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Reply to "MPC Era Lionel Trains?"

PaperTRW posted:
Adriatic posted:
    Pick up a C8 post war, imagine you grew to expect that quality and ruggedness.

Pick up a similar C8 MPC. Note the weight, detail difference, metal content and overall feel of ruggedness. Note the change in sheen because in the 70s you are suspect of the high sheen; previously that was a dead giveaway for cheap, brittle, plastic, even on name brand items.( Time answered the question on the plastic's quality )

  Can motors were considered cheap and unreliable. They were only seen in toys.  Lionels were not "just toys" they were Lionels. The open frame could be rebuilt like a quality power tool; the can motor was perceved as a throwaway toy.

  Add to that the fiasco that occurred as thousands of kids planted that new Lionel starter set loco on the old family Christmas loop and had them quickly toast.... DC trains did little to continue the confidence Lionel had earned with the Christmas crowd. I recall stacks of returns 4' high at Kmart. These starter set's likely ended a few hobbyists future fun permanently and ended some family traditions.

  Gramps ordered sight unseen from Lionel from the mid 30s till the mid 70s. Finally, the overall quality made him send an engine back. He cried because "his Lionel" was dead. He continued to buy, but never ordered another thing.

  Gramps was an operator, but also a serious collector. The kind with "white glove cabinets". I feel guilt cutting into anything pre70 not already broke.  I see MPC as something cheap and acceptible that I can enjoy; or hate... bashing on it till I do enjoy it, without " guilt".

Posts like the one above make me cringe a bit, because they're long on emotion and short on facts. Let me start with two questions:

1) What was the set name and approximate year that you saw 4' high stacks of returns at K-Mart? How do you know the reason why they were returned?

Because I grew up in a Lionel environment, I listened and asked.  Many were returned for "cheapness", but the majority because the DC motors were not compatible with Lionel's previous ac power, though it was expected.  This was poor marketing on Lionels part imo, they didn't make it clear enough the two types were not compatible.

2) What was the locomotive that your grandfather returned because it didn't have the overall quality he was looking for?

I'm having trouble on that at the moment, I'll have to think a while. It was white and there were quite a few white loco's about that period.... Alco, GP or U-boat ?Disney, one of the State sets or other patriotics?

TRW

ADCX Rob posted:
Adriatic posted:

...Gramps ordered sight unseen from Lionel from the mid 30s till the mid 70s. Finally, the overall quality made him send an engine back. He cried because "his Lionel" was dead...

Too bad. 1976 was the year things started getting really good again.

   He didn't "give up", he just never bought a loco without inspecting it first, no more orders after near 50 years of ordering direct, sight unseen.

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