I know of no modern era ('95 and beyond) book, other than the price guide, that gives me any detailed answer to my questions - so I'm going to you - the experts.
I have the 1996 #18130 Santa Fe set (bought it at York couple years ago) which included #18128 and #18129 AB units in a set box. The seller also included a separately issued A unit (not sure of the #) and the four Lionel Lines passenger cars. Later that year I discover there was a two car passenger add-on (surprised me because I thought I followed the catalogues better than I guess I do) which I bought.
Now I see that there supposedly is a #18136 B unit numbered 2343C to match the rest of the set, with "B unit railsounds" and command control. The Greenburg book says it was issued '97.
My questions are, is this correct? Was it unusual to come with a second B unit before any additional passenger cars (ABBA w/ four cars?). Also, (and I can't check my boxes right now because they're packed away), didn't the set already have command control and railsounds? And how can you have command control in a B unit? Could this be a powered B unit? The description didn't say.
Pete,
As noted, the 18130 SF F3 AB set was cataloged in 1996.
The 18134 SF F3 A Dummy was cataloged in the 1997 Heritage catalog as an add-on to the 18130 set. It has directional lighting and electrocouplers, hence a "command equipped" designation.
The 18136 SF F3 B Dummy was "cataloged" in 1997 year-end flyer. It has directional lighting, Railsounds 2.5, and electrocouplers. The 18129 already had these features (except for the 2.5 upgrade), so the "command equipped" 18136 was offered for upgrading older SF F3 units, not as an add-on to the 18130 set.
Of all these F3 units, only the 18128 has motors, and it has two of them (open Pullmor type).
The 19165 4-car Lionel Lines extruded aluminum passenger car set was on the same catalog pages as the 18130 F3 set. However, we had to wait a bit for that 15318 extra two-car set, which wasn't cataloged until 2003. Even the 2003 catalog was confusing - it indicated the 2-car set included a combine and a Vista-dome, but the set actually includes a 15379 "Silver Valley" combine car and a 15380 "Silver Spoon" diner.
Chris - How are ya. Thanks for this information. So it's not like you don't have the complete set without #18136? Or I suppose there's not a real answer like the 2nd (or 3rd?) B unit for the 11711 that Lionel meant to be as much for the older Santa Fes. It does seem like it would be a waste of some money to be paying for the "command eqipped" feature twice. And I know I have more to learn about "command eqipped" because I've never run one. Does "command equipped" mean the motors operate with all the features of TMCC? And that's probably a stupid question because how could they from the B unit.
I saw what you mean about the add-on passenger confusion - seems like they had it mixed up with the Surf Liner add-on set. I bought it a few months ago after keeping my eye out for some time and thinking it was hard to come by. Naturally two days after I ordered it a dealer in Classic Toy Trains shows it that hadn't been advertising it for $50 less money than I paid.
Thanks again -
Pete01
As far as I'm concerned, I've got the complete set, even without the 18136 F3B. I've seen the 11711 set from 1990 advertised for sale with as many as 3 F3B units, but I'm not sure if they all were intended as add-ons, either.
"Command equipped" means that the unit contains one or more circuit boards to operate one or more special features like TMCC, Railsounds, or coil couplers from a CAB-1 controller. If a unit doesn't have a motor, TMCC isn't included, but the other feature(s) still would make the unit command equipped.
The 19180 Surfliner 4-car set was issued the year after the Super Chief set. They were paired with the 18952 SF PA engine and were decorated for Santa Fe rather than Lionel Lines. After I got the Super Chief set, I couldn't afford the Surfliner!
18136 was issues as a correction to 18129 in that the indian head is facing the wrong way on 18129.
That was not a good time period for Lionel and fans of Lionel.
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