Lionel introduced the 197 radar antenna in 1958. It was offered again in 1959 and then canceled. It was made with gray or orange base. The orange base is harder to find. The gray base is shown above.
The rotating antenna and the guardrails are usually broken. Replacement parts are available.
The 197 radar tower has been reissued by both Lionel and MTH.
Lionel introduced the 402 electric locomotive in 1923. In 1926 the 2-position e unit was added and it became the 402E. It was only available with an automatic reverse in 1928 and 29.
The 402 replaced the 42 as Lionel’s largest standard gauge locomotive. The first version had stamped steel lights with on/off switches. Later locos came with diecast headlights. All 402E locos came with cast headlights.
The 402 is found with at least three versions of the numberplate – all black lettering, black center with red outline, and all red lettering. (Supposedly red lettering was only used on locomotives with e units, but the 402 is an exception.)
This loco was was only cataloged in mohave, but was made in other colors. I’ve heard of peacock, mustard brown, dark gray, maroon and red are colors.
The odd colors could be paint samples or special orders. Before 1929 Lionel would paint any item in any
regularly used color as a special order. Lionel service order forms show this option.
Shown here in peacock, this locomotive dates from 1923-25 based on the lights and the red border on the number plates.
This blue 402 is filthy. The color looks off because it has a coat of oil residue. This is commonly seen on trains stored unpacked in basements with coal or oil burners.
Here’s a picture of the 402 with a peacock 152 inside it for a color comparison. The peacock 152 is also an odd colored locomotive.
I’ll put pictures of my mohave 402 loco up here in the future.
In 1937 Lionel introduced the famous 700E Hudson locomotive. This was a scale 1:48 model of the New York Central steam locomotive. The assembled 700E came with a walnut display stand and was the first commercially produced die cast O scale locomotive made.
The 700E Hudson was very popular with the newly emerging O scale operators. By the mid 1930s a movement towards scale or realistic locomotives had grown up in the US and many operators built kits. Factory
assembled scale locomotives and cars weren’t available. So the Lionel Hudson was a first.
In 1939 to accommodate O scalers who wanted to build their own locomotive Lionel began offering the 700E in kit form. 5 kits built the locomotive and tender, and a sixth kit contained a whistle for the tender.
The kits could be built for inside or outside third rail.
To make it easier for modelers on a budget, Lionel sold the kits separately. Some modelers built the locomotive and never painted it black so there are a few original gray 700K locos out there. (The one shown at the top of this page is an original kit locomotive assembled and unpainted.)
I always wanted to build a 700K so since I had acquired most of the parts I decided to build my own Hudson kit.
The first kit 700K-1 came with the frame with wheels mounted, the crossheads and valve gear need to be mounted.
I lost the picture of the frame before adding parts, but you can see it under the trimmed boiler shown in the third kit.
This portion was a mess. Because I was using parts from junk Hudsons I used the best of each part I had and bought the missing parts. The frame I used came from a 763E so this loco has blind center drivers.
I had Don Hagar replace one of the wheels and straighten the frame. The wheel Don replaced broke in the mail on the way back so the frame had to make a return trip. Don didn’t charge me for the shipping or the work required to replace the wheel.
This whole process of getting the frame ready to mount the valve gear took 2 months acquiring the parts and dealing with the broken wheels.
Then I sat down to start putting the parts in kit 1 on, and the cranks and crankshafts on the parts engines were either modified or broken. I ordered replacements from Sal Olsen.
Sal sent me the wrong rivets to attach the cranks to the crankshafts, and one of the cranks was defective. Another month as the parts went back and forth.
Everything sat in boxes for months waiting for the parts. Some of the time was occupied by other pursuits, but it was quite frustrating to sit down and start working only to realize something was missing or broken.
If I wasn’t already bald I would have been pulling out my hair.
Anyway I finally got kit 1 put together. Here’s both sides after the assembly of kit 1:
The second kit 700K-2 included the motor, e unit, collectors – inside and outside, the headlight and a lead weight.
The second kit went together in minutes. I test ran the loco to make sure everything was correct only to find a short in the e-unit. I don’t have an e-unit to cannibalize for parts so I decided to temporarily wire the engine without the e-unit so it only runs forward.
Here’s photos of both sides after the parts in kit 2 have been added to the frame:
The third kit contained the boiler and cab assembly and all the trim. Below is a photo of a Hudsonboiler without the trim installed.
I added the trim to the boiler while I was waiting for the frame parts. Here’s both sides of the boiler after mounting trim. I set the boiler on the frame before the parts in kits 1 and 2 were added to the frame for these pictures.
The next step is mounting the boiler to the frame. Another short showed in a wire coming off a brush at this point. The original wire is cloth covered and it was pinched between the cab and the frame. I’ll
rewire it when I put the new e-unit in.
Here’s pictures of the trimmed cab mounted on the frame with valve gear from step 2:
Kit 700K-4 contained the ash pan, ladders, coupler and pilot, boiler front, lead and trailing trucks and some small bits of valve gear that attach to the boiler.
These parts were easy to mount. Because I used a 763E frame, I don’t have the holes to mount the coupler chain assembly. When I pull it apart to mount the e-unit I’ll drill the holes and mount the coupler chain. The boiler front also needs the lower grab irons.
I did get the rest of the loco assembled, and here’s pictures of each side:
Now I am supposed to take the whole thing apart and paint it black. Not going to happen. I do have the decals and will letter it in the future.
Kit 700K-5 contains the tender, and kit 700K-6 contained the whistle. I have a tender in my box of parts, but I don’t want to repaint a nice looking tender so this loco won’t have a matching tender until I find a restorable 700T tender. Got one?
This is a 1958 Marx 52960 army set. (The set box is dated August 1958 on the bottom.) The Army sets are quite desirable. The plastic ones don’t have as big a following as the earlier tin lithographed sets, but are still among the most desirable of the plastic Marx trains.
This is a less desirable set because it doesn’t have a green engine or tender, but the set contains some desirable cars.
The loco is just a common 666 with an even commoner Santa Fe tender. The caboose is a deluxe Santa Fe work caboose with search light. The Erie automatic electric log dump car is a neat operating car but has no place in an Army set.
The 2858 boxcar and 2824 rocket launcher are desirable cars. I’ve included individual photos below.
The Marx 2858 United States Army Bureau Of Ordinance boxcar is the most desirable plastic Marx military car. Just drab olive green with white lettering. It does have a sliding door though.
The Marx 2824 Army Rocket Launcher Flat is an action car. There should be three rockets with the car shown above, but they’ve gotten lost somewhere over the past 50 years. There should also be a green man on the right side of the car, but he went AWOL.
The Marx 2246 Army Flatcar came with silver plastic trucks or jeeps. These are missing from the car shown above. They were probably driven off by the man missing from the rocket flat car and his drinking buddies.
This set is very desirable because of the boxcar. Any Marx collector would be excited to get a set like this.
These green cars were Lionel’s first plastic passenger cars. The Madison cars were made of Bakalite which is a compressed granular material, not a plastic.
The Lionel 2400 Maplewood, 2401 Hillside, and 2402 Chatham were introduced in 1948. The passenger cars were cataloged in O gauge sets with the 671 turbine, and in 027 sets with the 2025 steamer.
There is a interesting variation of these cars. The common cars come in boxes with carboard sleeve inserts and NO people in the windows. There are green cars with people in the windows. The cars withpeople in the windows come in later style boxes without the sleeves. The later boxes have coupler protection flaps.
In the case of the green cars with people in the windows, the car can easily be made by changing the windows – no tools are needed, but the boxes canneot be faked.
It’s very hard to find clean undamaged boxes for the later 2400 series Pullman cars because the trucks tend to twist and tear the boxes when the cars are inserted or removed. Boxes with all their flaps and no tears bring a premium.
In 1950, the cars were dropped from the catalog in favor the 2481 series yellow cars.
Lionel introduced the New York Central F3 with the number 2333 in 1948. This unit has the same catalog number as the Santa Fe unit. The 2333 came as an AA only.
In 1950, Lionel made changes to the motors and renumbered the NYC diesel the 2344. The 2344 came in AA pairs or as a longer ABA set with a dummy B unit. A 2344 B unit is shown below.
In 1953, more internal changes were made and the unit was renumbered 2354. New York Central was dropped as a road name on the popular F3 locos in 1956.
Like the other F3 locos Lionel made, like new or mint condition units bring a substantial premium. The seperate sale boxes a pair of A units were packed in and orange dummy unit boxes with ALL their flaps also greatly increase the value of these engines.
Lionel introduced the 2333 Santa Fe F3 AA units in 1948. The F3 units were always sold in pairs or three car sets. The O gauge line (the 2300 series numbers – 2333, 2343, 2353, and 2383) came with a double motored powered unit and a dummy A unit. The 027 2243 came with a single motor and a dummy B unit.
The different catalog numbers refer to mechanical changes made by Lionel. The 2333 had horizontal motors, while all the later units had vertical motors.
The 2333 came with screen tops as shown above.. The 2243, 2353 and 2383 came with louvered tops. The 2343 came either way.
Because the Lionel F3 units were top of the line trains, they always came with magnetraction. Either the powered A unit or the dummy A unit always had a horn.
The O gauge locos are among the best running locomotives Lionel made in the postwar period. Only the FM TrainMasters will out pull a double motored F3.
The Santa Fe is the most common of the Lionel F3 locos. Collectors will pay a premium for really clean locos, and also will pay extra for the separate box that holds an AA or AB pair.
The 2037 was the middle loco in Lionel’s 027 line. It’s one of the most common Lionel postwar steam locomotives.
The 2037 is the same loco as the Lionel 2018, but with Magnetraction.
Magnetraction is Lionel’s trademarked word for magnetic wheels. The magnetic wheels on the locomotive provide additional pulling power, and keep the speeding locomotives on the track in tight curves.
Until 1955 the 2037 came without a whistle. After 1957 the loco always came with a whistle tender.
A pink version of the 2037 was cataloged as the 2037-500 in 1957 and 1958. The pink loco pulled Lionel’s famous girls train.
The 2020 is an o27 version of the 671 steam turbine. The only difference between a 671 and a 2020 is the number on the side. Lionel only sold the 027 turbines in sets, while the 0 gauge locos were available separately.
The 2020 always came with the derivative of the 2666T plastic tender. The tender number depending on the year could be 2466W, 2020W or 6020W. The turbine always had a whistle tender.
The earliest versions of the 2020 had double worm gear drive and smoke bulbs. Later 2020 locos had single worm gear drive and heater element smoke units.
The 2020 smoke bulb assembly is shown below:
Collectors prefer the earlier smoke bulb versions of both the 2020 and the 671, but the later versions run better. The 027 turbine did not receive Magnetraction and was discontinued in 1949.
This is a very common loco and is readily availible today. The later turbines with smoke heaters are great runners and every operator should have one.
I once ran a 671 Turbine in a Christmas display It ran around an oval for 10 to 12 hours a day for 39 days. I had to go over and put new brushes in it every few days, but otherwise it was fine. The loco went over 1300 actual miles!
The 202 Union Pacific Alco unit was made by Lionel in 1957. Only A units were made, and the unit does not have a coupler on the front.
There are three variations of the Lionel 202 diesel. Two painted versions: one over a black mold, the other on a blue mold, and also a harder to find unpainted orange plastic Alco.
The unpainted version of the 202 brings a small premium. The painted versions are both equally ignored by collectors.