LOOKING FOR INFO ABOUT LIONEL CENTURY CLUB FM TRAINMASTERS - UPDATE

Chris: For all intents and purposes, the CC-II Train Master FM's were the first use of the newly tooled bodies we see today. My Wabash and Southern Pacific "bloody nose" FM's are direct copies of the CC-II offerings. I have not seen the latest TM-3 & 4, but I suspect they also use the same casting. Only detail differences in horn placement differentiate the various offerings I have.

One thing the CC-II's offer the following ones don't (to my knowledge...) are the operating radiator cooling fans on the CC-II offerings.

One last tid-bit; the original CC-II offerings don't like to MU very well using original TMCC controller, but run well together when using a CAB-II/Legacy controller.

@D&H 65 posted:

One thing the CC-II's offer the following ones don't (to my knowledge...) are the operating radiator cooling fans on the CC-II offerings.

Actually, the earlier Legacy Trainmaster models did have operating fans, I have the Lionel 6-28307 Wabash Trainmaster from the 2009 catalog with operating fans.

  My CCII ABA Sharks are exquisitely detailed, definitely not postwar, and don’t have operating fans.  I must be lucky, because they MU fine using my CAB/BASE 1.

In fact, if I do operate them as separate units instead of a train, it creates a neat Doppler effect with the horns.  

Lionel must have just been on the cusp of powered operating fans back then…my D&H PA AA set from 2003 has them.

Tom

Here are photos of my CII Trainmasters on Display

Here is a better picture off the web:

These bodies and undercarriage are MILES from Postwar designs and copies. Especially the Fuel tank area that has the

• Unique "S" curve Fuel tank
• All Wheels flanged
• correct Headlight/Mars light on short hood and Headlight on long hood.
• detailed main train Reservoir air tank and
• the Auxiliary air tank. Postwar designs excluded this detail.

Thanks, all. Can anyone tell me if the vertical grills at the rear of the CC ones swivel like the current production ones? (I’m not talking about the fans but the body.)

I just checked Chris and the louvers DO swivel on the CC units as well as my later (mid-teens???) released SP "bloody nose" unit and my N&W blue unit ( and the Wabash unit).

I also need to give Gunrunnerjohn a shout-out about my Wabash unit; my unit's fans had never run since I bought the unit so I assumed they were not motorized.....  I removed the shell (first time) and they DO have the motorized feature like the CC units; mine didn't work because the motor and gear-train assembly had been tightened down by the assembly line's "quarter turn past shear" technique which locked the gear-train up completely. Once I backed off the screws so I could turn the gear-train by hand, they now work on my Wabash unit for the first time!

Thanks, D&H!  This is what makes the forum such a great resource. (And good to hear about your fan discovery.)

Amazing what you can find when you look under the covers.

As part of the continuing education process, I offer this tidbit of info.

The Fairbanks Morse locomotives being discussed here are “Train Masters” with two capitalized words because it is a proper name.

A “Trainmaster” is a mid-level company official on a railroad.

I got the CC Trains Masters today, and they are glorious. Really a treat. Thanks for the help.

I do have one challenge. One of the flip-down plates at the end of one engine is loose and missing the pin that attaches it to the body. That’ll be a needle in a haystack to find!