The MPC years

great thread! i love when MPC comes up on here. as far as i'm concerned if you don't like it don't buy it. i have stuff from all era's no command or anything like that though. most of diesels are MPC for the most part they run well my blue and orange sd-28 saw a lot of track time this year it pulls a dummy gp and and about 13-14 cars on my 5x10 i was running my 8770 yesterday i snagged that for 30 bucks. i have a next to new milwaulkee special , the blue comet cars, but my favorite is my live savers car, my grandmother insisted i get that car when i was 8, i didn't want it i wanted a car with a real road name so she got me that car for christmas because she liked it so much, many years later i picked up atootsie roll car i run them every year on my christmas train. i also use a kw anda zw for power so no worries about too much draw. lol

Dave

8654 B&M GP9-

 

8759 EL GP9 - 

 

Silver Star - picked this whole set up for $50 & the SoS works great - 

Back in the mid 80's and early 90's I had a slew of MPC.  The MPC era pretty much captured the magic of postwar, except for the fact you had to wear shades because of the bright colors.

 

Eventually had to sell it off during the mid 90's, along with my postwar to help finance my way through a 2+ year layoff.

 

While I probably wouldn't start collecting it again, I don't regret my time with MPC.  It was probably the most fun time I've had with model railroading.

 

Rusty

 

 

 

Here's the 8215 - 

We would like to know more about this statement that was stuck into the middle of unrelated content.

 

I really don't think those of us running Postwar and MPC are going to be running modern day electronic stuff on the same track. We are 99% or better running conventional old school.

"We" is those of us who take umbrage at your comments about safety issues that don't really exist other than in your opinion.

Your comment about them being relics leads me to believe you have no love for older stuff and that's fine but don't make up safety and operational issues that don't exist to justify it for what ever reason you might have.

Personally if it won't run I won't buy it or I'll make it run, no shelf queens in my train room.

 

Jerry

LOL, all I can say to that is I love and enjoy my MPC relics right where it sits, on a shelf..

Joe

 

If it weren't for MPC I doubt there would be O gauge as we know it today. I give credit to them for seeing there was a future for it which I think bucked the fashionable trends of the day. MPC is like Rock and Roll, it's colorful crude, loud and cranky..all this latest fad of trying to make O gauge "respectable" wouldnt be around if it were not for MPC.

Oh these arent toys they are scale models...right.

All I know is that they kept the fun going. Put on some Chuck berry and let them roll. Long may they run.

What a great thread.....

 

I also have several MPC's...heck my first train set was the Sears Silver Star set however slightly different than Christophers shown above.  Mine has a green republic gon and a blue Great Northern Hopper but Engine Flat and Caboose are the same.

 

Have several other pieces as well and have quite a collection of 9800 Billboard Reefers.  Also had the complete Spirit of 76 set but I parted with that several years ago.  I loved the state boxcars in that set but detested the cheap paint job on the engine and caboose.

I would be. I run the most modern Legacy equipment with MPC, LTI or Postwar equipment; enjoy all my trains an all see action. That's why I bought them. I don't know where the 8-9 amps come from. My MPC Santa Fe Trainmaster draws about 2.5 amps with a train in tow. My 2343 draws just about 3 amps. The newer GP30's or GP35's or SD70ACe's draw 1.5 to 2 amps so it is not a huge difference. 

Seriously, if you have equipment drawing 8 amps, something is wrong. 

Oh Brother

 

 

 

quote:

The context of the statement was in relation to the safety of other engines with modern electronics on the same track when a roller sparking pulmor relic drawing high amps is running.  

 

I didn't see where this context was established in the original post.

 

Regardless, are the electronics in modern trains so sensitive that the sparking from an older modern era piece is going to cook them?

I've routinely operated postwar diesels and MTH units equipped with the original Protosounds in multiple unit consists. The operating characteristics in terms of electric power consumption and gearing are very similar for the two types and they run well together. I've not noticed any problems developing with the MTH units due to MU'ing them with postwar locomotives so my experience has been fine in this regard.

 

Bob

well put Matthew B.

I agree with you on your first paragraph.  I was living in Hawaii, just being discharged from the Navy, and I went to the Sears store during Christmas and to my surprise was some Lionel track, a couple of freight cars and a 1972 MPC catalog.  I asked if I could order from the catalog and soon had my first new Lionel trains since 1957.

 

MPC was and is still great stuff.  MPC bridged the gap needed to keep the icon name Lionel going.  It also started the early trend of "operating" trains instead of just "collecting" and watching post war trains accumulating dust on shelves.  There will always be good memories and a special place in my heart for MPC.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

To get back to the OP's original question, here is my favorite of the ones I have, a Vernors boxcar from 1977.  Vernors was (is?) a really strong ginger ale, available as diet or regular, in at least the northeast USA.  The little bearded guy was their logo.

I agree with both observations.  Had it not been for MPC, I likely would not even have gotten back into the O gauge segment of the hobby.

 

I also was living in Hawaii at the time.  Received Ron Hollander's "All Aboard" book as a Christmas gift and the very next day drove over to Honolulu Trains & Hobby where I spent a good amount of money on Lionel (MPC) trains, track, and accessories.  All the things I bought back in those days performed just fine, and I haven't looked back since then.

 

It was a most important era in Lionel production and in the O gauge hobby.  Perhaps the MOST important era in terms of perpetuating this segment.

The "safety" issue is a non-starter - "tempest in a teapot"!  

Sadly, I missed the MPC era.  Grew up with Lionel trains in the 50's and 60's and loved playing with them.  Graduated from HS in 70 and had to concentrate on getting the college degree, followed getting a job, marriage and having 3 kids in 4 1/2 years.  When I decided it was time to get back to trains by having a train around the Christmas tree for the kids, it was 1984 and the Richard Kughn era was beginning.  Because of how things worked out, I do not have any sentimental attachment to Lionel trains of that era.

Hello guys and gals..........

 

How good were the MPC 8206 Hudson ? Did they ever come as a set ?

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678

Tiffany

Excellent runners except for one batch that had off-centered driver wheels.  They were 2055/2065/665 clones mechanically, with Baldwin Disc wheels(1st used since 1949) as MagneTraction was not a feature.  They are good pullers due to the weight and rubber tire traction.

 

They had the first Lionel electronic whistles.

 

The 8206 headed the 1972 Service Station set.

Where do you get your trucks? I have been debating this for years with a Preamble F3.

I go HERE.

I've got an MPC Virginian Rectifier, too, and I have the same idea in mind.  Where do you get your trucks?

 

I'm a diesel person. My favorite MPC diesels were anything with Pennsylvania markings, #8162 and #8163 Ontario Northland SD-18's and #8762 Great Northern EP-5 electric.

 

ON the Auction site unfortunately

Hear! Hear!  I like that geep so much I have two sets of 8562/8565 powered and dummy units with two 9171 cabooses, plus strings of 6110 covered hoppers and 9724 boxcars to make up unit trains.  Not much, if anything, else was available in O gauge MoPac livery for a long time.

Recently, I picked up several MPC sets from th early 1970s, and in Mint condition: Cannonball Freight, Thunderball Freight, Kickapoo Valley Freight, Blue Streak Freight. The most I paid for one was $195. I haven't got the Blue Streak yet (waiting for delivery), but the others ran fine right out of the box after sitting idle for 40 years. And they look neat and are fun to watch run.

Love MPC.. where u can still get the smell of ozone.

Two MPC themes kept me occupied back in the early to mid- '70s and made me take my eye off PostWar (at least for awhile):

 

1.  The 9800 Series plug-door reefer cars (and the 9800s only).  Just gorgeous and a brilliant move by Lionel in '72 as those cars (plus the Standard O) took the hobby in a new direction.  I was able to gather together all those reefers, plus variations.  Some of my favorite toy trains...ever.

 

2.  The original Bicentennial trains made from ~'74 -'78 or so.  Locs, cars, caboose.  FAN-tastic.

 

I grew up with Lionel trains from the 1970s,so the MPC years is the era I enjoy most.I still run them often.

Dan

 

Beware the Lionel 8206 Hudson steam engine.I bought one in the late 1980s when they were at their price peak.The engine wobbled badly.I read over the years that they were all like that.My Dad actually bought me one when I was a kid and returned it right away because of the bad wheels.I ended up buying a postwar chassis that ran smooth,a Berkshire boiler front,and a Lionel Railsounds tender for my 8206.The only thing left from my 8206 is the shell.The reworked engine is in the video above.

Dan

Fortunately, that is not true.

I swapped out the trucks in my MPC Pennsy green and tuscan F3's with later Magnetraction version Lionel F3 trucks.  Also swapped out the 8753 and 8850 GG1 chassis with later Lionel G chassis.  Changed the trucks to uncoupling trucks on my PRR Broadway Limited set and added a Lionel electronic reverse unit to the New Englander plastic bodied 2-6-4 K4 type steamer.

 

I repaired for a dealer/service station in Fayetteville, NC while I was stationed at Bragg.  Got the parts direct from Lionel at 50% off because of it so the cost wasn't too bad.

 

Those changes didn't absolutely need to be done but did improve things.

 

Johnsgg1 - Were you able to fit the electronic reverse unit in the loco itself ?

I have an 8001 Plastic K4 that I would like to do this with.

 

 

Tanqueray Gin Reefer.

A number of folks have asked about swapping Magnetraction trucks under MPC F3s. I did exactly this with a truck I bought from Olsen's Toy Train Parts. I can say that the improvement is not huge, as the MPC F3 trucks, in my experience, are pretty good.

 

The problematic trucks (again, in my experience) are found under GPs, switchers and 4-axle U-boats. The gears are a mix of plastic and metal and the whole geartrain seemed to have too much play in it. Years of use can make it worse. This is why my beloved 8654 now rides an LTI chassis that uses the postwar F3-style truck/motor. Yes, it's MT, but the real improvement is from the more robust gears and bearings.

 

If your MPC is a Rectifier or F3, IMO, I'm not sure that a truck swap is worth the trouble.