How nice that you have it. If needed, internal replacement parts are available for the ZWs and repair services too. I have an 80 Watt Type S from 1947 from our family Lionel. Like your ZW, it could probably use some TLC.
Not exactly mine at the time was the "family" Marx 027 collection. I possess it now, so I guess it is mine. My two brothers seem to have bequeathed to me. Here is one of them with the Santa Fe passenger train. My dad scratch built the baggage car. Here I am with my other brother and more trains.
I pulled out the old baggage car that my dad made. Turns out that it was a baggage/mail car. Made from galvanized sheet soldered together, hand painted including shadow line stripes. The trucks are standard Marx.
It's neat to see trains in old B&W photos and they are still here. And yes, those ZW's. I never had any Lionel trains (we had American Flyer, which I still have) but when I saw the pictures of the ZW, I wanted one just to have one of those beasts Doug
Alright, I will bite, what is Magne Traction? And is there a reverse, You Don't Need a Dad to Buy A Lionel Train? That's too funny! Or is to me!
Years ago when I was at a railroad historical society meet watching 35mm slide presentations, there'd always be a guy who'd shout "MAGNE-TRACTION!" whenever a slide was upside down in the carousel.
"You don't need a son as an excuse...." A LOT of adults back then had Lionel, American Flyer or Marx train layouts. HO had not as yet taken off as we see today. Scale modeling in "O" existed, but was not a large faction.
Neat, Rich. 1971, the year I graduated from high school! I never had a complete AHM/Lima set but I do have a few pieces, including an FP45 and Q1B and they both run better than one might expect, after some work, of course. Doug
Our American Flyer trains were bought in 1949 by my dad "for my oldest brother" who was a few months old, at the time. Doug
I kept my Dad's pre-war Lionel, including this 2-4-0 from 1930. None of it is valuable and none of it runs, but I shall always keep it. I'll bet that with a bit of work, I could get this locomotive running again.
As already noted, parts are available. There were two types of ZW. The 250 Watt and 275 Watt. The most common wear part inside is probably their contact rollers. The handles will get loose, from the roller wear, etc. As long as it has been kept dry and warm, it should be easy maintenance.
Hi Mike, yes it does and yes it still runs. And yes you can see the infamous "Ring of Fire" when you run it with the shell off
Dan, the drivers on your dad's 2-4-0 are probably Zamac, right? If so, they were obviously made from a good batch. The Zamac problem was there back then, too. I have seen drivers all cracked and falling apart and there are modern replicas for them. Oops, now I see the flanges and I may have to take that back. maybe those missing chunks are caused by Zamacitis. Doug
