Steel rails,
A good source for what the market is bring is ebay. Do some searching and you should come up with the set/ item #'s. I don’t think the Blue Comet was put out as a set per say, you just bought the cars and engine/tender individually.
When searching ebay besure to use the completed search function also to view auctions recently ended.
Are you buying these to operate or to display?
Regards,
NYCRR1
If you are looking for an investment, I would say that in general MPC prices are soft, and are getting softer as newer versions are released. Now is a good time to buy, but not to make money, but to enjoy the trains.
I agree with Big Boy as to collectibility. If you intend to run them and enjoy them, they are all nice trains to have. They don’t have all the bells and whistles of newer items (no command control, etc.) but are sturdily build using (for the most part) postwar designs. The passenger cars of the sets you describe were, however, created from new molds by MPC in the early 1970s. A great place to look for them is thru the Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA). Check out their website at lionelcollectors.org. You would have to join the club, BUT then you get web access to all the trains LCCA members have up for sale, and there are typically a lot of MPC trains listed, and at very reasonable prices. Hope this helps.
NYCRR1 : Everyone we know who collects MPC, usually collects postwar also. The two just go hand in hand. Plus if you’re just collecting MPC, that site is good to look at to see what was made before MPC. A lot of modern stuff was based from Postwar & MPC. I would recomend taht site for anyone getting into collecting, or buying trains so they know what they might run into. This is how I see it !!
Up until the Southern Crescent set of 1977 there were no operating couplers on the “Baby Madison” cars. They had plastic “dummy” couplers screwed in the car bodies. These cars would un–couple easily on uneven trackage, and the screw post the coupler attached to would snap right off the frame if therre was too much pressure (ie too many cars) put on it.
The Milwaukee Road Baby Madisons were VERY difficult when it came to replacing the light bulbs. You needed to cut plastic with a very sharp knife. This was changed to the tabbed windows method of holding the roof to the frame with the PRR cars of 1974.
The 4-4-2 engines used in the Milwaukee, Broadway, Capitol, and various freight sets used an odd throw back e-unit. This unit’s design was a LIONEL design that pre-dated LIONEL’s take-over of Ives, using a pendulem. It works well, but only has two positions.
If you are just getting into the hobby, MPC trains are good to start out with. They are plentiful and fairly inexpensive compared to postwar or many of the current day high tech trains. The higher end sets are good looking and run well. The lower end sets are known to be problematic if you are into operating. Couplers in particular. You need to buy a few pieces to see if MPC really appeals to you. Once you do, you just sort of fall into a collecting ring finding sources.
The sets you listed are not hard to find. Prices range widely amongst dealers so it’s best to shop around. Train shows are probably the best place to shop for MPC trains. Collectors stock piled MPC trains during the 1980’s and you often find stacks piled to the ceiling at train shows. Sometimes at incredible prices. If you plan to run your sets, used MPC in excellent, good running condition is the best deal because it’s already been ran and devalued. Plus should you decide to sell it, you can often get what you paid. Don’t let anyone convince you MPC is rare. It’s not. ebay is a good place to browse for pictures and to get a good idea of what prices to expect. Because I’m not into collecting MPC, I can’t think of any MPC dealers off hand who deal on the internet and if I could, they would ask for the highest prices.
If it were me, I would probably choose the Southern Crescent set or Fallen Flags Wabash set for starters. They are both good looking, good running sets and easy to find. The Fallen flags set in particular since it was aimed at collectors with better quality and graphics.
One thing that will make your “quest” a little complicated is that most of the sets you listed did not come in one set box. Rather, each component was sold separately. In addition, some of the sets include add-on cars that were issued in years after the original set was cataloged.
Hello Steelrails! Charlie Siegel at Train City in Erie,Pa can probably help you find what you’re looking for. Also Try Train Collectors Warehouse as they also have a website and should be able to help you out.Have fun and be patient. You should be able to find what you want.
MPC is good if you want postwar look-alikes for running, as they’re often quite a bit less expensive than their older counterpart. There are some pretty decent MPC trains out there, some even better, than postwar, but then there’s also just as much(if not more) crap that’s best to be avoided. MPC doesn’t have a whole lot of value unless it’s mint, and even then it’s not overly expensive. Used pieces are quite a bit less.
i) Operating couplers are a luxury on passenger trains: how often does anyone actually switch them? I’ve run some long consists of those cars without snapping anything off. I rarely had roblems with any uncoupling (though my son’s LLC Thomas set was very bad for it). The cars roll VERY well because they have only four whell trucks.
The two-position e-unit is not anything like the pre-war pendulum unit. Its mechanics are the same as the three-position but with a different drum and set of contacts.
Yes, I am after Postwar Lookalikes, and also trains that are simple, reliable, and are good for operating. So I decided that MPC was and is right for me. Keep the info coming.
P.S. I am (well, my dad and I) are bidding on a set of Blue Comet Passenger Cars, as well as an extra Faye Coach, and a Diner.
We think we have snagged a Broadway Limited Set with the box, track, transformer, and everything in Mint condition.
Keep the info coming. Pictures of these trains on layouts would be nice, but they aren’t needed
The two position reverse unit in my Broadway Limited set had no drum/finger assembly like the standard LIONEL. I remember the first time I opened it up, and said: “…what the hey???”.
As far as the junky fixed couplers, I ran mine on “O” Gauge track over both Post and Pre-War manual switches. The cars would separate constantly, to the point where I ended up using rubber bands and toothpicks to hold them all together.
After the roller pick-up on the (very expensive) baggage car dropped into the gap and jammed in the frog of a Pre-War switch, the car stopped VERY short, and the 2046 that was pulling it kept goring. The result was the snapping off the mount shaft for the coupler on the front end of the baggage car.
If given a choice, I’d pick up any of the sets made from the Blue Comet and after. My fave being the Alton Limited, which HAS to be the MOST beautiful set of the MPC era!
I’ve since replaced my Broadway set with LIONEL, LLC’s recently made PRR Baby Madisons, which are made on the same tooling, but have six wheel die cast trucks, overhead lighting, and fully detailed interiors.