The MPC years

All of them.  Classic American Made Lionel's.  Still had that play value with fun sets and catalogs. 

Blue Comet!  And one of these days I'm going to spring for one!

 

Jon

The PC GG1 is one I'd like to pick up someday. I also like the Amtrak F3s.

I don't have anything form the '70s.  It's not that I doubt there were some great trains from that era, like the Blue Comet KOOLjock1 wants, but it is just not an era I have decided to collect.  I have some pre-war Marx and postwar Lionel from/because of my Dad and my childhood.  Otherwise, the oldest loco I have is about 1990-92.

Some early MPC rolling stock had Timken trucks with the fast angle wheels. I like to pick those up when I see them.

I have a great appreciation for equipment made during the MPC era. A fact lost on some participants today, MPC production played an integral role in keeping the three rail O gauge segment of the hobby alive during the 70s and 80s.

 

I still have a number of MPC models on the roster. My favorites are the Seaboard Coast Line and Bangor & Aroostook Bicentennial units as well as the Amtrak RDC set.

 

Bob 

I still have a fondness for the sets of my childhood - The Empire State Express freight set, the Southern Crescent and Blue Comet passenger sets, and most of all, the 4-4-0 General set.  I don't have the Blue Comet yet (my brother has the one from our childhood, as well as the General from our childhood), but I will get one some day.

 

Andy

All of the FARR sets and the Limited Sets...Finally have them all, also the SP daylight F3 Passenger set.  I believe these are some of the best Lionel trains made.....

The limited edition sets from the late 1970s and early 1980s, like the Royal Limited,

Mid-Atlantic Limited, Southern Pacific Limited, Great Lakes Limited. Sharp looking graphics, diecast trucks and nice packaging.

 

Some nice sets in this photo from Carail:

 

 

I love my Milwaukee Special but sometimes my MTH Hiawatha doesn't play well with it.

 

The Mickey Mouse Train from 1977 still shows a significant value as far as I can see, especially the Snow White and Pinocchio boxcars.

I enjoy the MPC Pennsy items, as well as the above mentioned MM Disney set.  I also have the Spitrit of '76 set and Warner Bros set.  Very colorful and I've no problem running them.

 

Silver Lake, a guy I service for, Henry Hall, Tree Top Antiques in the Rennigers Antique Mall, near Kutztown, PA just picked up a nice MPC PC GG1.

treetoptrains@yahoo.com

610-844-5234

I have the Empire State Express headed up by the 8600 NYC Hudson and the Great Northern 3100 as well as the Joshua Lionel Cowen 8210 Hudson.  All of these engines still run as well as they did back in the 1970s.  So, I would have to say they are worthy successors to the best steamers Lionel produced back in the post-war era.   Some day I am going to purchase a Southern Crescent Limited set as well as the Blue Comet.  MPC manufactured some nice trains but the good ones were all at the top end of the line.

Do you have a list of these sets that you could share?

 

Thanks

The Chessie Steam Special & N&W 611 set

Alco FA due to the reasonable cost in relation to modifying the paint scheme..I made up a A-B set of RI engines..the freight cars are the most colorful of all. 

 

Two more photos from Carail:

 

 

I started buying MPC in the seventies and still have it all. Here are a few picks. The CN boxcar was one of my first paint jobs. Also notice the baggage car has all the step straps intact.

Working on collecting all the 9700 series boxcars.

It got me back into trains back then in the early 70's. I had some great trains back then. The only mpc era train I have is the blue comet and all passenger cars, bicentennial engine and all state cars, and the orange Lionel set with the rare 5712.  It was a great time.

 

 

Good luck Joe on your quest. The 9700 are some of my favorite. I especially like the CP Rail cars.

 

Bill

I've always liked the MPC cars, lots of colorful and unique roadnames. I like the Blue Comet and the Southern Crescent and will get themone day. Picked up the Bicentennial set at York last fall but it's a little bit long for the size of my layout.

 

Jerry

The Blue Comet set and The Southern Cresent set, both given to me by my wife.  They  helped start my son (Hump Yard Mike) into trains.  These sets were used this year with our Christmas Layout and the Grandkids to start their interest.

Buzz

 

Folks sometimes forget just about everything MPC was produced just once in oil based paints that can't be duplicated.  Given how poorly MPC ran and how obsolete by today's minimal standards it has become, the only place the colorful all American made product line should be now is a display shelf.

 

Sadly, the iconic line remains grossly under appreciated by collectors even though its charm is timeless and can never be duplicated.  

Joe

 

quote:

Given how poorly MPC ran and how obsolete by today's minimal standards it has become, the only place the colorful all American made product line should be now is a display shelf.

 

Each of us is certainly entitled to our opinions. There are folks who feel MPC trains run poorly. There are also plenty of folks who believe they run well.

Most of the MPC trains I've played with and/or serviced ran just fine.

 

Couldn't disagree with you more.  I've been running MPC for 40 years on the layout and the Christmas displays.  Yes, they are toy-like and may lack detail but shelf Queens?  Nope. 

Thanks Bill.

 

I still have about two more dozen to get yet. The hunt has been fun. The CP Rail cars are some of the ones I have left to find.

MPC is my second favorite era after PW. I enjoy the colorful graphics on the rolling stock, and I have a number of the engine sets, especially GPs and U Boats. The locos run fine considering their motors. The rolling stock tracks fine, and the couplers hold, and if they don't, a twistie works, too. They were cheap and underappreciated when I got back into O Gauge, so the fleet grew quickly. Best of all, they are USA made.

The colorful reefers, as shelfware, at today's MPC prices.

Very, very little. I have the two or three Milwaukee Road sets made in that era, a few extra cars to go with them, and a Northern that's in pieces because I started to repaint it and put TMCC in it and never got around to finishing. Most of the product from that era is junk - I bought what I have when I was on a kick to get most every Milwaukee Road item ever made and I wouldn't buy it again now that I know how awful it is and better is available. I haven't bought an MPC era item in ten years and probably will never buy another one ever. 

I suppose if you're operating yer old AC Pulmors that eat enough amps to fry modern electroncs by themselves, you wouldn't have much of a problem today.

My dual motored MPC GG1 ate nearly 9 amps alone and required the use of a PW transformer to keep from tripping.  My MPC boxcars and all RS are colorful to look at but so light they need to be at the back of a train to keep from flipping over.

I could give 20 more examples why none of it meets today's operating standards

Joe   

 

quote:

I suppose if you're operating yer old AC Pulmors that eat enough amps to fry modern electroncs by themselves, you wouldn't have much of a problem today.

My dual motored MPC GG1 ate nearly 9 amps alone and required the use of a PW transformer to keep from tripping.

 

If today's electronics aren't robust enough to handle older trains, why is that a flaw in the older trains?

 

quote:

I could give 20 more examples why none of it meets today's operating standards

 

Are these standards published somewhere? I would like to read them.

 

I like the Lifesavers tank car from '78  - probably the most noticed and commented on car that I have on my layout.  I also cast another vote for the Spirit of 76 train set - something clearly on my "list".

 

Not sure I ever read the new standards for modern trains. However the few MPC that I have do just fine. The engines work smooth and have enough for their job around the track. The rolling stock does the same.

 

I am glad that I still have some of it and would not give away the ones that I still have. It is nice having a little history dating back to the 1950's through 2013.

 

I run my MPC engines through my TIU using the remote with the variable one outlet. I have never had any issues. I have found that the kids really love these trains. Detail is great but then again few people really let the kids get into touching and feeling the finer stuff, With MPC you can let the kids have some fun as it was meant to be.

Sorry, my eyes glaze over when you start talking about amps and toy trains in the same sentence.  I put the track together, connect two wires, put the engine on the track, turn up the throttle and the trains run. I have fun, the kids have fun and everyone is happy.  If something breaks I get the readily available parts, put in the fix and then have fun again.  All that and I still have "change left over from my dollar" (to borrow a quote from the 1970's McDonald's commercials).  Seriously, I'm not comparing new tech to old tech.  Back to the OP's question, What's desirable from the 1970's era?  All of it from my perspective, cost wise and fun wise, but then again I'm not trying to recreate the world in scale, nor do I have sacks of money under the train table. 

>>.If today's electronics aren't robust enough to handle older trains, why is that a flaw in the older trains?<<

 

I suppose if you're comfortable using a 70's era car that gets 8MPG as your daily driver rather then a newer model that can get upwards of 40, it wouldn't make sense to you why a MPC era GG1 that eats 9 amps is different then a newer model that uses less then 2.  Let alone the safety issues those older models create.  

Bottom line, nothing needs toi be written. its plain common sense. Even though they both do the job, only one meets modern standards.  

Joe     

 

Safety issues those older models create? Standards? Such as?

And if it's not written down is it really "A Standard" and not your opinion?

As for an older car I'd love to have a Torino or a Chevelle over my Edge anyday but since my wife isn't as enamored with the older cars as I am that ain't gonna happen unless we hit the lottery.

 

Jerry

MPC carwise I have a pretty good run of 9700 boxcars. I like the 5200 weathered reefers. I like that they made multiple numbers of cars in the same roadname  and similar paint schemes. The mentioned CP boxcars, the five PC boxcars (one highcube),three N&W and so on fun to find and at the "nice price".
My personal favorite 9700 boxcars are the Providence and Worchester and the RF&P.

What I find most interesting about the MPC era has more to do with the passage of time than with any of the products themselves -- which for the most part were produced during a relatively lackluster "instant collectors era".  Nonetheless, it kept the hobby alive following The Lionel Corporation's "ultra-thin" 8-page catalog of 1969, when next to nothing was being produced anymore.   

 

While the products of the time might not hold a candle to operating features and detail levels of today's trains, those products "thrived" back in their day on a somewhat false premise -- namely the thought that products which were last produced in the post-war era were ONCE AGAIN being produced, often marketed as "never to be produced again".     Little did we know (at the time) that the MPC era would usher in unprecedented levels of toy train production that would offer these trains over and over again -- albeit with incremental improvements over the years.  Ain't hindsight wonderful???  Had we known that back then, none of us would have paid what we did for the MPC stuff. 

 

Getting back to the passage of time though... I find it quite amazing that the MPC era is already 30-40 years ago now... which "seems" further back in time than most of us viewed Lionel's peak post-war heyday years of the 1950's when we were kids in the 1960's.  Back in the 1960's, Lionel's peak post-war years were just 10-15 years old.  Funny how the passage of time can play that game on us. 

 

David