Lionel 1970 Until Now

Lionel train production under General Mills:

1) MPC: 1970-1972

2) Fundimensions:  1973-1985

Kenner-Parker (spun off by General Mills): 1986 (only a few months)

Lionel Trains after General Mills:

Lionel Trains, Inc (aka the Richard Kughn era):  1986-1995

Lionel LLC (First majority owned by Wellsprings, then Guggenheim, both investment/management companies):  1995 - Present

CPG = Consumer Packaged Goods, which Fundimensions was under.  General Mills did a fair amount of re-structuring and spinning off its divisions while Lionel trains was under their ownership

Of all places, check out Wikipedia's write-up on Lionel LLC for a nice history of Lionel's key players/owners over the years.

CPG Products Corp. was one of the owners of Fundimensions/MPC after General Mills spun off that division in the late 1970's.  Interesting you have a product actually marked CPG, 'cause we don't hear of that acronym associated all that much with Lionel.  In general, "MPC" was the name most associated with Lionel products from 1970 through 1985, even though the most formal MPC link was just a few years.

David

Thanks Guy's for your responses,Just what I wanted to know.

David,

The CPG SD40 is a Santa Fe Blue and Yellow,Sticked on fuel tank says CPG 1982.

Thanks

Fred

Were Wellspring and Guggenheim related in some way?  I assume Lionel is "safe" under Guggenheim's wealthy portfolio?

So MPC was a modelmaker/kit maker that GM purchased...and then Lionel was thrown in with them since the concepts were similar and MPC had the plastic crafting experts.  So what happened with MPC when Lionel came under the Fundimensions name?  I read that CPG bought MPC and both were branded Fundimensions.  But it was still owned by General Mills??  Why didn't GM just run these as divisions? Did GM just hold these companies but let them buy each other? Kind of like the Family Lines Railroad.