Do people collect and operate LTI F-3's?

I have the Santa Fe & Jr has C&O. They look great, the diesel sound & horn is ok, a little loud but the quality is all right for their age, they run strong, & the motors & gearing are pretty quiet compared to PW F-3 meat grinders, but with that said, I've already had the same plastic gear problems with the C&O that I had with older MPC plastic geared locos so on that point I'm not impressed. Center cracked idler gears on the C&O so far has me worried about the future of the driveline just like I worry about the MPC stuff I own.

Count me in on this category!

I love the LTI version of the red and silver Santa Fe and those beautiful matching chrome-roofed Super Chief passenger cars.

The Great Northern Empire Builder and the purple and black Atlantic Coast Line's are both real eye catchers as well!

I have a mint 18117 Blue Santa Fe "AA", along with the two different "B" units that Lionel manufactured to match. I believe the engine is from 1993. The "B" units are 18121 (1994 Stocking Stuffer) and 18122 (1995 stocking stuffer), with Railsounds II.

I believe the 18117 Santa Fe was the last F3 made with a mechanical e-unit, making it of interest to me. I originally purchased it because I have one of the paint masks that was used to decorate it.

hello C W Burfle...........

that is interesting about the 18117 the last Santa Fe F-3 to use the mechanical E-unit, I never knew that. Is there more interesting facts about the LTI F-3's

the woman who loves the S.F. 5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

To answer that, the 11711 red and silver Santa Fe from 1991 was the first F-3 to return the original details of the first postwar F-3's, such as the die cast frame (all previous modern F-3's had sheet metal frames), two piece metal horns, the mesh intake vent screen, metal side ladders, and celluloid porthole windows. These would be standard details on all subsequent F-3 offerings. It also happened to be the first F-3 with the then new digital RailSounds.

Interestingly enough, the 18117 blue and yellow version didn't have RailSounds, and quite a few collectors complained. Lionel rectified this by putting out a RailSounds 2 B-unit in 1995.

Hello Mikado 4501..............

Coooooooooooool

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

I agree 100% with Mikado 4501...the 11711 set was and still is a knockout! Love the Great Northern and ACL too (but that one may be just after LTI).

quote:

(all previous modern F-3's had sheet metal frames),

Huh? My 8568 Preamble Express F3 "A" unit (1975) has a Die cast metal frame. I checked the Modern Era Lionel Service Manual, it shows their F3's with Die cast metal frames.

Not sure about all the features, as they were put on the F-3s over a period of time, but the addition of clear porthole windows and metal horns, at least (not to mention front grab irons), go back to the Pennsy F-3s issued in 1979.

Oh yes, we should also mention the uncataloged TCA F-3 ABA offered in 1994 for the TCA's 40th Anniversary.

I'm pretty sure the portholes were the snap in plastic versions before 1991, and the horns were the one piece type instead of the better two piece.

I have recent F-3s and they have snap-in plastic windows. Didn't know there was anything else.

Back in the 60's they blanked over the F-3 Portholes & that lasted into the 70's. Then in the 80's the portholes came back. My NYC's from '83 had some of the features again like the portholes, dual motors, die cast frames & magnetraction, but not others that LTI brought back like the mesh roof gills & whatnot.

Mikado 4501 is correct about the sheet metal frame, I think he meant the "B" units have plastic outside frames but with the INSIDE sheet metal frame. I took the shell off of my Lionel #18121 "B" unit and saw that.  Its the "A" units powered and non-powered have die-cast frames just like the postwar versions.

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

I have a Lionel MPC 8370 F3 ABA set.  The chassis of the A units, as well as the B unit, is die cast.

I have one, a Milwaukee Road AA set that was part of a 1975 Service Station set. It is inferior in every way to just about anything else in my collection. The decoration is blah, the nose decals are notorious for flaking off, and it's an indifferent puller. It looks cheap and runs the same way. I bought it years ago, before I knew much about trains and before the recent bonanza of high-quality scale trains from multiple manufacturers. The only reason I keep it is because I collect Milwaukee Road trains. I take it out once in a while and put it on a display shelf for a few weeks, then it goes back in the box. I'm not as enthusiastic about collecting/accumulating as I once was, and I wouldn't buy it again. 

hello Southwest Hiawatha..........

I agree with you as those early days MPC F-3's are big joke, single motor with new style motor brushplates with out top shaft metal bearing, pot metal wheels sometimes out of round with thick traction tires, non-geared pot metal wheels that is hollowed out from the back side and worse of all plastic gears.  Not to mentioned plastic horns that break too.  But later(1979 and later) MPC did add second motor to its F-3's still with pot metal wheels and plastic gears.  I never understand why the switch to plastic gears as the tooling to make metal gears is already paid for back in the postwar days and now MPC spends a ton of money to make plastic gears. The LTI F-3's are better except plastic gears they still uses all the way to today's Chinese made F-3's.

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

My *guess* is that the plastic gears were cheaper to produce & I will admit they're a lot quieter too. 

Lionel switched to a nylon idler gear to quiet the 2343 style F3's.

Of course, that set isn't a LTI-era F-3 set, which is the subject of this thread. The F-3s of the LTI time (Lionel Trains Incorporated) were produced during the period Richard Kughn owned Lionel, 1986-1995. Those 1975 Milwaukee F-3s were from a different era.

Back then, the Service Station sets were less expensive sets and the F-3s were more basic. 

Not to mention Lionel's standards of quality had been raised significantly by the time the first of LTI's F-3's were produced.

F3 set from 1970.  Pennsy.  B unit is faded.