Running an mpc southern crescent

Looks good!!

Thats a nice passenger set thanks for showing  your video.

I'm a tinplate guy and I'm slowing getting into MPC era stuff and I'm really liking it. Not sure why it gets such a bad wrap. 

Nice set Bennett!

I agree with the other Don-I don't know why MPC is looked down on. My MPC locomotives look and run great.

Is the sound still functional in your locomotive?

The MPC Southern Crescent was pretty much the top of the line when it was produced. By today's standards, it's primitive: the Mighty Sound of Static, an AC motor, and few details compared to today's trains cause many people to look down their noses at the MPC era. I have even heard people say MPC stands for More Plastic Cr*p. Techology evolves, and without the MPC era, we might not have the modern trains we have today. 

@Don Winslow posted:

Nice set Bennett!

I agree with the other Don-I don't know why MPC is looked down on. My MPC locomotives look and run great.

Is the sound still functional in your locomotive?

Yes, the sound in the locomotive still works (at least I think) but the connector for the tender came off but I'm pretty sure its fixable with some heat from a heat gun 

Bennett-be very careful with the sound board in your tender. The mounting foam that secures the soundboard deteriorates. If your board grounds to the metal frame it may destroy your board.

It's a messy job, but I would suggest removing the original insulation from the board (I used my wife's "Goo Gone" and an old toothbrush) and replacing it with new double sided foam mounting tape. I used two layers to make sure there was no contact between the board and the frame.

Like MPC products, the "Sound of Steam" is also controversial, but I find it nostalgic.

@Don Winslow posted:

Bennett-be very careful with the sound board in your tender. The mounting foam that secures the soundboard deteriorates. If your board grounds to the metal frame it may destroy your board.

It's a messy job, but I would suggest removing the original insulation from the board (I used my wife's "Goo Gone" and an old toothbrush) and replacing it with new double sided foam mounting tape. I used two layers to make sure there was no contact between the board and the frame.

Like MPC products, the "Sound of Steam" is also controversial, but I find it nostalgic.

 

I went to ACE a week or two ago and got a roll of double sided mounting foam and the minute I got home I used isopropyl alcohol, a toothbrush, and a roll of paper towels and went and did that to get rid of the old insulating foam on all of my MPC engines and put the new foam on it and on only like 3 of my locomotives is the sound not working (sadly) so I need new circuitboards for those engines. Thx for the suggestion though, as I might not have known that.

I had to replace the foam on my Daylight but the foam is still good on my J. 

That's too bad, Bennet!

The Norfolk and Western "J" in the above photo had a similar issue, but I found a new board on EBAY so I can still enjoy "Sound of Static" to my heart's content!.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes MPC models. They're colorful, robust, and dependable.

My MPC still gets a regular work out. MPC made a few too many cars for the J to take up any grade, but I even have some double cars for the Blue Comet and it handles grades fine.

I think the colorful nature of MPC era items is what attracts me to them. Tinplate is colorful and I love it. Must be a connection!

Folks,

In Run 312, the June/July issue of O Gauge Railroading, we have a Collector's Gallery article starting on page 59, that discusses both the great looks of the the MPC 8702 Southern Crescent and its operational quirks; including it's tendency to "squeak" going down the track from time to time and that the Mighty Sound of Steam timed static was sooo very annoying after a time. The eventual cure for the timed static problem for me  was to remove the chassis under the tender and replace it with the chassis and air whistle from a Postwar 2046 W tender, which also had sturdy metal trucks and an operating coupler.  Before the coming of TMCC and RailSounds refits, this solution worked wonderfully for over 20 years!

The images in Run 312 Collector's Gallery also emphasize what an attractive engine it is.  This was the first modern 3-Rail steamer I purchased and it started me off on a long road of happy wallet emptying experiences and eventually lead me to write Collector's Gallery for the next 30 years.  After three decades plus, the MPC Southern Crescent Hudson is still one of the best looking locomotives Lionel has built..and it was made right here in the USA too!

Hey, give Run 312 of OGR a look and you will like what you see. Better yet, get a digital subscription, which you can do right here on the Forum.

Ed Boyle

In 1970 when MPC got started, it was a very fun time. Lionel was alive again, bringing out catalogs every year that were bigger than the year before. Familiar and new road names, fast angle wheels meant you could have long trains. Christmases with new engines. It was all good. 

Every era of trains has it positives and negatives. Enjoy the positives and don’t clutter your mind with the rest. 

MPC did make some plastic junk, BUT so did the Lionel Corp, MPC/LTI was a great toy train era. We got engines with real RR names on the tenders, the parts were interchangeable with the old. Many a PW engine was save from being turned into parts and a scrap bin. MPC also made some of the most colorful boxcars ever. You probably already know this, keep a drop of oil on the armature ends or the motor will squeal like a pig.

I urge anyone interested in the MPC Southern Crescent and/or Blue Comet to check out Ed Boyle's article in OGR Run 312 (June/July) on those trains as mentioned above.    Fun reading

This is just a couple of photos from the Collector's Gallery article in Run 312. The MPC Southern Crescent is a genuine "Oldie but  a Goodie".  No doubt about it.

Ed Boyle

I second that!

I simply disconnect the SOS in my MPC/Fundimensions era steam and pull a LTI Railsounds boxcar. You then have a decent whistle/bell and sound without modifications. 

Ricky,

Great idea today, but that option was simply unavailable in the 1980s and anything to silence the "Mighty Sound of Steam" was a real plus back then.  The LTI RailSounds Boxcar sure works fine now, though. Glad you mentioned it on this thread!

Thanks.

Ed Boyle

Memories!

I've been silent for a long time; life getting in the way and all. My entire collection is MPC, most purchased new or at swap meets in the 70's and 80's, and I managed to hang on to all of them -- still carefully stored in their original boxes. About ten years ago I had a chance to go through some of the locomotives and replaced the foam tape under the sound boards. As a general rule, don't power up any MPC locos with sound until you can check the condition of the foam tape mounting the sound board. You might save a few boards that way.

With any luck, my cross-country move back to my Midwest home region will net us a house with a big enough basement to finally build a layout again; the last house would have been great -- except my young-adult kids are still mostly living with us, so storage took up the space that would have gone to the layout. Such is life.

Here's the Southern Crescent's follow-on sibling, the MPC Blue Comet, running on a bit of carpet central. A sharp eye might spot a couple of extra details -- the flag holders added (those are parts from later MPC production) and the silver painted cylinder covers. While some collectors might balk, many of my trains have a few extra details added here and there; MPC's higher-end trains were often a step in the right direction to where the hobby is now.

MPC was my era. As a youngster I read the catalogs from the 70's and 80's just like the postwar kids did before me, and the old men have done after me... When I could finally afford it, MPC was what I purchased first. That Santa Fe GP-40 in the 1982 catalog ( I think that was the year) was the greatest thing ever. Never thought I would have one, but was able to get one in my adult years. 

Ed Boyle's article was great! Hope to see more of the same in the future. 

brr

With what we are planning, I believe you will.

Ed Boyle

That Crescent, the Blue Comet, and the Chicago & Alton were all nice sets from that era.  I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a Crescent set at a Greenberg show a few years back.

@Ed Boyle posted:

Folks,

In Run 312, the June/July issue of O Gauge Railroading, we have a Collector's Gallery article starting on page 59, that discusses both the great looks of the the MPC 8702 Southern Crescent and its operational quirks; including it's tendency to "squeak" going down the track from time to time and that the Mighty Sound of Steam timed static was sooo very annoying after a time. The eventual cure for the timed static problem for me  was to remove the chassis under the tender and replace it with the chassis and air whistle from a Postwar 2046 W tender, which also had sturdy metal trucks and an operating coupler.  Before the coming of TMCC and RailSounds refits, this solution worked wonderfully for over 20 years!

The images in Run 312 Collector's Gallery also emphasize what an attractive engine it is.  This was the first modern 3-Rail steamer I purchased and it started me off on a long road of happy wallet emptying experiences and eventually lead me to write Collector's Gallery for the next 30 years.  After three decades plus, the MPC Southern Crescent Hudson is still one of the best looking locomotives Lionel has built..and it was made right here in the USA too!

Hey, give Run 312 of OGR a look and you will like what you see. Better yet, get a digital subscription, which you can do right here on the Forum.

Ed Boyle

 

Ed: Don't forget the Blue Comet set is just as attractive as the Southern IMHO!

My favorites from that era are the Blue Comet and the Alton Limited, and yes, I have both of 'em!  

The Alton Limited's locomotive was the first MPC loco to bring back the die-cast New York Central style tender; it sort of solidified the higher-quality direction that MPC/Fundimensions was going toward.

They might seem dated by todays standards, but if you were interested in Lionel at the time these trains were new, it was an exciting time. After a lot of attempts to reach beyond lower-cost train sets and not much more than a handful of nicer individual locomotives and cars, Lionel  fairly knocked it out of the park with complicated, high-quality paint schemes and solid postwar-style steamers.

Were they as prototypically accurate as what was available in contemporary HO? Certainly not, but with the renewed level of fit-and-finish and reasonably accurate paintwork, Lionel really re-established O-gauge for having the visual size and impact that sets it apart. And believe me, for the time -- even with some of the fiddly issues these Lionel offerings had -- they ran well and could be fine-tuned with basic mechanical and electrical aptitude. HO was a far worse mixed-bag for operating reliability back then. These were definitely landmarks on Lionel's path back to success.

My GF bought me this set in 1980. 

@RamblerDon posted:

I'm a tinplate guy and I'm slowing getting into MPC era stuff and I'm really liking it. Not sure why it gets such a bad rap. 

This comment was a revelation. You are right. MPC ought to be judged by comparison with tinplate--not by comparing it to today's trains.

MPC has much more in common with tinplate than with current production. Like tinplate, it is unapologetically a toy train. The main difference is that it ups the impression of realism by using cast rather than stamped components, allowing for more detail. Postwar was nothing more than this, really: the evolution of tinplate to look more real-ish while still being a toy. The process had started before WWII with the first all-cast locomotives and continued after the war. It's all about the imagination, but postwar didn't ask you to imagine quite as hard as prewar had. The secret of these trains is that they never invite you to count rivets...but they have just enough of them to make you feel that, if you were to count them, they would turn out right. MPC took it a step further by using more realistic paint schemes and markings, but it was never, in its soul, far from tinplate.

Consider what's inside many MPC locomotives: A series-wound motor with a parallel-plate  architecture and spur gears--something which had been used since pretty much the beginning of electric trains. Oh, and an e-unit developed by Ives. Riding on pizza-cutter wheels around curves that could make streetcar operators wince. There's a reason the old O Scale guys called anything that ran on Lionel track "tinplate."

So yes,we should view MPC as a fascinating approach to tinplate, rather than an inferior version of what's being made today.

@Sam Jumper posted:

My MPC still gets a regular work out. MPC made a few too many cars for the J to take up any grade, but I even have some double cars for the Blue Comet and it handles grades fine.

 

You lucky duck.

One of the MPC sets I want the most would be that J1 set with all the cars 

I'd like to add some more MPC era items to my collection for sure. I really think the bright vibrant colors are what attract me. Much like tinplate they really wanted you to stop and take notice.