Greetings and felicitations!

I am a new member.  This is my first post.

Circa 1966 my uncle gives me a old train set.  We played with it a lot as kids.  It has extras like the Log Loader and cattle car.  Some time between 1966 and 1972 my thing was HO slot cars.  The train takes a back seat.  Family moved to Florida in 1972.  The train was packed in boxes and moved with us.  They sat on a shelf in my father's closet until Oct 2017.  I was in Florida and my dad asked me if I wanted the train.  Duh?!

The loco is # 238 and needed an E-Unit.  I stripped it down and cleaned everything.  The engine will pull many cars.  Whistle works after some electronics degreaser and using a small forceps to remove spider webs.  This is very little rust, which surprised me due to living in a humid climate for decades.

I had a set for around the Christmas tree that I bought about 2006.  I ran two loops this past Christmas.  Since I have spent too much money on trains and trains related stuff.  Before trains, guitars were my thing.  At one time I had 25 at the same time.  All top shelf and name brands.  Hard times made me sell off most of the guitars.  I kept 6.  The best 6.  The ones in the $5K range.  I can't hear anymore, or not very well, making my music hobby difficult- but I went nuts with the trains.

I'm medium old and have taken early retirement due to Meniere's disease, the source of my hearing loss.  I can play with my trains every day if I want.

So here's my 2 things: the 50 years of guitar and 3 rail I'm really mostly new to.

Long damn intro to a video with music.  The music was written and recorded in my basement in 2001.  I'm playing with myself because I performed all the parts, for better or worse.  If you write songs you gotta write a train song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVmQeQxDNk

Here is a link to an instruction sheet that explains how to do everything you need to do to assemble the track, hook up the transformer, and run your trains.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/274118644/1953-Instructions-for-Lionel-Trains-and-Accessories


Larry

   Did they make a long and a short nose version of this engine,  I have a original 1835E and the front headlight cove/ dosent sit flush with train body. Its about 1/4 inch out from front. The front latch is there but it wont latch . Is there a spacer or whats wrong? Looked at picture but cant tell.

You should pick up the Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains books. They are a great reference for dates and variations etc.

I'm brand spanking new to collecting Lionel engines (trains on a serious level) and have recently acquired a couple of badly abused locomotives which need to be refinished. Has anyone found a good source for decal numbers etc. (the various styles) for vintage Lionel locomotives? When forced to strip an engine it would be nice to replace the numbers.