Yes, Jack, sadly a limited appeal. 3rd Rail did a nice SP 2-8-0 and 2-8-2, but no TMCC and they had Seuthe smoke units. There are a couple on ebay. Though the thought occurs that Lionel already has a square tender that "could be" an oil tender, and a change of boiler front could certainly help. Lionel's 6-28036 SP 2-8-0 was kinda generic. I've thought about trying to find a better looking boiler front, but haven't done anything. I did make a visor for the headlight out of a thin piece of styrene and glued it on. Makes the engine look more SP. Did the same to the SP 4-4-2 #3000. Came out pretty good.
My Lionel 2-8-0 was converted to TAS EOB back in 2005 or '06, and it's motor has since been replaced. Still at the repair shop trying to get a better chuff generating system installed and a different smoke unit (like the one Lionel installed in their ATSF 4-4-2 about 3 yrs ago). Since Lionel figured out how to install a small modern smoke unit in that ATSF Atlantic, you'd think that that same smoke unit would fit in the 2-8-0. 10-14 years ago both of those engines used the same piston smoke unit, so there is space in their boilers.
Maybe Scott will make another run. Ah well, hope springs eternal.
