MPC ROCKS!!!
We have a few MPC Lionel pieces, and I think the MPC era stuff is nice. I do have a 634 switcher I’m trying to unload though.
Jim
If it’s really an MPC 634, it’s fairly collectible.
Rob
Agreed - I have my brothers sets from the early 70s - a blue and yellow Santa Fe FA and Grand Trunk Western 2-4-2; the engines run fine. The rolling stock sure is cheap. But everything loves 027 track
It is.
I’ve picked up some MPC over the years. I started buying some of the Pennsy 9500 Baby Madisons. Yeah, they’re not Postwar, but they are made in the USA. You can still get MPC at a good price. I think they are an important transistion piece btween the Postwar and Modern stuff.
According to the TM book, 634’s are transition switchers where MPC used up remaining 634 postwar shells. 634’s are easy to fake up by combining a postwar 634 shell with an 8010 chassis and trim. The Pennsy baby madisons are sharp and so are the Milw Road cars.
I got MPC fever a month ago for some reason when a CBQ SD-28 at a local show screamed at me from across the hall. I bought it, ran it, fell in love, and it sent me off on a buying spree. I was into MPC briefly in the early eighties when I first got into the hobby. But soon ditched it for postwar. I turn 50 this year and I think nostalgia has some to do with my recent fling. MPC was made when I was in grade and high school. I vividly remember the Johnny Cash commercials and had the 1971 poster catalog hanging on my bedroom wall. Local train stores carried MPC and I was awed by it. But, I couldn’t afford it and settled for Athearn blue box HO (which is great stuff too).
The better engines such as geeps, Uboats, and SD’s run decent. I think if you lubricate them properly and are careful not to bog them down to where the wheels hop, the nylon gears and rubber band wheels should last. Yes, MPC is great with graphics. Billboard cars especially. Some of the diesel schemes such as CNW, BN, and FEC are really sharp too. Lionel Fastrack really does a nice job complimenting MPC.
I agree on prices. I like the fact collectors hoarded a sea of MPC and kept it in near mint or mint condition. It’s all over the place and the prices are attractive for much of it. The relatively common stuff costs about what quality HO costs.
I’ve bought several new-in-box MPC boxcars from the early 70’s recently. Never paid more than $20, and the graphics are great. I’m an MPC fan. I buy New England roads, mostly. Maine Central, B&M, B&A, and New Haven.
Jim
I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s, and my 1st. Lionel catalogs were the 1983 traditional and collector line. I dreamed over the items in those small catalogs for years! Fast forward to about 7 years ago. Making a little spending money, and started buying all those MPC items I had wanted as a kid. I think now I have about all the MPC I want, but there might be something that creeps up that I gotta have.
Probably due to the catalog thing, I have aquired about all the paper material ever printed during, or about the MPC-era. About a week ago I finished my “collection” of 5700 series weathered reefers, as I kinda collect the factory weathered Lionel stuff. Don’t think I have ever paid more than $20.00 for a car. The FARR#1 set is one of my most prized items. I run the cars from this set almost daily, and have done so for about 5 years now.
MPC Lionel is a great “expansion” from the postwar Lionel era. Often overlooked, but fits in well with a semi-scale layout.
I’ve been eyeing the FARR 1 set as well as no 2 (UP). The Santa-Fe hudson is really sharp and so are all the cars in the set. What’s really nice about the hudson is it’s practically old school all the way with metal gears, magnetraction, and pullmore motor. The mighty sound of steam sounds rather funky. Another favorite is the Santa-Fe SD-40. The tone of blue they used is drop dead gorgeous.
I remember how MPC and Fundimensions went through the ceiling around the late 80’s and early 90’s. Especially the earlier Collector Line stuff. Then the bottom sort of fell out when MTH started importing Railking. MPC prices are much more reasonable today.
John,
I’ts about time you got bit by the MPC bug.
You are right about the prices,10-15 years ago a MPC 8100 N&W J would cost 1000.00.
Now you can get one for about 300.-400. bucks.
SCHWEEEEET!
I also like the Blue Comet,and The Alton Limited sets too.
Carl T.
Those with motors in the truck are easy to convert to command. Love those engines. I paint them up and add decals too. Make great engines.
The debate over the MPC period will probably go on for a while. You either like it or you don’t. BUT I have always disliked the broad swath criticism that the MPC stuff was all plastic crap. It’s really an unfair generalization. YES, plastic was more dominant on MPC trains - but it was becomming more dominant in all manufactured products as that was the trend.
As mentioned above, MPC locos are actually pretty decent for the dollar and fairly easy to fix or improve or even modify. And no, I don’t like the plastic truck rivets MPC used on rolling stock, but those are a breeze to replace. And I’d prefer an AAR or Timken truck to the Symington that MPC used, but when I’m running trains, I don’t notice it all that much.
In response to the MPC is crap school of thought, under the subtitle of “bang for the buck” it would be far more justified to call many of today’s advanced scale trains “crap, junk and garbage.” We’ve all seen the countless threads how many of these new high end products fail to work straight out of the box, or how details are easily broken off, and how replacemernt parts are not available.
One thing for sure… the Lionel people at MPC were far more forward thinking than many give credit for. MPC did a lot of new tooling and many products introduced by MPC are still being made today. Really, the last big rash of newly tooled products that will work on 027 track and looks right for the traditional operator was done by MPC. Though to give credit where it is due, MTH also did aimned products at this market under the early Railking banner.
The roadname selection for Lionel under MPC is unequalled by either postwar Lionel or Lionel today. The only other company that comes close is MTH. MPC had good graphics and gave homage to many rail lines ignored in the past and still ignored today by Lionel.
MPC was quick to make products that reflected current railroading. When the formation Conrail wa
I too have been eyeing a few of these…I agree they run very well, as long as they are connected to like cars, or at least the PW cars are located in front of them. I tried to run these between PW items, only to have them yanked off the track in ‘S’ curves, because of their light weight. If you want to run long trains, these are the perfect choice!
I bought the Oppenheinmer boxcar a while back, and have really enjoyed it, and have been looking for additional weathered wood sided cars to go with it.
Did Lionel make any wood side cabooses to go with these cars?
Kurt
I will get on aboard with the MPC express as well. When I began in the O27 market back in 1985, I found that adding to our railroad empire was going to be a choice between Postwar and MPC era engines and rolling stock. At that time Postwar was commanding a premium, and MPC looked to be a fair bargain. On a limited budget, we scouted all the train shows and found an abundant amount of good looking rolling stock - and they all operated nicely, except we did need to add weight to the extended height boxcars. As LTI came on board, we naturally drifted to buying new catalog stock. We still sought the applicable road names in MPC through out the years as well as diesels (SD18, U36, GP7). I am very satisfied with our purchases and we do have high standards as to graphics, color shading of the cars, to keep them looking very authentic on our layout. I would say a good 1/4 of our collection is the MPC era, with LTI being the most of our collection. Long live O27 capability!
Be careful there, John. Some of those MPC Hudsons had a wheel problem that makes them wobble down the track like a duck.
Jim
Postwar collectors coined the term “Modern Plastic Crap” which like you say really isn’t. “Fake-a-traction” was the term coined for the rubber band wheels. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, postwar Lionel was written off as plastic crap by prewar collectors who pretty much dominated the collector scene then. So, we’ve always had and always will have the debates. I like MPC for its graphics, simplicity, and ruggedness. Like just about anything, it has its weak points such as sloppy mechanical tolerances and nylon gears. They used a lot of artist liscence such as putting EMD trucks under GE diesels but that’s what makes it funky and interchangeable. To me, a scale SD-40 looks rather comical on 036 curves but MPC’s shortened version of the early eighties looks much better on small curves. Same goes for their SD-18’s and 28’s.
Thanks for the warning. I never heard that. Something to watch out for.
“I too have been eyeing a few of these…I agree they run very well, as long as they are connected to like cars, or at least the PW cars are located in front of them. I tried to run these between PW items, only to have them yanked off the track in ‘S’ curves, because of their light weight. If you want to run long trains, these are the perfect choice!”
Kurt, I assume you are talking about MPC rolling stock, and there is a solution. The number one problem for derailments on rolling stock is not the weight of the car, but the wobble caused by the loose truck mountings via the metal or plastic snap rivets.
Hold a train car in your hand, and grab the coupler and wobble it up and down and you will clearly see what I mean… this is your cause.
Think of it this way: on a real train the coupler is mounted to the car body itself, not the truck. So on our trains, where the coupler is mounted to the truck, if the truck has wobble, when you push those cars the force on those couplers is going to push the truck upward if there is play in the mounting - thus causing the derailment. This is also true for the “C” clip used to mount the postwar metal staple construction trucks. There was an article in CTT many moons ago about inserting a very thin washer between the top of the truck and the bottom of the car body, and then recrimping the “C” clip.
On the MPC or LTI cars, drill out the rivet and replace it with a 8-32 truss screw and a 8-32 lock nut. Tighten it all the way, and then loosen it enough so that the truck spins to and fro, but doesn’t wobble. Trust me, THIS REALLY WORKS! 100% guaranteed. I’ve run 8 inch plastic MPC flat cars, no load on them with plastic trucks, pushing a 12 car train with all postwar trucks and have ZERO derailments. I just did this last night. I’m telling you my method absolutely works.
On cars like gondolas and flat cars, you can use a blackened but
I collect the 40’ Hi-Cube boxcars, as well as the open autoracks, from the 70’s. They are great trackers, lots of Fallen Flags to choose from, and look good with a consist of more scale proportioned equipment.
* Let you all in on a little secret: 78 VW Rabbits are the perfect fit for the autoracks.
MPC and some dedicated older PW employees brought Lionel back from the dead.I have lived in the Lionel area since MPC went from model cars to toy trains and I can tell you there were many obstacles. They worked from old blueprints,went through crates looking for dies,anything that they could use to make a train. When they revived PW items that gave the collector a new source of parts and saved many a PW item from becoming a parts only peice.They had budget issues, if it cost to many $$ they were not made. Thats the reason the first MPC TM’s did not have horns, they could do it but the budget said no. As for the wobble it still exists on the low cost items and if you watch close at slow speed you will see the wheel is off center on the axle.