Lionel's in my collection and one is pretty rough, even by my standards , but it does run ... Like James ( Windupguy) I tend not to play them it a lot because I fear one going " SPROING!!! " on me and repairing it would no doubt involve fabrication of parts if it did ... I echo the call for whacking in a Marx motor as ( for you Yanks ) they are cheep and plentiful I think your chances of finding a standalone Lionel Clockwork motor would be somewhere between piles of chickens teeth and rocking horse poo?

I think you would probably have to buy a crappy cosmetical locomotive and transplant the drive if you can find one , even that as James said apparently the weak point on these is the whistledrive transfer drive and if it goes you are probably going to have to make one? not to mention it can mess up the loco or whistle unit itself on the way out ...

I have a 1506(L?) and a CV

Clockwork Lionel 1506 which I think is a transitional Ives loco as it has just the one sandpipe but 4 dots from cab and side rods making it likely to be an Ives sold as a Lionel?

Clockwork Lionel Commodore Vanderbilt

Here are a couple of re-motored Lionel mechanicals, both have Marx ratchet motors in them...

Torpedo:

Lionel Commodore:

I lined up the motors with the existing keyholes in both cases, and as such, things aren't perfect.  The Torpedo sits just a bit lower than it does with the original motor, while the little CV ended up sitting pretty tall.  Both were acquired as empty shells, so no harm in installing a different brand of windup motor.

Now, one option - if you wanted a more permanent installation with the body sitting at the original height off the track - would be to put together a custom windup motor using common Marx internals.  Motor sideplates are relatively easy to fabricate out of 16 gauge steel.  The winding stem, intermediate shafts, and axles can be moved around as long as the center-to-center distance is maintained between adjacent shafts.  6-32 threaded standoffs, 3/4" long are used as cross-members.  If you could find original type wheels, the resulting locomotive would look pretty good on the track.  I haven't done such a project on a Lionel, but I've done similar type custom motors for other brands.  Here is a picture of this type of custom motor I made for an American Flyer project, although I did use mostly AF internal parts: