2227, 2228, 2233 tender mess

[tinplater]

Have a total of five tenders and none seem to be complete...what is supposed to be inside?
Some have spears.  All have bells  A 2233B has no middle rail pickup and no evidence one was ever there.
Only one has three wires exiting
Only one has a relay.
Various couplers and heights but don't necessarily match with the loco coupler height and style.
I seem to recall Magic Electrol refers to capability of reversing loco independently of a second loco
and Teledyne referred to the ability of uncoupling anywhere on the layout with a DC pulse?

[Terry]

I don't know about the couplers, but don't think the 227 or 228 tenders should have hooks on the spears. Or the tenders shouldn't have spears at all.

I do know about the wiring. . .

I opened up a 2227B tender and shot a picture of the insides.



That tender works, but I think it should have just a spear on the coupler, no point.

What you see from front or left is the relay used differently for different locos and not found on 2230 and 2231 tender, the center part is the bell, and the rear part has the light. On tenders with bells the light has a bimetalic strip that energizes the bell.  I think all the tender numbers can be found with or without bell, but never did a survey.

The relay body is insulated from the tender chasis and connected directly to the roller pickup on the truck.

Ignoring the bells and backup lights which are always wired the same and don't effect the plugs, here's the tender wiring:

2227 and 2228 relay runs couplers. Picture above. Two wires to loco, one on left goes to loco coupler, right goes to center rail pickup from relay body. Right and left looking at loco from on top of tender coalpile.

2230 and 2231 NO relay. Two wires to loco. Wire on left goes directly from coupler shoe on tender truck to plug; wire on right goes to center rail.

2232 and 2233 Wire on left goes directly from coupler shoe on tender truck to plug in socket in loco for coupler. Relay body is connected through right plug to center pickup of loco. 3rd wire  comes off relay terminal and is connected to positive side of e-unit coil in loco.

Does that make sense?

Before I go on, I moved a bag with a bunch of those relays from one place to another in the last month or so. It's not currently in either of the places I think it should be in, but it's certainly around here somewhere.

Here's a related question. . .

I have a newer transformer with bell and whistle buttons. On the 2227B tender shown above ONLY the bell button works the coupler. I was thinking I could use a whistle relay working on the whistle button and power the rails of the RCS tracks.

I'm going to try just adding a diode to the coil of the relay. Because the diode is directional, it should line up with the bell or whistle button. Does that make sense?

[starfire700]

I have several of the 0-6-0 switchers. Of course most are 227, a 228 one of the 230 series (I have to check which) and several 701 scale. They are in 3 pairs, each pair has one for 2600 series cars and 228 for 2800 series cars with higher couplers. the 230 and 231 have the same variance in coupler height, but each has Teledyne DC operated couplers and the 232, 233 set have Magic Electrol. Because the must perform switching work, each should have only the coupler spike with no barb, so it can release from the cars being shifted. Correctly-matched L&T's should have the same coupler height. It can be confusing, especially since over the years couplers and trucks may have been changed and interior components removed or modified by previous owners. 

[tinplater]

Thanks to both of you...will spend some more time investigating this....very confusing.  For example it appears that 230 and 231 locos are the very basic unit..no teledyne or electrol and the two different numbers refer only to coupler height?
Some of the front couplers are apparently activated via the tender by the usual RCS track?  I think I need to make a chart of numbers, features, coupler height, barbs, etc and see if I can make sense of this.
I have two 233 and 2233B tenders, two 227's, and one 228 to start with.  I do not have a 230 or 231, again I think that is just a conventional e unit with basic RCS couplers with the different numbers of locos designating coupler height?

[Terry]

I think I made a mistake in my wiring notes above. The wire on the 2232 and 2233 might take ground to the e-unit? The e-unit lever turns ground on and off. I don't have one here to look at.

Paul - all the loco couplers are connected to the tender coupler shoe.  All the locos should have the left cab socket wired to the front coupler. On the teledyne switchers (227 & 228) the relay is also connected to them.

My dad had all these switchers except the 230. I only kept the 228 and the 701 which I upgraded a few years ago. The 228 never did anything but sit on the shelf.

I know the tender has the wrong truck which I can easily fix. The loco itself is screwed up bad, but runs really well. Might be a rare factory error?

[starfire700]

Couplers on my 228

[starfire700]

couplers on my 232

[starfire700]

Please left-click on these photos to enlarge

[Terry]

I just put one of those couplers llike Jim shows onto my 2228B tender.

The 2227B has the same coupler but shorter. (My 2227B was "repaired" by the seller with a glued in spear. I removed it.)

The loose truck below is one I put on 2228B tender from my parts bins. It has the right height for 800 series freight cars.



Notice that these have springs to push the hood back down.



Terry

[starfire700]

The coupler that you show also shows the spring-steel return-spring, attached with 2 rivets to the strike plate. It is my understanding this was to keep the hood from drooping as it was not supported by a spike. This return spring is found on tenders 1939 to 42. I think also on transition cars such as the 1680X. Transition cars were found in sets, mainly DSS....specials, that had an auto coupler on the tender but latch or other manual couplers on the cars. I do not currently have one of the X litho freights, so please correct if I am wrong on that. 

[Terry]

I thought the sprung hood was to close the coupler. I think it is used on trucks without spikes that use selenoids to open. The selenoids stick - I have a 3859 dump car that goes down the track a ways with the hoods up after visiting the coal loader. 

It also might be to keep it down on rough track? The hood on the car without the spike is the whole connection. If it flaps up going over a bump, the cars come apart.

The sprung hood comes on cars in sets where there are both remote and manual coupler cars. Usually with the 2689 tender having this and the cars being manual, but sometimes it's a car. I sold a 2660X crane a while back that had these on both ends. I think the 3659 dump comes with these.

I sold the trains from after 1925 so I have to go by memory. I know the crane had two sprung hoods, but now I think some cars had only one.