Pre War 700K Hudson

No, Lionel did not offer a 2 rail kit, or a swap kit, or anything like that ……the 700E was such a fine model, many 2 rail folks converted them back in the day, …..you’re lucky you got a good one. Many I seen were hack jobs, that basically destroyed the engine. If you get a chance, for more discussion, post up detailed pics of your engine. It’s always nice to see good quality work, especially from a by-gone era of old world craftsmen….

Pat

Lionel offered an outside third rail conversion for the 700E.  Otherwise, outside of club layouts I doubt the market for 2 rail O conversions was enough to justify a kit of insulated wheel sets and corresponding power pickups.  The blind center driver option was simple enough...Lionel just offered the one from a 763.

Bruce

It runs better  than it looks!!

One more

Those are not Lionel drivers.  The obvious difference is that the counterweight on the center drivers is much larger than those on the front and rear drivers. 

If you just want to run that neat engine on three rails in forward, maybe you could rig up a center rail pickup on the trailing truck and wire the motor to that pick up and to some of the wheels on the outside rail.

Adding or fixing up one of the six wheel trucks on the coal tender is another option.

Fixing up  a reverse or e-unit would be more involved.

Charlie

Here’s a photograph of the instructions for assembling.  I wish I had the kit that it came with.  No indication inside anywhere I could find for two-rail operation with exception of the outside third rail electric pickup shoe.

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Who knows where the model makers ( like Lionel ) got the idea for using an outside third rail pickup?….

Pat

Thank you all for your advice and info. For now it will remain a shelf queen along with my 1937 700ew (which is all original... paint, lettering and all).  If I want to run I always have my VL Hudson.

Brian

That is not a Lionel motor. My guess is that it is a DC only motor. It could be run on AC with some diodes. The original style motor could be put back in if the mounting flange was not modified. The 700E was designed to run on tee rail track, so there are not a lot of operational options. The flanges are smaller than the original Lionel flanges. My guess is this loco is set up to run on a scale O railroad with very large radius curves. Converting it back to what Lionel intended could be a major undertaking.

@harmonyards posted:

Who knows where the model makers ( like Lionel ) got the idea for using an outside third rail pickup?….

Pat

LIRR

I suspect it was a method contrived by  the scale hobbyist well before it was offered commercially.  The dislike of the center rail and retaining the benefits of analog AC were the impetus. 

Bruce