PW 1948 671 Turbine Question

1946 - double-worm drive, horizontal motor, smoke lamp

1947 - single-worm drive, resistive smoke unit, protruding e-unit lever.

1948 - 2671W 12 Wheel tender replaced the 8 wheel 671W. The 4 flanged drive wheels were zinc with blackened steel rims where as the blanks were sintered iron without rims.

1949 - All wheels sintered iron without rims

A timely question for me.  I'm writing a piece on variations in the early PW era 1944-49 for a  presentation at the TCA convention at Warwick and that icludes cataloging locomotive variations for those years.  Here's what I have on the turbines.

1946 - Smoke lamp, E-unit controiled by plug in cab - no boiler slot, nickel rims on all drivers, 671W tender, marked only on box.

1947 - Heater type smoke unit, E-unit slot in boiler, nickel driver rims, 671W tender, marked on tender.

1948 - Blackened rims on first and fourth drivers, 2671W tender.

1949 - No rims on drivers, new type of brush plate without tubular brush holders.  2671W tender.

The above information from Doyle'sStandard Catalog of Lionel Trains 1945-1969.

I have seen on the bay turbines with flanged rims with the nickle plate like the 1947's and the blanks were not rimed but had a shine like the nickle plate on a 47.  would that be a 48? 

All wheels have rims. The correct terminology i think you are looking for is "tire". Railroad wheels without flanges are "blind".   Lionel went from die cast to sentered steel wheels to facilitate magnitraction.  I always though it was interesting that the turbines started showing up with sentered steel wheels prior to the introduction of magnitraction in 1949.