Model Train Journal

but I fell offa the wagon.
This is silly. Yes, parts are pre-war (like the horribly rusted trucks). There IS a corner of the shell left. And a plastic whistle unit.
Plastic. Marbled. Last I checked pre-war whistle chambers were pot metal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lionel-PREWAR- ... 4736840846

But it has EXTRAS! All for a hunnerd bux plus shipping! Does look like a pre-war frame with the oval to accept the drawbar (I'd have to check one of my post-war long metal tenders to see if that oval carried over). But the trucks are so badly rusted as to be probably non-salvageable....and did you see the frame is virtually rust free....like someone took a bunch of leftover parts and stuck them together.

Probably somebody will buy it without thinking or looking. The valuable part was the shell...and you only get a corner. Gotta be worth bragging rights, eh?

I checked my Postwar tender frames. The oval to accept the drawbar is present on Postwar tender, also. So, that broken marbled plastic whistle unit may have actually come on that apparently postwar frame, with rusted prewar trucks stuck on, with what appears to be recent horseshoe clips.

The 2226W on the bottom can be either pre or post war.

At what point in production did Lionel stamp the tender frame? I don't know if any postwar tender frames were issued with 2226WX stampings, but I can't imagine any were left, by the time they started using plastic whistle housings. According to my TM book, that was 1948.

I found a reference, hence the note to that effect. Is the reference right? Did algore invent the internet? Questions, questions!

The telling part to me is the plastic (broken) whistle unit. Lionel even used metal ones postwar until they used them up.

So, BTAIM, the frame probably came with that postwar plastic whistle unit, the prewar trucks from somebodies junk bin, I'd like to know who the moron was that destroyed the shell. I really like those shells, almost as much as the shorter die cast like on the 225E.

I have at least three long ones (one postwar with deck mounted drawbar), and 2 or 3 short die cast ones, some modified with postwar drawbars for closer coupling. All but one is Northern Pacific, just because the 226E hasn't been gotten to yet.

Still looking.

I did find this. I could not make out the "X" in the photo...really can't be certain now:
Lionel Letter Suffixes Used On Tender Production Numbers
W = Tender is equipped with a Whistle
X = Tender was only issued in a Set

Is that correct? Who knows. It is a postwar listing.
Most of the 2226 tenders fit...surprise, a 226. I have a 226.
However, mine has postwar 6-wheel trucks, coil operated knuckle with shoe to operate. And a frame mounted drawbar. Go figure. NO numbers on the bottom of the frame at all.

I think I've read that prewar tender X's indicate a non-standard coupler height, for the engine. As if, the cars in the set are different than those usually sold with such an engine.

Roy wrote:I think I've read that prewar tender X's indicate a non-standard coupler height, for the engine. As if, the cars in the set are different than those usually sold with such an engine.

Can't imagine that. I know I've run into latch and box couplers a bit off, duckbills fixed them. Never saw a coupler height difference with X.