Under The Hood: MPC Era Geep

Wait a minute!  Jimmy Carter was elected POTUS in 1977. By that time Lionel GP's had stamped steel rails. Your photos shows plastic post rails which are from the Nixon/Ford era.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Wait a minute!  Jimmy Carter was elected POTUS in 1977. By that time Lionel GP's had stamped steel rails. Your photos shows plastic post rails which are from the Nixon/Ford era.

They were made 1973 which was Nixon Agnew era. I picked up a Gold Chessie GP7 with a damaged shell and converted the dummy to power which they are pretty good pullers when lashe up. I'm going to get a Bachmann True sounds plus unit so they can have sound also. I'll only install the sound in one unit.

Yes 2 powered units do a good job pulling a long train.

Gene H posted:

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Wait a minute!  Jimmy Carter was elected POTUS in 1977. By that time Lionel GP's had stamped steel rails. Your photos shows plastic post rails which are from the Nixon/Ford era.

They were made 1973 which was Nixon Agnew era. I picked up a Gold Chessie GP7 with a damaged shell and converted the dummy to power which they are pretty good pullers when lashe up. I'm going to get a Bachmann True sounds plus unit so they can have sound also. I'll only install the sound in one unit.

Much improvement was yet to come from Lionel and Washington.....LOL

Jim 1939 posted:

Yes 2 powered units do a good job pulling a long train.

Did you power the dummy unit also?

No I just bought 2 powered units or just ran 2 different road names. At one time I had almost all of the MPC GPs. Although some claim otherwise I found a Powered GP with dummy couldn't pull much train. (MPC)

Just to be clear, the Carter-era comment comes from an e-mail I sent to Mitch when the GEEPs were in Transit - I told him that when they were last on the rails, Jimmy Carter was President, so they would need some TLC before running (which turned out to be truer than I knew). As delivered to Mitch, there is one powered and one dummy - I do not believe he powered the dummy. So, the trains he pulled in the videos used just one motor.

And the 1973 date seems right. I bought the powered unit when I was in New London, Ct. in ‘72 - ‘74. It reminded me of the engine I saw pulling the train I occasionally took home to NYC.

Can’t wait to see what Mitch does with them... the GG-1, not so much!!!

Jim 1939 posted:

No I just bought 2 powered units or just ran 2 different road names. At one time I had almost all of the MPC GPs. Although some claim otherwise I found a Powered GP with dummy couldn't pull much train. (MPC)

I agree, that's why I powerd the dummy unit so I have different road numbers. I run mine long hood forward which was a common practice on the Pennsy as well as other NE railroads to increase crew safety. Forgot to mention before the two units I mentioned above are Pennsy,

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Here's the broken off pad... 

...and epoxied back into place. 

Mitch 

OK Mitch... what exactly does the chassis pad do??? I can’t exactly tell from the pics. I did remove them from their boxes a few weeks ago to take a few pictures, but they seemed OK at the time.

Apples55 posted:

OK Mitch... what exactly does the chassis pad do??? I can’t exactly tell from the pics. I did remove them from their boxes a few weeks ago to take a few pictures, but they seemed OK at the time.

The floor of the loco rests on the pads.  They keep the floor and shell from tilting off to the side.    

Pads of that era do tend to be a tad brittle.  You have to pop the rivets to replace 'em, so I generally prefer to just epoxy 'em back in place.  

Mitch 

"8010-105 Mounting Plate Pivot Bearing"

ADCX Rob posted:

"8010-105 Mounting Plate Pivot Bearing"

That's them!