fisherdoc My understanding is that the "too-long" drive shaft initially seen on the 1977 tuscan 8753 was continued on the next year's 8850 black PC. That is what angered Glenn Uhl-he wanted Lionel to place those aprons on the black PCs. I have a few of them and, as I remember without digging them out, they all have the bottom of that worm drive gear poking out of a hole on the bottom of each powered truck. Again from this old guy's memory ( which admitted is beginning to fade ), the other question about this GG1 is whether some still had nylon gears from the prior year 8753 run. I think that all the relevant Greenbergs and the Tuohy/McComas book on MPC, all suggest that the 8753 had nylon gears which was corrected the next year to metal ones on the 8850s. I also remember some OGR discussions saying the same. However, at one point in time I had an interest in these-and inspected at least 100-150 of these at various train shows and I swear that I have seen a few new-in-box looking 8850s with nylon gears-in fact I have one. They may have been switched with 8753s ( easy to do but I am not sure why one would do that for such an admittedly somewhat strangely painted tuscan GG1). Well that's my understanding of the issues-I really do like all the MPC GG1s-especially the two made after the 8753&8850. Enjoy. turtle7
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