Yep, item #3 is the one. Mine flaked apart when I had to rebuild mine.
As far as running your engine with the the shell off -
Yes it can be done. But I believe this engine has the smoke unit mounted to the boiler shell and therefore if you disconnect the wires to the shell, you will not be able to troubleshoot the smoke unit. Having the lights disconnected should not be an issue. You can also disconnect the wires (plug in) for the antenna. With the shell off, the the signal from the remote will reach the required board, allowing you to control the function of the engine. Oh wait, you are running this as conventional are you not? In any case, conventional control should work as intended with the shell off.
Do you have access to a stationary test track with rollers? If you did, you would be able to have the shell off and supported along side the engine chassis. And with the engine stationary (not moving), you would be able to see what is happening. You would not need to have the tender attached to test the engine in of itself.
In photo #1, the funnel I was referring to, is item 20. It mounts to one side of the dual smoke unit. The other side, as you know, has an elbow that then attaches to the clear plastic tubing that goes to the whistle steam outlet port. Just make sure these are all connected "properly". There is lots of small screws involved. By the way, inspect the tubing as I had to replace some of mine. Over time they can deteriorate from use/heat. Mine was actually cracked and was somewhat brittle.
Hope this helps.
