I am fairly new to the hobby and a total ignoramus when it comes to Lionel trains. Would somebody please explain to me what went on in the Lionel train world during the MPC era that makes these trains undesirable? I bought some MPC era F-3's, did I make a mistake? I got an ABA set NIB for 125.00 which I thought was a good deal. The only difference I can see between these and my PW set is that the top vents are slotted and the horns are plastic. Should I be looking for anything else? Please let me know if I made a mistake so I can avoid doing it again.
$125 sounds like a fair price, price will fluctuate a little with roadname. I paid $100 for a pair of New Haven F3's back in the 1980's. Basically, everything back then was derived from postwar tooling with new graphics and some mechanical changes.
A lot of folks like to compare MPC with today's products and that's where a lot of disdain comes from. Probably 99% of the LionelMPC I once owned was extremely reliable and the fixes were easy if something broke.
The MPC era was a rebirth for Lionel trains, otherwise the tooling would have been cut up to make Chevy's or Ford's. We probably wouldn't have an OGR board if it wasn't for Lionel/MPC.
Rusty
