Hey all - new to the forum, but been a novice model railroader since a very young age. I'm 37 now and have three boys, with my youngest (5 years old) a complete train freak like I was at that age. Of course he was thrilled beyond thrills at receiving the O-gauge Polar Express for Christmas this year! 
I was pretty excited too, hehe. I did a lot of research and decided on the 2004 set 6-31960 because I found a great deal on a used set from eBay. If/when my son gets older and maintains interest, I'll plan to upgrade to the Lionchief locomotive and Railsounds tender. As is, this is the most realistic and modern O-gauge set I've ever owned. The majority of my model railroading as a kid was with N-gauge, since I could afford and it took up less space. But I have a couple sets each of other O and HO sets also.
So being a used Polar Express set, I found that this locomotive and tender need a couple small replacement parts:
(1) Headlight bulb, which the manual mentions as Lionel part #600-2314-300 ... my local hobby shop doesn't carry them (I am in central IL) and referred me to a place in New Jersey! Are these really so difficult to find?
(2) Gold whistle for top of locomotive. I [u]think[/u] mine is missing, since all that is there is a small gold nub. But I'm having a hard time finding close-up photos of other 6-31960 locomotives that clearly show what is supposed to be there.
(3) Rear coupler for tender. This coupler is a unique spring-tensioned piece that IS attached to the truck but appears to be independent as it can be removed and replaced by way of a single screw. The outer piece broke the other day and so far was successfully repaired by super glue (although the coupler no longer opens as a result) but will probably need replacement eventually.
Ebay doesn't seem to have a lot of specific Lionel parts like I've described. I can't find any Google listing of the bulb, which seems like it would be the easiest to find/replace. Any help on finding these parts is much appreciated!
