I agree. It darned near is a dead ringer.
Rich
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Yep, very close! One day, I hope to put an interior in it.
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Hello @Pocono_Jack
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More accessories, this morning. Here’s some more building kits built up and painted.
Let’s start with a lumber shed:
Next, a pair of barrel loading shacks. The barrels are stacked at the station at Marmaros, so the shacks are currently empty. The mechanism, such as it is, works: move the lever, and the little man does shove a barrel onto the ramp and (usually) down into a gondola. But getting the barrel to the man is an iffy proposition, and you have to hold the shack in place: it’s too light to stay put on its own. Still, it IS interactive, and it was inexpensive, two big considerations for a good toy. It is unfortunately also a bit fragile
Speaking of fragile but interactive, we come to the infamous log loading shed. Great idea! And with lots of care, it will work, but kids aren’t known for taking care. This one is all painted up, but it would need some adjustment before working again. I think it amusing that they include a catch-rack for the other side of the car since the logs–hollow plastic–rarely staid on the car when dropped onto it.
MPC was innovative in this respect: already known for its excellent injected-plastic model kits, they applied their expertise toward all these building kits (and more), and they enabled an operator to not only have more buildings than a postwar kid (or adult) would have had but also have the experience of building them and painting them, too. Thus, additional creativity and impetus toward creating a world such as old Josh envisioned.
I built models as a boy–I still build them now. Mostly aircraft, ships, and armor. I have most of the old Monogram USN WWII aircraft flying over my layout 
My older son has followed in this path: we are working on some WWII ships together as well as the trains. Josh had that right. But, alas! Summer with its outside demands approaches, so the inside hobbies will probably languish for a while.
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That first photos of the lumber shed is outstanding. Reminds me of my local lumber yard. Put more boards in that shed, will ya?
Rich
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Same here. Also Revell. I sure wish that I had saved mine. I has a WWII fleet at one time.
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Supply chain problems, dontchaknow? My local Lowes STILL hasn’t recovered from them. But, yeah: I need to get some logs to the sawmill. The Ozarks were once full of them–and still has quite a few. Building the RRs around here required a LOT of ties. Tie cutting was a massive industry, with every farmer who had an adz supplementing his income cutting ties. The streams were literally covered with rafts of ties being floated to collection points. I guess we could arrange to have some local rough-cut lumber delivered. (But, man! Scale wood stock has gotten as pricey as the 1:1 stuff!)
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Same here, in my case it was World War One aircraft. I still have most of them, they’re behind glass bookcase doors with my collection of WW1 period-published books.
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Buy sheets and cut them to specs yourself.
Rich
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I wonder if I could kitbash or adapt that barrel or log thing into an icing platform
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I had this in my “Workin’ on the Railroad” “Timberline” set (6-1860) from 1978 (my first train set as a kid!). (it was also in the “Logging Empire” set (6-1862) that had additional cars and the Barrel loader you showed).
Anyway, the catch rack was meant for the manually operated log car to be able to dump the logs. I’m not sure if you got your log building in a set or separately, but these manual log cars that came in these sets basically had a “cradle” that held the logs, and when tilted, it would “dump”. The catalog images show the rack on the far side of the oval of track, not right near the building.
It’s a coincidence (IMO :)) that it can double as a catcher if the logs go right past the car when dumped from the building. It did certainly happen sometimes!
And you are definitely right on the fragility. While I was normally a very careful kid with my toys, a few parts definitely ended up broken on this building in my set.
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It might work, Indiana_Matt!
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I stand corrected, Dave! Thanks for the info.
I have experience with the log cars, but I bought the loader as a stand-alone kit, so I have not used them together much. When I did, the logs just wouldn’t stay on the car. I never tried wood logs: they might have worked better.
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Possibly the best place to start an appreciation for General Mills production is with taking a look at the catalog Lionel put out in 1969. Don’t blink! It’s only 8 pages. If you want to see anything in better detail let me know and I’ll try, but my camera phone is pretty crappy.
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Four on the floor.
9111 N&W Hopper.
9151 Shell tank car. If you’re thinking there’s something hinky with this one, you’d be right.
Somehow the top of the tank got lost and I’ve never been able to find a replacement. So, I bought an inexpensive “scout” size single dome tank car and cut the top off of the dome and super glued it to my 9151. Now it looks like a 9152 because the donor car was black.
One of my favorite cabeeses.
As Bob Euchre used to say: “juuuust a bit outside.” This one is from the Kuhn era but it’s just like early MPC in that it’s a transitional piece.
And we likes it my precious.
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You make a great point about General Mills production vis-a’-vis late Lionel Corp, Becky. Take that C&O Alco, for example: the MPC 8020 is heads-and-shoulders better. I had one of the C&Os, and it was cheap in ways that one of the DC starter engines would have recognized.
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Nice stuff Becky! Quality-wise they don’t have to take a back-seat to anyone!
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If you would like to see those CN running, check out my video on YouTube by searching “Barclay PRSL layout” Episode 3. I had no trains to speak of and I bought the CN GP7 around 1973 at a store called Two Guys.
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