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@WRW posted:

I’m looking forward to running this next to one of my Vision Line GG1s. I feel like this will look like the new GG1’s little buddy.

Great purchase, WRW. That was my first GG1 (received it as a Christmas present in ‘77 or ‘78)… it was a great puller. It easily managed my set of 8 MPC Pennsy 15” aluminum passenger cars. No bells and whistles… literally… but beautiful none the less!!!

66B9D64D-5E68-4E16-8516-A14CF0E59B68

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Like father, like son.

The smaller one is both my Dad's old 1776 as well as the first model train I ever played with "properly" (I distinctly remember playing with a Tyco UP GP-20 like one of my old Thomas wooden trains), and the bigger one is my equally as old MPC era 1776 U36b, which somehow shorted its E-unit and then self corrected the short, I'm just as confused as you are on that one. Just like the original, this one will always have a UP caboose as that's what both myself and my dad ran with this engine.

IMG_2841

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Apples55 - Thanks, when I put together a Carpet Central I take advantage of every temporarily granted square foot of running space.  As for the trains, yes, I still have the GG1 and the aluminum cars as well as everything else in the picture.  I've never had enough space to dedicate to a permanent layout so, as I've mentioned in other threads, I'm a member in good standing of the Broadloom Conspiracy faction of train running. What I do when I can't run trains is put together dioramas, photograph them, and send the pictures in to various publications.

Where is the line drawn between MPC and Fundimensions?

The name MPC are the initials for Model Plastic Corp. the initial General Mills division located in Mt Clemens Mi.  Lionel moved to Chesterfield Mi.  and was renamed Fundimensionsi in1975.   General Mills  Kenner Parker division took charge of Lionel just before it was sold to Richard Kughn.in 1987

Last edited by JC642
@JC642 posted:

The name MPC are the initials for Model Plastic Corp. the initial General Mills division located in Mt Clemens Mi.  Lionel moved to Chesterfield Mi.  and was renamed Fundimensionsi in1975.   General Mills  Kenner Parker division took charge of Lionel just before it was sold to Richard Kughn.in 1987

MPC = Model Products Corporation.

@ConrailFan posted:

Lionel was never renamed "Fundimensions", Lionel was a part of the Fundimensions Division in 1973  which was part of General Mills. Lionel then became a part of the Kenner Parker Division just before they were spun off from General Mills in 1985. In 1986 Lionel was then sold to Richard Kughn.

Interesting, so what was Lionel called after the company split from Model Products Corp in Mt  Clemens and moved to Chesterfield?   I recall Fundimensions,  a division of General Mills.

@JC642 posted:

Interesting, so what was Lionel called after the company split from Model Products Corp in Mt  Clemens and moved to Chesterfield?   I recall Fundimensions,  a division of General Mills.

When it split and moved under the Fundimensions Division it was still called Lionel  it was never called Fundimensions. Lionel was a division of Fundimensions  which was a part of General Mills. Fundimensions was comprised of Lionel, Craftmaster, MPC and for a short time Kenner Parker. The move to Chesterfield MI had no bearing on the name. As a matter of fact the name Fundimensions was not printed anywhere in their catalog as was the case previously.

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Last edited by ConrailFan
@Patrick B posted:

Like father, like son.

The smaller one is both my Dad's old 1776 as well as the first model train I ever played with "properly" (I distinctly remember playing with a Tyco UP GP-20 like one of my old Thomas wooden trains), and the bigger one is my equally as old MPC era 1776 U36b, which somehow shorted its E-unit and then self corrected the short, I'm just as confused as you are on that one. Just like the original, this one will always have a UP caboose as that's what both myself and my dad ran with this engine.

IMG_2841

I like that '76 locomotive and wish I had bought one in 1976. I'm still thinking about it!

I took a detour after looking at an upcoming project this morning and ran over to Grzyboski's Train Store in Moosic, PA. I hadn’t visited this store since before the pandemic lock down. I wanted to pick up the pristine Fallen Flags “set” that I had purchased online a couple of weeks ago from Joe. (More on this over the weekend)  I also just wanted to visit. i forgot just what a nice store that they have. It is really a very nice building with a sharp showroom. I saw all sorts of cool MPC items and picked up a few cars. Here are two that I did not purchase. He still had them this afternoon if you are interested.

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WRW: What a great tank car...I personally tried to collect every multi dome tank car Lionel produced and was successful up to about '93 then it just became too much plus they put a number of them into sets and after we moved from Pa, I no longer had a source in the business who broke up sets.  So today, I just target random ones that catch my eye, but they remain my favorites and I have always liked the way they fill out a train.  Yours was offered in 1989 (according to my reference material) so you are right it is 33 years old.

Great Find

Don

Last edited by Don McErlean

WRW: What a great tank car...I personally tried to collect every multi dome tank car Lionel produced and was successful up to about '93 then it just became too much plus they put a number of them into sets and after we moved from Pa, I no longer had a source in the business who broke up sets.  So today, I just target random ones that catch my eye, but they remain my favorites and I have always liked the way they fill out a train.  Yours was offered in 1989 (according to my reference material) so you are right it is 33 years old.

Great Find

Don

I just realized that this tanker isn’t an MPC car at all. My mistake and I apologize. It has one too many digits in its number code.

@Chuck242 posted:

So...what defines MPC era?   I think I have a bunch of really neat stuff that could be MPC.  I know I love the engines especially Steam

High level quick summary: General Mills et al subsidiary from roughly 1970-1986. Mostly made in the USA and in MI. 6-xxxx code numbers for cars. There are lots are exceptions and footnotes to that which I just typed. But let’s not let perfect get in the way of good enough.

WRW - hey shipmate, I knew that it was a little late to be MPC but why should we care when you got yourself a GREAT 2-dome.

Here is a piece of MPC that I used on SwSat today.  Its from 1970-72 so its "early" MPC. Its hard to see, but if you look at the small rectangle near the boiler front it shows the word "Lionel" and the MPC logo together.  Later in the MPC era, they didn't show the MPC logo as much I suppose because they were trying to take advantage of the Lionel name, which after all is what they paid a license fee for.

Lionel NKP 2-4-2

Best wishes

Don

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@WRW posted:

They seem to have a fair amount. I probably saw more than 30 cars on display.

Probably a lot more… if you were to browse Grzyboski’s website, I’m sure they probably have sections for all types Lionel rolling stock… and if you were to peruse the individual sections looking for items with 4-digit numbers, there’s a pretty good chance that those items would be MPC… or so I’ve been told Don’t ask how I know this - I’m a recovering addict!!!

WRW - hey shipmate, I knew that it was a little late to be MPC but why should we care when you got yourself a GREAT 2-dome.

Here is a piece of MPC that I used on SwSat today.  Its from 1970-72 so its "early" MPC. Its hard to see, but if you look at the small rectangle near the boiler front it shows the word "Lionel" and the MPC logo together.  Later in the MPC era, they didn't show the MPC logo as much I suppose because they were trying to take advantage of the Lionel name, which after all is what they paid a license fee for.

Lionel NKP 2-4-2

Best wishes

Don

Don, Thank you for not highlighting or criticizing my obvious error. Some of that behavior is sadly in evidence on this forum. Thank you for being a gentleman and sharing your wisdom as you do. Be well friend.

Best, Willard

PS: That is beautiful locomotive. Thank you sharing.

@Apples55 posted:

Probably a lot more… if you were to browse Grzyboski’s website, I’m sure they probably have sections for all types Lionel rolling stock… and if you were to peruse the individual sections looking for items with 4-digit numbers, there’s a pretty good chance that those items would be MPC… or so I’ve been told Don’t ask how I know this - I’m a recovering addict!!!

Hi Paul, It’s such a great store and they do have many MPC items online. My enthusiasm and a rather long drive clouded my identification but not my purchase. I was there to pick up my new Fallen Flag set #1 Wabash. Cool set! Thank you, just like Don, for being a gentleman about my obvious mistake. But it is a soft and somewhat line between MPC and Kughn isn’t it. Smiles….

Be well and best,

Willard

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