Black River Freight set

Congrats!

Aw those good memories

BRR, Nice find - enjoy! Once I saw the title of your post, I figured it was an MPC set

My first set was made in 1977

Just be careful with the Mighty SOS board in the tender

In the day we called it 'The Mighty sound of Maracas'!  

I believe with that set the tender has the large roller filled with ?????.  No SOS board to worry about.  Chuck nailed the sound though.

That looks like a great set! JohnA

That’s a nice find with the buildings and extras still with it.  This set marked the start of MPC’s ‘play value’ emphasis, which meant stuffing these entry-level sets with telephone poles, road signs, paper buildings and whatever else they could think of.   The Trains N Truckin’ sets were born from the same idea.   It’s one of the reasons MPC sets are hard to find in Excellent or better shape.

That’s a cool train set. I got one of those for Christmas in the mid-‘70s and found a brand new one a few years ago. I haven’t been able to bring myself to assemble the buildings but I have certainly run the train. The cars are super light, so I keep them on the track the same way I did as a kid. I just load them with stuff.

Have fun with that train!

Anyone ever try running the set as intended, with the trestles? Seems like that could be quite interesting!

I'm hoping to set up my first train set, the Cannonball, the Black River Freight, and my Dad's scout set for Christmas this year. He built me a tunnel out of wooden American Bricks which I hope to duplicate as well. I really played with those American Bricks when I was a kid!

brr,

If I had a dime for every hour I spent with the red plastic American Bricks I'd have a Legacy Big-Boy! Could not run it on the layout but I would have it. Nice topic, have a blast with the Black River Freight!    Train ON!

Jim K

@brr posted:

Anyone ever try running the set as intended, with the trestles? Seems like that could be quite interesting!

I'm hoping to set up my first train set, the Cannonball, the Black River Freight, and my Dad's scout set for Christmas this year. He built me a tunnel out of wooden American Bricks which I hope to duplicate as well. I really played with those American Bricks when I was a kid!

I ran it as intended as a kid. It worked fine except for the cars falling off the track sometimes.

Nice one! Let’s not forget the Johnny Cash commercial mentioning that set.

@yankspride4 posted:

Nice one! Let’s not forget the Johnny Cash commercial mentioning that set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwW_fldeM-U

Black River Freight was my first train for Christmas in 1979.  Still have it in nice condition.  Of course the boxes were flimsy and didn't fare well.  Mine was after the switchover to the DC CAN motor drive.

Do these older sets run off a regular AC transformer or are they DC ?

@boomer0622 posted:

Do these older sets run off a regular AC transformer or are they DC ?

It depends on the particular set and the year it was made.  Lionel did a few sets that came with a DC power pack and had locomotives equipped with DC can motors wired directly to the track pickups.  I believe the majority of the sets were the typical open frame AC motor however, at least until the circuit board type "E-Units" came into existence.  I can't speak to which years the various transitions occurred in however.

This one is AC.  The DC sets came later. I want to say around 1980, but I could be wrong.

DC was 1979.  I believe that was the first year for it.  I wish I still had the original Tomy Big Loader in the foreground.