I still like MPC Lionel Trains do you?

I like 'em.  I try to avoid the bottom of the barrel stuff with non-operating couplers and unpainted sides.  I find the middle of the road and up items from that era quite enjoyable.  I prefer William's flywheel and can motor drive but will buy a MPC engine if the price is right.  Is there a good guide online to servicing the MPC era engines?

 

I have some books that explain postwar era servicing but haven't been able to find anything on MPC.  

 

I love MPC. It brought me back into the hobby. The variety of road names and improved graphics vs. postwar helped sustain the Lionel name and brand following the disastrous "Cohn Era". Although looked down upon by many, MPC was critical in  producing attractive, colorful trains and enjoyable accessories thus saving Lionel from extinction.

Thank you for the kind words.

 

While the manual is somewhat disorganized, at least Lionel makes it available. If the other guys do, I'd appreciate someone posting the links.

 

We have to remember that the manual was designed for hardcopy. Each supplement was intended to be broken up and inserted into the base manual.

While I have an original hardcopy, with all of the supplements, I never merged them.

I purchased my copy from Lionel, before they offloaded the manual to Greenberg.

 

The Lionel manual binders are red. Most are marked directly on the binder. Some came unmarked, and a few had stickers.

The Greenberg manuals are dark grey or maybe black, marked directly on the binder.

 

to each....his own. My favorite comment here was made by my old pal Jimmy Sutter, who linked those MPC trains to the many friends he made during his hobby shop days.I'm happy to be one of those lucky guys that can call Jimmy "my friend."

MPC was readily available, more affordable than PW, and much better rolling than PW when I was young.   The colorful locomotives and cars drew me in.  It did not matter to me that they created a lot of fantasy designs.  They looked good to me and being a toy train guy, I didn't worry about sweating the details.  Most items were durable and I only had one engine where I developed a stutter gear problem from pulling almost 100 MPC cars with a single locomotive.  Lack of pulling power was never a problem.  I really appreciate the lower cost of these items today and am still an avid collector.  MPC is one of the best values out there today in O gauge.

The Quaker City Limited (2nd  set down) is what got me into the hobby.

Oh, I forgot, The Lionel GG1 8753, is What re-kindled my interest in collecting Lionel Trains. I found this engine by accident in one of the model railroader magazines. Chris Model Trains had a package deal if we ordered 12 of these engines, although one had to take a lot of other low end products to get the deal of $185 per engine. i ordered the package deal and had no problem selling the other 11 engines...This engine was a great puller and although it was conventional, it reminded us of those great Post War GG1's.

WOW...Although WE loved the MPC ERA,  Times are better now, and Lionel makes trains for every collectors needs. It's a Great time to be in this hobby.

It goes both ways Tommy. (friend)

Without MPC, we wouldn't be where we are today with Lionel IMO. I had just gotten out of the USMC, was in a new civilian job a few years when I happened to find Train Express in Indianapolis (along with one local hobby shop) as I was based out of Indy.

Once I saw the Southern Crescent set, and then the Blue Comet and Alton Limited sets, I was back on the bandwagon adding to my Postwar items I'd held on to since high school.

The decoration was light-years ahead of anything produced in the PW period, and the mechanicals were essentially PW designs with some updates (nylon gearing was NOt one of the improvements) but at least you could update parts if needed. Fast-angle wheels rolled way easier than PW had allowing longer trains with single motor engines.

i still have my Maple Leaf Limited, UP Gold Coast, and CP Rail Limited sets along with the JLC memorial set. Still great runners and good looking IMO as well. We were lucky MPC came along when they did.

I would guess that nearly half of what I own is MPC. It is brighter and more colorful than most postwar offerings (which makes up nearly the other half...) and the cars are a lot easier to pull. I don't own many of the engines from the time frame, but the ones I do own pull plenty good enough for my needs (15 to 20 9700 series boxcars and a caboose is a long train for me):

 

 

I really like their SD-18. I wish they would have found a way to squeeze 2 pullmors in there. The one in the picture has a lot of added weight to it and one of those Model Power sound systems in it.

 

I recently discovered the "gold box" cars with the die cast trucks. I really like these cars and have bought quite a few in the past year.

 

J White

 

I still have every MPC engine I ever purchased.  Not a lot of them to be sure because at that time I had young children and trains were lower on the priority list.  However, the five that I did purchase were higher end items and all still run perfectly to this day.  I still run them from time to time and still get a kick out of the Mighty Sound of Steam.  As has been stated that was high tech for the times.  I enjoy collecting and running trains from the different eras so I can have the opportunity to watch and listen to the technological progression which has occurred in our hobby over the last 100 years or so.  Some people may belittle and denigrate the MPC era but it kept the torch burning. 

Many more colorful 1970s and 1980s Lionel in these other two photos of Carail.

  

I cut my teeth in model railroading with Lionel MPC.  I've moved away from it during the early 1980s when the non - scale look & proportions became unappealing to me and started getting the early Weaver Quality Craft freight car kits and some Standard O until before high school.  After college then the military, I've been doing 3 rail scale for well over 15 years since and have been  loving it, rivet counting and all.

Having said that, over this past year I've been finding myself going back to those MPC roots and have been breaking out those trains from back then as well as acquiring new ones from that era. 

While agreed that MPC wasn't exactly the pinnacle of Lionel toy train history, I don't think it deserves the bad rap it seems to get at times; it certainly wasn't any worse  than the autumn years of the postwar era during the 1960s IMHO, and some improvements actually came out of it such as the fast angle wheels & delrin trucks as others mentioned which greatly reduced rolling resistance so much that postwar equipment was like dragging bricks around by comparison.  Coupled with the crisper graphics, more vibrant color varieties, and  wider range of roadnames offered compared to postwar I think contributed to the gradual revitalization of Lionel trains and relevance in the hobby.

Plus, as a kid I totally dug the building kits they came out with too during that time; certainly offered something different and better proportioned than most Plasticville structures that were prevalent before then.

sure do, jnust picked this up a few days ago, complete with the box.

Although MPC kept Lionel's name on store shelves in the 80's the quality and look was more Williams looking which I never cared for, and the engines coming from Mexico were a repair mans nightmare.  

 

Jack

It was quite a time...

 

The MPC era was certainly a lively era.  There was just as much excitement and anticipation for the next catalog back then as there is today.

 

It was also a pretty heady "collector" period.  Right or wrong, some MPC items increased in value rapidly shortly after hitting the dealer shelves (or swap tables...)

 

When an ad said "call for price," it usually meant higher than retail...

 

The search was on trying to find who had break ups and the "rare" car from a boxed set.  For the lowest possible price of course...   And, just like today, if you wanted to be sure of getting something, you pre-ordered it.  Yeah, I got caught up in it too.

 

And the stuff was fun to run.  No command control.  Basic and crude sound if any, just put it on the track and let 'er rip.  If it ran poorly, it usually was a simple postwar-style fix.

 

 

Even though my MPC trains are long gone, I don't regret participating in the era.

 

Rusty

 

When I got back into this in the late 80s, I picked up a good amount of MPC, because it was cheap and colorful and light to run. The PW stuff was more expensive, and I was a runner and not much of a collector. I still like it. The BN freight set is still one of my favorites.

 

jay jay has it correct, MPC was affordable compared Post War items.

Thanks

Pat

picked this up a couple of months ago for what the cars are worth(what I was really after). My Wife talked me into it(she's done this on several occasions when I saw something I really wanted, but was dragging my feet)

 

I love my MPC. Fast angle wheels, great paint jobs and low prices. 

I agree with this 100%. 

 

The other thing to keep in mind for people, including me, who like to complain is that today's introductory, basic starter sets are far nicer than the basic starter sets that were available when I was a kid in the 70s, or that were available during late postwar period.  The Lionel, MTH, and WBB starter sets that are offered today at the relative lower price points of the hobby are terrific.  So while MPC offered some dodgy starter sets, it wasn't really any different than what Lionel Corporation did during the, say, 1960s.

 

So that's a long way of saying that in many respects today we are spoiled by the quantity and quality of innovative O gauge offerings available today.

I'm 43. My childhood memories of Lionel trains are from the MPC-era. The Cannonball was my first set bought for me by my Father, Christmas 1976. Important enough I remember the year! A couple years ago I found the set NIB. Ya, I bought it. I display it, along with my first accessory, the mechanical crossing gate, and silver Rio Grande boxcar that my Dad traded the yellow flatcar from the set for, because it was broken.

 

I think I've got about every book, catalog, and flyer concerning the MPC-era. Don't buy MPC anymore, but I'll keep what I have, and I still look through those catalogs every once in a while.

FARR sets, expensive add-on boxcars (they wanted $12.00 for them in the magazines!), bunkcars, cranes, and all lettered for real railroads, not Lionel Lines.

  

hello guys and gals............

 

I loved those early MPC era F-3's but not with the single motor and plastic gears and hollowed pot metal wheels which sometimes are out of round. Guys when did the MPC era ended and what was after that LTI ?

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

I have just about a complete collection of the "Collector Line" of MPC and love them all! All those Boxed Limited Sets, Aluminum Passenger Sets, FARR Series, Fallen Flag Series, Service station sets,  and all of the End of Year Specials. They still appeal to me to this day, and can usually be obtained for a good price. I still buy postwar, LTI, and the postwar reissues, but there is just something about MPC that I truly love. 

Tiffany,

 

LTI did succeed MPC, and that was in late 1986/early 1987.

 

This topic is posted every few months,but here is my reply again:

I collect and run O scale trains from the 1920s through today.The ones I like the most and that I usually run are the Lionel MPC trains I had when I was a kid.I guess it is the nostalgia factor,run what you know and like.

Dan 

I'm rather fond of the MPC era, as one can do Things to them without any twinge of conscience...

Here's "Lil Stinky",  the Razorback Tracton Co.'s trolleycar steam loco:

With 4 ounces of Harbor Freight wheel weights, Lil' Stinky becomes a stump puller:





And of course, the only Lionel two-foot gauge equipment out there...



;-)

Mitch

Hello Mikado 4501

 

Thank you, smile. Another question  Is the LTI engines better made and made in America?

 

The woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

I have to admit there is something about the MPC Southern Crescent and MPC Blue Comet sets. These were a huge step forward with Painted Engines and SOS sound. I saved all of my money to buy these sets. If memory serves me, The Crescent was under $200.00 for the set and the Blue comet was around $249.00. I remember the feelings of want and lust for these items that I have never felt again. 

 

 

 

To me, I really dug the Burlington Northern set headed up by their new SD40 models, in addition to the Santa Fe SD40s.  Also liked the Santa Fe SD-18s back then also.

 

As a Southern Pacific fan even back then, the selections were pretty slim though for that roadname; the only motive power that really stood out was the SP "black widow" F-M and later on the "Daylight F3s" (even as a kid I preferred the bloody nose paint scheme so neither was hot on my list).   I didn't also care for the SP U-36c they offered in the experimental paint scheme they used on their MK TE70-4S engines.  Too gaudy and similar to the "Burger King" engine they offered in their fast food set.

Add me to the list of folks who really like MPC stuff. I have a bunch of it I've kept, and no way I'll get rid of it. I could go on and on about all the great things Lionel did during the MPC period, but suffice it to say there were dozens of really great innovations and some beautiful engines and cars produced.

 

The graphics and paint on many of the cars (and engines) are just outstanding, and I run many of them with the scale stuff and it's fine. And of course there's the nostalgia because that's when I really got into O gauge.

 

I've never understood the complaints about pulling power - maybe these people didn't have much experience with a lot of MPC engines. Some of the single motored jobs were challenged with longer trains, that's true, although adding some weight improved things and was easy. But many of the other engines were right out of the Postwar period - virtually the same - such as FMs, most all of the steam engines, dual motored F-3s, GG-1s, and many other engines, and they pull just fine.

With the Mickey Mouse set being my first official train, I will always like MPC.

 

Also have a ton of reefers,boxcars from mpc, not scale of course but always had nice paint jobs and graphics.

I like the color and affordability of MPC.  They look great on my layout and my shelves. 

 

The Thread "MPC Fan" is nine pages long  with tons of pictures. It spans over two years, so, yes,  I think there is a lot of interest in MPC.

 

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...pc-fan-thread?page=1

 

 

 

 MPC is on the top and bottom rows as well as the row with the Northern Pacific cars.

 

What's not to like about these reasonably priced, good running and colorful trains?

 

Yes, everything coming out now is super amazing and the features are unbelievable to someone raised on MPC, but it is still fun to run the older stuff every now and then. I don't plan on picking up any MPC stuff beyond what I have left from my childhood.

 

However, I love firing up the Amtrak RDCs, Amtrak Lake Shore Limited (swapped the original engine chassis for a post war version, cut out the front end for the coupler, pulls extra nice), Chicago & Alton steam set and of course the ever popular BN SD40 set.

 

 

I got back into Lionel in 1985 with MPC. Added some postwar and now have a mix of it all. Each era has its plusses and minuses. MPC still gives you a lot of bang for your buck as long as you are OK with its limitations. That's the bottom line. Having MPC as part of the available choices adds to the collecting and operating possibilities for all of us in the hobby.

 

Great stuff in your picture, Dave (Brewman1973)!

 

Another thing that's interesting about MPC that I enjoy, from a historical perspective, are the real early pieces, from 1970-71-72, when Lionel was transitioning from the Postwar Lionel corp. to the MPC era. In many cases, parts from the Postwar Lionel Corp. parts bins were being used to put together the early MPC cars. Even for cars with the same number, there are sometimes different body style types used (the Greenberg Guide describes these different styles - different rivet patterns, boxcar ends, door types and railing types and positions, etc.), and different paints were often used with color variations. Sometimes the same cars would even be packaged in different style boxes, like the famous "Banner Boxes."

 

I have collected three different 9200 Ill. Central and 3 different 9204 Northern Pacific boxcars, for example. Among each of the 3 9200s and 3 9204s, each car has a different style body, with different rivet patterns and ends and doors and door railings, and the paint textures and colors are all different. In fact, one of the 9204s is such a different shade of green that it looks like a completely different car from the other 9204s.  

If anyone knows of a mint or NIB 1260 Continental Limited set at a reasonable price I have been looking for one.

To reiterate on the variety offered during the MPC/Fundimensions era, just look at the 6517 bay window caboose from the postwar period.  That caboose was essentially offered in just two roadnames:  Lionel Lines & Erie (three if you want to include the "TCA Convention" variation and if you want to call that a roadname).  That's it.  And also just two colors:  Red for the Lionel Lines and Erie, & Orange for the TCA car.  Yes there were variations in the shade of color but those were still just the two colors offered.

 

When General Mills took over Lionel train production, we literally saw an explosion of different road names & colors offered on that same caboose since then.

 

Ditto for the postwar near-scale non-operating refrigerator car that came out in just 2 roadnames, Santa Fe (6672) & the REA (6572).  Under General Mills, you also saw an explosion of different roadnames and paint schemes offered just like the bay window caboose.

 

So it's more than fair to give General Mills credit for giving Lionel trains a much needed cosmetic "face lift" to make them more appealing to a wider range of collectors & hobbyists.