Hello all!
I'm a new member and long-time forum reader. I didn't see a new member's introduction section, so I hope it's ok to do a little of that here. (mods please feel free to move this if needed) My fascination with classic toy trains started when I picked up a copy of one of the guides at my local library, the exact title has been lost to time, but I remember many hours spent paging through that book and others like it dreaming of playing with my own trains some day. When I was about 14 the owner of my local hobby shop gave me a box containing what was left of a 2026 that had been in a flood. I stripped it all down and returned it to operating condition -I hesitate to use the word restored here- and it has been an annual fixture under my Christmas tree ever since.
I've learned a ton about classic toy trains over the years from reading various forum threads on here, and from that inspiration I finally purchased a lovely stablemate for my 2026 in the form of a 224e from everyone's favorite online auction site.
From what I can gather from the various details my particular 224e was made in 1939, but I certainly may be off by a year or two. The tender however appears to be a bit of a mixed bag. It is stamped 2224W on the bottom, and it has a die cast whistle unit under a black die cast metal shell with a separate bakelite(?) coal load. At some point in its past post-war trucks were installed which I initially thought was a good thing as I do not currently own any pre-war rolling stock and those post-war knuckle couplers would play nicely with the rest of my small post-war collection. On closer inspection the post-war trucks have a longer wheelbase than the originally equipped trucks and interfere with the cast steps on the tender when negotiating a curve. Also the drawbars on both the locomotive and the tender may not be original. When placed on the track the tender drawbar is very close to slipping under the end of the locomotive's hook. I suspect that the tender's drawbar is from whatever the post-war trucks were sourced from.
I've been trying to identify what I have here on the bench, but so far that has eluded me, so I will turn to the collective knowledge base for help.
What original trucks and drawbar should be under this 1939(?) era 2224w tender? Is there a specific Lionel part number that I should be looking for? So far my google searching has not provided the answer. I am also not opposed to putting trucks that are not original but are functional on it. Additionally several of the screws holding the tender shell to the floor and one of the screws holding the coal load are missing or mismatched. Again, my google searches for replacement screws have been fruitless.
Similarly I would like to request some assistance identifying the drawbar on the 224e to determine if it is correct for the locomotive.
On the 224e one of the long screws that holds the valve eccentric through the spacer and connecting rod is slightly bent. It is working, and I have been tempted to remove it again and gently bend it back straight again, but I am afraid that I will snap the poor old thing. Is straightening those screws something that has been done successfully?
[edit] Spelling errors and it looks like the photos didn't go through.
