I recently purchased a 224E having seen a 224 here. http://www.postwarlionel.com/cgi-bin/postwar?ITEM=224 they look exactly the same. Is there any difference between the two?

The 224E is a pre-war engine. The E designation indicated that the engine had an E-unit (reversing unit) to differentiate it from the hand reverse versions of engines common in the early pre-war era.

The E designation was eventually dropped when the E unit became a standard feature on all Lionel engines.

After the war, I never heard of the E designation being used. But many prewar engines continued to be used with postwar equipment by switching tenders or adding postwar knuckle couplers to make them compatible with postwar rolling stock.

All pre-war 224's and 224E's had a squared off cab floor at the rear of the engine. The early 1945 versions after the war also had this squared off floor. From 1946 on the cab floor was rounded on the 224.

All of these engines, both pre- and post-war, are excellent running engines.

Jim

That explains why I misidentified it as a post war engine. I also mistakenly thought that pre war engines all had the older style draw bar which makes me wonder when Lionel switched to the current design.

You also have an incredible layout. I enjoyed looking through the photos which are both inspiring and humbling considering my own aspirations for a layout.

PS: And you're right. Mine is an excellent runner. It operates very smoothly and the E-Unit works like new.

Another quick way to tell postwar from prewar. The postwar version will usually have a rubber stamped cab number, while a prewar version usually has cab number plates.

Thank you for the kind words and glad you enjoy the photos.

It's been a while since I've seen a pre-war 224. I know the drawbar was longer than the postwar drawbar. In fact, the 1945 version's tender had no drawbar, just a slot in the shell for the long prewar drawbar to fit into. It also had black handrails. The 1946 version switched to a short drawbar that didn't extend much at all beyond the end of the curved cab floor and had shiny handrails.

brr, I'm not sure about the rubber stamped version. The postwar engines I've come across have the number plates.

Jim

They should look the same, the photo on that web page is of a 224E, note the e-unit lever protruding from its slot on top of the boiler.

PRRDave

Dave,
All 224's, both prewar and postwar, both 224 and 224E, all have E-units (and the lever).

The earliest pre-war versions were designated with the E because they had the E-unit and that was the numbering convention of the time. There were no 224's produced without an E unit at any time.

Later in the prewar era all engines were quipped with E units, and it became unnecessary to continue the use of the "E". The 224E number was then changed to just 224 (around 1940?) and continued as such into the postwar era.

Jim

The earlyist post-war 224's had black hand rails..

I received my postwar 224 for Christmas 1945, as part of Lionel's first postwar set. I was a lucky little guy!

It has the squared-off cab floor, a drawbar on the engine which engages a slot in the 2466W tender, both the tender and the engine have blackened hand rails, and it has silver numbers on a metal plate.

It still has trackage rights on my layout and continues to be an exceptionally smooth-running engine.

My 1945 Christmas 224 has all the above items, and still runs great. It
is a little beat up, though, from racing it with my friends in the '50's. It would run off the 4' high 072 layout onto the attic floor.