243 Lionel Lines Scout

Production:  1960

History
The 243 steam locomotive is frequently referred to as a Scout locomotive. Lionel used the word Scout to denote its entry-level 027 steam locomotives. Generally speaking, Scout engines had a 2-4-2 wheel arrangement and were reserved for beginner or starter sets. These locomotives had few features and could rarely pull more than a three or four car freight train.

The 243 was manufactured for only a single year: 1960 and is a fairly difficult locomotive to locate. It was only offered in one catalogued freight set but included in several promotional sets for various distributors throughout 1960 and 1961. Lastly, the 243 was one of only a handful of scout steam locomotive that included a functional smoke unit as well as a whistle in the tender. Unlike most Scout locomotive having minimal collector interest, there is a small collector market seeking this steam locomotive solely due to the sparseness of this engine and tender combination.

Features
The 243 Scout steam locomotive included the following features: plastic boiler molded in black, white lettering, two position E-unit, a single metal drive rod on each side, illuminated headlight, functional smoke unit plus front and rear ballast weights mounted to the interior of the locomotive. Additionally, the tender was alway the 243W -- which included a whistle.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information

Only Known Variation - Shown in first photo above. - All 243s are black with white numbers.

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