I tried doing a search for the old picture threads on MPC-era Lionel, but none came up. Perhaps they didn’t make the transition.
So let’s start a new one. Post pics of your MPC. Cheap, traditional starter sets or top-end collector line: it doesn’t matter. If it was made after Fundimensions took over and before Richard Kughn bought the company, it’s fair game!
No MPC bashing, please. I know some people dislike MPC. that’s fine: other people love it.
I’ll get us started by posting pics of ,my MPC-era Frisco engines and rolling stock. Here’s the train:
I’ll post some more later. For now, you guys post, and let’s celebrate the era that gave us fast-angle wheelsets, U-boats, chop-nose diesels, the baby Madisons, and graphics that beat ANYTHING the old Lionel Corp did postwar!
In 1969 Lionel reached an agreement with General Mills to begin making Lionel trains under license beginning in 1970. General Mills assigned the Lionel division to its subsidiary Model Products Corporation [MPC].
My first Lionel O gauge was MPC. A ‘Yardmaster’ set from around 1971 or 1972.
I’ll have to see if I can find all the pieces of it, but my set comprised a DT&I NW2 with green markers (though I’ve lost them at this point and need to replace), a red CN hopper, a green Penn Central log dump car, a blue Republic Steel gondola with three green canisters, and a DT&I work caboose. All the rolling stock had plastic fast-angle wheels with steel axles. It also had a 25 watt transformer with a maroon plastic case.
There were a number of variations to the set over its run from what I can tell. The earliest sets appear to have come with a ‘Mini-Max’ boxcar, later this was replaced by a hopper. Later versions of the set eventually replaced the log dump car with a simple flat car. Later sets also had red markers on the NW2 instead of green.
While many collectors may eschew stuff from this time period, it isn’t a whole lot lower in quality than stuff from the zenith of the postwar era. And the starter sets were truly the low end of what MPC put out. You can’t argue they didn’t offer a wider variety of colorful road names between 1970 and 1985, compared to what the Lionel Corp had done from 1945 to 1969.
Notice that they showed pre-production cardstock and wood mock ups of the engine house, freight platform and “freight warehouse” (station) on the back cover.
Others will follow later when I’ve got the time.
I will say this, you won’t find me bashing MPC Era Lionels. If it wasn’t for General Mills/MPC we wouldn’t have Lionel anymore and who knows what impact that would have had on the hobby?
(Honestly though I did remove the “Mighty Sound Of Scream” from the Shadow’s tender and substituted a Williams steam sounds unit. The “MSoS” unit almost gave me a coronary the first time I fired it up!)
Moving on to the only diesel in my collection is the uncataloged 8031 Canadian National GP-7 from 1973. Somewhere I have the original sales receipt for it from the Trading Post Train Shop.
Behind are my Amtrak Phase 1 6400 series passenger cars. Nos. 6405, 6406, 6410 & 6412. One day I would like to have an Alco FA or EMD F3 to pull them, but right now I use my silver Williams GG-1.
They did have the best catalogs (which carried over to the LTI era). I would never disparage Robert Sherman’s talent as an artist, but, when it comes to buying something otherwise unseen, I want photographs, not drawings, no matter how good the art. MPC not only used photos, but they were mostly uncluttered. Yes, some cataloged items did not make the final cut for manufacture, but 21st century catalogs (most importers) tend to take the nickname “wishbooks” literally.
Here’s an old pic of the end of the yard on my layout. At the far right is an Atlas station, but there are two MPC buildings left and center, the water tank and the engine house. Both were unfinished at the time. K really value the engine house for keeping dust off the engine inside. One of the Frisco tank cars shows up in the lower right–the other is a later reissue. Imagine that! An MPC car was reissued! Gotta love it!
This last pic look down the engine track to the engine house from the coaling tower. You can make out the water tower behind the Korber sandhouse. Sorry about the poor lighting.
