Another little nugget of information. These Lionel prewar celebration series tinplate sets were being planned during a period when MTH and Lionel were not on the best of terms, to say the least, during the drawn out lawsuit, and before the Lionel Corporation licensing agreement, so MTH probably had zero role in Lionel's manufacture of the sets specified by Bob Bubeck above.
As Bob pointed out, these repros were attempts at faithful reproduction of the prewar models in almost all respects, which some folks prefer, including AC open frame motors. The could have used TMCC, but chose not to in deference to those who prefer that even their primitive electronics and motors reflect the original model. MTH used to offer tinplate with open frame AC motors, but stopped when they found most of their fans preferred PS 2.0. Different strokes for different folks 
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