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@Apples55 has very kindly donated a couple of Carter-era Geeps for my future West Coast electrification project (UP GG-1 and electrified SP locos).  In my thank-you note, I mentioned I was reattaching one of the power truck pads, which had broken off.  

Paul's response:  "And you will have to forgive this techno-peasant if he hasn’t the faintest idea what a “power truck’s chassis pads” are 😝😝😝 I trust we will soon have a new under the hood episode to educate me."  

Hadn't planned on doing that,  but why not, sez I?  

As can be seen,  early 70s MPC Geeps were a spartan lot under the shell.   The postwar battery horn was gone, and the electronic horn was yet to enter the catalog.  

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Here's the broken off pad... 

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...and epoxied back into place. 

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Repaired, oiled and generally fixed up,  the Geeps whiz about the layout with a pickup consist of Annie, Clarabelle and a couple of Weaver express cars put into the box for packing.  

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Thomas has just realized what he's gotten into here. 

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A video.  

And another video, with a more realistic freight train behind the Geeps and with Thomas' coaches returned to him. 

Mitch 

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Images (5)
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Videos (2)
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Original Post

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prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Wait a minute!  Jimmy Carter was elected POTUS in 1977. By that time Lionel GP's had stamped steel rails. Your photos shows plastic post rails which are from the Nixon/Ford era.

They were made 1973 which was Nixon Agnew era. I picked up a Gold Chessie GP7 with a damaged shell and converted the dummy to power which they are pretty good pullers when lashe up. I'm going to get a Bachmann True sounds plus unit so they can have sound also. I'll only install the sound in one unit.

Gene H posted:
prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Wait a minute!  Jimmy Carter was elected POTUS in 1977. By that time Lionel GP's had stamped steel rails. Your photos shows plastic post rails which are from the Nixon/Ford era.

They were made 1973 which was Nixon Agnew era. I picked up a Gold Chessie GP7 with a damaged shell and converted the dummy to power which they are pretty good pullers when lashe up. I'm going to get a Bachmann True sounds plus unit so they can have sound also. I'll only install the sound in one unit.

Much improvement was yet to come from Lionel and Washington.....LOL

Just to be clear, the Carter-era comment comes from an e-mail I sent to Mitch when the GEEPs were in Transit - I told him that when they were last on the rails, Jimmy Carter was President, so they would need some TLC before running (which turned out to be truer than I knew). As delivered to Mitch, there is one powered and one dummy - I do not believe he powered the dummy. So, the trains he pulled in the videos used just one motor.

And the 1973 date seems right. I bought the powered unit when I was in New London, Ct. in ‘72 - ‘74. It reminded me of the engine I saw pulling the train I occasionally took home to NYC.

Can’t wait to see what Mitch does with them... the GG-1, not so much!!!

Jim 1939 posted:

No I just bought 2 powered units or just ran 2 different road names. At one time I had almost all of the MPC GPs. Although some claim otherwise I found a Powered GP with dummy couldn't pull much train. (MPC)

I agree, that's why I powerd the dummy unit so I have different road numbers. I run mine long hood forward which was a common practice on the Pennsy as well as other NE railroads to increase crew safety. Forgot to mention before the two units I mentioned above are Pennsy,

Apples55 posted:

OK Mitch... what exactly does the chassis pad do??? I can’t exactly tell from the pics. I did remove them from their boxes a few weeks ago to take a few pictures, but they seemed OK at the time.

The floor of the loco rests on the pads.  They keep the floor and shell from tilting off to the side.    

Pads of that era do tend to be a tad brittle.  You have to pop the rivets to replace 'em, so I generally prefer to just epoxy 'em back in place.  

Mitch 

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
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