Thinking of buying a lionel T1 duplex..questions

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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  1. When was this model released? Is there a lionel catalogue online where I can and read the official description of the scale T1 duplex.

  2. Does anyone own one of these or the smaller less scale ‘LionMaster’ version? How do either of these engines run? I prefer the scale version however, but the LionMaster version looks very nice in pictures as well.

3)What about MTH’s T1 duplex? Anyone have this, how is it?

In general I have noticed that the lionel’s scale version is scarce (except it popped up a few days ago for a great price, but I don’t have enough money right now)

Is the lionel version really hard to find now, for the most part (excluding every few months on ebay), I really want to buy one in person at a train store.

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I have the LionMaster version. It runs great, but at one point needed a new flywheel magnet ring and sensor. These can fly apart. It it happened now, I’d probably just replace with an ERRCo CruiseM package,

The tender/cab gap is huge. Some kind of rubberized diaphragm would make it look better, or find a way to shorten the drawbar.

The cylinders are itty bitty.

But it is still my favorite engine!

Jon [8D]

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I reviewed the Lionel T1 in the December 2000 issue, the LionMaster in the March 2003 issue.

The MTH Premier line T1 was also reviewed in the Dec 00 issue.

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Jon,

Your LionMaster engine and tender are fantastic.

If you shorten the drawbar will the wheels become derailed, or the bodies come in contact with one another, or both?

Ralph

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Thats a beautiful pic you posted, thanks. Question though, does the tender have operating marker lights like the scale version?

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I have the Lionmaster one and love it. The only thing mine dosen’t smoke good. I heard that sometimes the wires for the fan are crossed. I just don’t have the time to check it out. But it was worth every penny.

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Hey, thanks for your input. Glad to hear you love the lionmaster T1. Lucky for me, I run all my lionels from now on with the smoke unit off.

Anyway, sounds like the lionmaster t1 sounds like a great unit. Affordable, beautiful model from the pic posted above.

Again, thanks for sharing.

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The LionMaster T-1 tender has red markers and a white back-up light. The draw-bar contains the wireless tether, so shortening it might require more technical expertise than I have.

The smoke unit fan was indeed wired backwards. The fix took about 15 minutes start to finish.

Jon [8D]