Rare Lionel 18340 Cent. Club II FM Train Master AA Set

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Presented for auction is the extremely rare and still Factory Wrapped Lionel 18340 Century Club II Fairbanks Morse Train Master Demonstrator AA Set. According to a knowledgable retailer from Washington State who I met at a West Coast train show last month (he had all of the Century Club engines for sale), of all the Century Club I or II engines, this is the rarest as only 500 were sold. Information from other sources suggests that 2000 or more of the each of the other Club engines were sold. These FM Train Master Demonstrator engines were the fourth locomotive edition produced for the second Century Club which ceased accepting members on December 15, 2000 and began marketing engines to its club members in 2001. The only way anyone could obtain this engine was to join the Century Club II and then order it. Thus, this engine's production was limited to the number of engines which had been ordered by members before the order deadline of May 10, 2004. The 18340, of course, was never distributed through Lionel's normal retail network. It is only rarely available on the secondary market w it commands prices in excess of $900 which is what Greenberg's 2010 Lionel Pocket Price Guide sets as the value for a set in new and unrun condition such as the set in this listing.This FM set is brand new and the blue engine boxes had never even been removed from the blue master carton until we opened it to take the photographs of the still factory wrapped engines for this listing. As photograph 8 shows, we did not disturb the factory wrapped condition of these engines. Tfore, in order to have pictures of these FM's for our listing we used the images which the Lionel Century Club II used in its promotional flyer of this set (see photographs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). The individual engine boxes (photograph 7) would rate P-8 or P-9. The blue master carton (photograph 6) would rate P-6 due to some minor crumpling of several corners and some scratches due to the fact that it apparently had been stored on a shelf without being in its original shipping carton. The seller was unable to find the original shipping carton, but having waited for several years for this set to come on the market, I proceeded to buy it despite t not being an original shipping carton. Also included with this engine set (see photograph 9) is a stamped 3" by 6 1/2" metal replica of the original April 1953 Builder's Plate for the full sized, real life FM Demonstrators. Available in a separate listing is the 39265 Fairbanks Morse Train Master Commemorative Boxcar honoring the production of the 18340 FM Demonstrator Set. In 2004, Lionel introduced the Century Club Fairbanks-Morse Train Master in its promotional flyer as follows: "The fourth offering in the LIONEL CENTURY CLUB II series is the all-new Fairbanks-Morse Train Master diesel locomotive. Offered with two powered units, the Train Master was intended to be a universal workhorse, one that promised to be all thinks to all railroads. In 1953, the first two Train Master demonstrator units arrived on the scene. The Train Master was a massive 66 feet long and 10 feet wide, designed by Fairbanks-Morse as its model H24-66, which stood for Hood, 2,400 horsepower, six motors, six axles. While it was promoted as an all-new locomotive, many design concepts were carried over from previous FM locomotives. The heart of the Train Master was the 12 cylinder, 2,400 horsepower, two-cycle opposed piston engine. At the time, this prime mover was the most powerful single diesel engine in locomotive service. Adorned in a vivid red and yellow paint scheme with silver trucks and a black underframe, they were billed as the most useful locomotives ever built. Painstakingly replicated to capture the look and feel of the prototype, these LIONEL CENTURY CLUB II Train Master units also offer the powerful performance that defined the original. Set includes: Two fully-featured, TMCC equipped Train Master locomotives." NOTE WE WILL BE LISTING ALL 10 CENTURY CLUB I AND CENTURY CLUB II ENGINES AND MANY RELATE... read more

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