Vintage Lionel Trains!!! 

After looking at the sky high prices in the new Lionel 2022 catalog it’s no wonder why the MPC era of Lionel is finding popularity with collectors. Their affordability, bright colors, basic design and ability to be easily repaired makes them very attractive. I don’t think the same thing will hold true 40 to 50 years down the road for Lionel’s current offerings.

The MPC era trains just run forever. You put them on the track and they go. No fancy schmancy sounds or complicated controls and circuit boards. Just keep the pickup rollers clean and they'll work for years to come.

For younger 20 year olds like me, they remember an old show called I Love Toy Trains that showcased many of these O scale locomotives both Pre and post war as well as some MPC

I hear complaints about MPC because they replaced the postwar metal drive gears with nylon drive gears. There was a good reason. They are far quieter and if lubricate properly, will perform just fine.

The MPC and PostWar models are like ElectroMechanical pinball machines. They can always be repaired and they will run forever. Modern pinball machines and model trains, use highly integrated electronics where parts obsolescence is always going to come into play and therefore make repair much more difficult and sometimes impossible. Still...I love them all.

F3s are some of my favorite diesel locomotives. Especially MPC era because my dad had some old o scale. My favorite paint scheme out of all is the Southern Pacific daylight.

Fascinating when you think about it, that modeltrains have a history of their own, just like the original trains. :)

Hey RBP trains you should make a video on just the Hudsons

Considered the Blue Comet& Illinois Central in the past, it may be time to pick em up soon. 👍

One train in my collection that’s a bit of a hit is my MPC Era “Famous American Railroads” Southern 4501 Mikado with the slightly earlier Southern Crescent Limited coaches. It’s not the proper Crescent Limited set but it looks beautiful regardless. And I’ve clocked it with 24 cars thanks to its magnetraction so it’s a really good engine for general use.

I had a lot of post war and mpc trains which even with command control coming more and more common I loved them alot unfortunately they met a tragic demise

You are exactly right. My dad has a lot of MPC boxcars and every time I get that stuff out (or any of my MPC sets) I think about growing up running these trains and cars with my dad.

Chris, even though I'm not a Lionel guy, I always enjoy your videos. After all, you always wear a shirt with the name of town that I live in! I witnessed the end of the MKT era, and then the abandonment of the track from Katy into Houston, and its removal. It was a sad time for me. UP's tracks on that line now end at Katy.

It is very interesting to see this shift in collectability in modern era Lionel trains and their chance to be in the collector's spotlight again. Maybe they are experiencing the same shift as the prewar and postwar trains? Not just MPC era, but a good chunk of the Kughn era and the early LLC era trains are surging in value now, like the 1991 Santa Fe F-3's and matching aluminum cars, the C&O Yellowbelly and the Century Club locomotives - one of the Santa Fe F-3 ABA's sold on eBay for over $550 just this month!

My attraction to MPC comes from them being produced from the same molds and basic designs as the Post War trains that make up most of my collection. You can run Post War and MPC together without anything being out of scale or looking out of place. Adding MPC to my Post War roster allowed me to expand the number of railroads that I was able to run, made my mixed trains more colorful, and allowed me to lengthen trains without duplicating any cars...those are all pluses for me.

It's fun to add ERR TMCC and sound to MPC trains or swap out the e-unit for an electronic one. I'm glad that you run conventional and TMCC/DCS trains. Me too.

Cool trains I mostly collect the MPC trains well they are affordable and nostalgic I too grew up in this era drooling over the catalogs wishing for the many F3 or geeps ect thanks for running those trains they really work on your layout simply awesome

I grew up in the MPC era of Lionel trains as well. Being a kid with a little income left me with just begging to get a small piece of it for Xmas. It was also harder to track down exactly what you wanted without the internet,.Now that I have raised my kids and have a good job. I find myself tracking down the MPC era pieces a longed for as a child. MPC sounds are hit and miss. But it paved the way for the wonderful sounds we have today. Thanks for covering this subject Chris.

Dear Sir: I remember the MPC brand of model car kits in the early 1970s. I always like the model trainsets, including the Lionel-MPC-brands. Remember when the late Johnny Cash sang the song while playing his guitar, on a Lionel advertisement in the late 1970s? There was also a Lionel brand trainset, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, singing", Hey, Mom and Dad, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?" also in the late 1970s. I remember the MPC model kits were owned by General Mills. Cheers, Ludwig

It's really not surprised how these older models regardless of their reputation are growing in popularity. As the cost of the hobby seemingly keeps going up older but still very presentable models will take center stage for many collectors. I know alot of what I own in HO scale is typically older than I am (27) but it's price at model train flea markets just can't be beat with newer and sometimes very similar counterparts. And given that alot of these models are decades old but still run great and look great they obviously were doing something right then and they will continue to be sought after for many years to come. Awesome video showcasing some of the now classic models.

Hiya Chris I sincerely enjoyed the live feed with you and Jason always enjoy your videos Jason must go to the LEGACY dark side Chris MAY THE TRAIN GODS BE WITH YOU ALWAYS stay safe happy railroading ;-)

It is nice to see train sets are not forgotten. Great video Chris.😇👍👍👌🇺🇸

Hey Chris. Though not a collector and no desire to go back to the era in which I was introduced to 0-gauge, I will say these items took the abuse of an 8 year old boy. I beat the living snot out of this stuff growing up and it was still running when I gave it all away in my mid 30’s. Given your reasons I can’t help but extrapolate the future when my daughter, as an adult with her own daughter and “chicks with 0-gauge” channel, gets all misty eyed with her fathers (now old) collection, when Visionline could be had for a mere $2500.00 and not the $10,000.00 it will be in their day with the accompanying commentary: “When I was a child, my dad and I ran our trains with this beautiful blue (Cab-1L) remote before Lionel stopped making them in pursuit of profit and moving all control into a VR and phone. Look at his wonderful big orange knob for speed control…. oh the memories.” Couldn’t resist the lure in predicting tomorrow’s nostalgia. Love what you do buddy!

I probably predicted this back in the previous renaissance of O gauge back i n the 1980's. This came roughly 40 years after the peak of Lionel postwar, and a lot of the talk at the time was the effect of nostalgia occurring when those who grew up with these trains entered middle age and became aware of the stuff they enjoyed as kids, and started seeking out those tokens of their childhood. This was pointed to at the time, as a prime reason for the appreciation of postwar O Gauge during the 1980's, which led to the entry of new players in the space. Many an anecdote surfaced about people who had trains in their youth, walked away from them in their teen years only to return once they hit middle age. Such experiences are still surfacing today. MPC equipment was caught between postwar nostalgia and fascination with the new scale-proportioned and increasingly detailed models appearing on the market, so no surprise a large amount of it was available at economical prices. Now it's roughly 40 or so years after the rise of MPC, and no surprise, people are paying attention to them again :). It's probably a good bet that late scale-size K-Line, early MTH and Atlas O will see increased attention as collectibles within another 10-15 years if the pattern continues, although in smaller numbers as only a portion of each generation exposed to trains in their childhood will develop an interest that either endures or sticks enough to resurface later in life.

MPC certainly gives you a lot of bang for your buck. They have plenty of colors, plenty of road names, and are very straightforward when it comes to servicing them. The big thing about MPC is you have to look past the cheap stuff, although the cheap stuff has its own charm to it too. Lionel actually planned to release a Southern Pacific trainmaster during the postwar era, but they never did. They used the mock-up model that was made to create the Southern Pacific trainmaster shown here.

Can't get around it, Chris! The Blue Comet steam engine and passenger consist are the eye-catching winner for me. Being from the era when steam power ruled the rails, a steam engine will always get my vote, especially one with such dramatic presence! The bright blue colour alone screams 'I'm the best'! Sounds like 'Gordon' from Sodor, ha-ha-ha! For me, diesels are somehow all generic looking anyway. Thanks for taking the time to make this interesting reintroduction to the MPC era!

My dad has all 3 (cheese steam, blue comet and the southern crescent MPC steam sets). They are quite cool. Those old Lionel FM train masters are awesome as well. We have 4 Chicago and north western FMs which we would lock the direction units in forward, and run all 4 together, since their motors and gearing were matched. We had them pulling a 50+ car long train. It was awesome.

I really like the Southern Pacific F3s. I tend to prefer that livery on the GS-4s but does look great on anything.

MPC is a wonderful topic to go over! It's really been getting a lot of newfound love from younger collectors. Excellent video!

Great run session. I really enjoy your videos. I have learned so much history about model trains. I also enjoy the MPC era as well. Thanks Chris.

I have just about e complete collection of everything MPC, sets, engines, cars, variations etc. I love it!! Collecting Lionel for over 30 years,

The MPC era is something else

You said it Chris, nostalgia and price. I mean, they don't have all the bells and whistles of today's modern stuff, but they are affordable and just fun to run. And not bad looking either. Thanks for showing us your growing collection of MPC era trains and I hope you find more!

The MPC era FM Trainmaster was as good as the 1950's models. They are very nice.

The Chessie Steam Special is my favorite MPC set. I started my collection during the MPC era.

Fantastic! Those are some gorgeous trains. I love the blue comet, wouldn’t mind adding that one to the collection.

I love that you put the spotlight on these old MPC sets. I have the Chessie Steam Special set and it's always an eyecatcher on the layout!

Iove the mpc era I want to collect all the Amtrak trains from that era

Very nice viewing angles and camera movements. It really captured the trains in all their glory. The MPC era had some really nice trains. Thanks for making such great videos.

Awesome video as always. That Blue Comet is a sweet looking train. Always good to see a cameo by a BNSF :-) Have a great week my friend

The super strong train master feels like watching a real train in real life

Excellent video Chris.....brought me back to a carefree world again. Thank You

Top 10th famous steam locomotives stars and exurcusion trains 1. Pere Marquette 1225 (aka the real Polar Express) 2. Nickel plate road 765 3. Southern pacific Gs-4 4449 daylight (aka daylight or the last surviving members of General service) 4. Norfolk and western class j 611 5. Union pacific challenger 3985 6. Union pacific big boy 4014 7. Union pacific big boy 4012 8. Union pacific FEF-3 844 9. Pennsylvania railroad class T-1 duplex 10. Pennsylvania railroad class gg1 Reasons why they are famous: 1. Pere Marquette 1225 become a famous locomotive because of the movie in 2004 called "the polar express" 2. Nickel plate road 765 is one of the several surviving 2-8-4 Berkshire locomotives along with pere Marquette 1225 3. Southern pacific daylight 4449 she became famous because she is the last surviving members of General service (GS) or golden state (GS) daylight locomotives along with nickel plate road 765 and pere Marquette 1225 and they both built by Lima locomotive works 4. norfolk and western class j 611 became famous too who is the last surviving members of class J locomotives in Norfolk and western railroad 5. Union pacific challenger become famous because of his strongest and fast abilities and one of the famous and last surviving members of challengers 6. Union pacific big boy become famous because he was the most biggest and largest locomotive ever built by alco 7. Union pacific big boy 4012 become famous too because he is one of the last surviving members of big boy 4-8-8-4 locomotives 8. Union pacific 844 became famous because she is one of the fastest locomotives ever built along with up big boy and up challenger 9. Prr T1 duplex become famous because he is one of the strongest last surviving members of T-1 duplex locomotive that built and designed by Raymond loewy (aka the famous industrial designer) 10. Prr gg1 become famous because he is the fastest streamlined locomotives ever built and designed by Raymond loewy

I love the high angle shot from the corner of the room.

I love vintage trains 🚂

Nice I love seeing the different time frames of model trains!

Chris, what a great video. Can you do a video on the Texaco Special someday? One of my favorites is the Texaco Special from 1954-1955. I hope someday to have a great train lay-out like yours! I have both, the old track and Fastrack. I notice it is easier to hook up switches to the old track.

I love this video i like the MPC-era southern pacific daylight locomotive with the horn and the Norfolk and western with whistle both are my favorite. thank you for this video.

Chris.. another great video. It’s about time the MPC era starts getting the love it deserves. That era saved Lionel. I was also a kid during the MPC era and though my dad was a big post war and prewar collector, he never kept me from enjoying MPC. My first sets were MPC. Good stuff man.

I actually owned the Chessie Steam Special and it was released as a Berkshire. I also owned the Santa Fe Trainmaster and a New York Central Hudson. They were awesome then but I sold them off and wouldn't go back to MPC even though they were a lot of fun at the time.

Chris, great video! Great selection you're running! The Illinois Central set looks awesome! As always, thanks for sharing! And, Enjoy!

Awesome video Chris! I love the Blue Comet 🚂🚂

Great video Chris looks like good quality for a fair price I have a Menards army train pulled by a green GG1 and surprisingly it looks good 👍

Those are some great looking sets Chris I'm partial to the Southern Pacific daylight f3 and cars and the Blue comet and this pastor cars thanks for sharing 👍👍

I have the Chessie Steam Special. I use it to pull my set of C&O aluminum passenger cars. I know the passenger cars don't match the locomotive but it works for me.

Although that mpc comet is my all time favorite set and I am lucky own one, I actually voted for the mpc General in the poll, was hoping to see more info on that one someday. Great video! My only complaint is if mpc gets any more popular it will no longer be the train show bargain buy it once was😉👍

MPC trains were plentiful and interesting but it was always "buyer beware." Any steamers using spur gears had nylon gears instead of metal. Even the first GG1's of the era had these "plastic gears." It was hit or miss for steamers as to whether the "mighty sounds of steam" effects worked correctly or at all. My favorite story of the era was when I purchased the 783 Hudson (the MPC re-release of the 773). Having learned my lesson that you never take an MPC model out of the store without unboxing it there and trying it on the test track, I did this with the Hudson. It looked great but when I put it on the track, it shorted out dead! No it was not derailed or anything like that, it was a defective item. No problem. A 2nd boxed Hudson was brought to me. I put this one on the track it it would only run in reverse! Enter the 3rd! This time there was no sounds of steam. Exasperated, the store owners and I managed to piece together an engine and tender that both worked from the 3 and that's the combination I took home! Remember, all these items were new in the box! Fast forward to when the gray 785 was released. I opened the box, removed the engine, all looked good. When I picked up the tender from the box, all the wheels fell out of the trucks!!!. Fortunately the 2nd one I tried was good. Who can forget the famous Rock Island Northern, a brand new tooling! Great looking engine. It had so many bugs that Lionel had to release an instruction pamphlet on how to "de-bug it!" Yes, it was an interesting era with the worst quality control. Should I also mention the "thumb-tack" couplers that never stayed coupled? That could be cured by heating and bending the plastic coupler arm so that the pin stayed secure in the coupler.

I'm still catching up with all your videos. The MPC era is what saved Lionel. Without it, the Richard Hughn period would probably never have happened. Much of what MPC offered was modernized Post-War locomotives and cars.and most Post-War collectors I know have no problem with MPC. I have a number of MPC cars and also the Santa Fe 8900 and the Twentieth Century Limited set with the extra car. Great running locomotives. The cars are nice and needle point bearings made pulling long trains way easier. All-in-all, pretty good stuff. Always excellent videos.

you should get some MPC era freight cars too!

I like the Black Widow FM the best. I collect the Williams F-2s as I like the way they run with DC motos but look like Lionel. Thanks

Good video! I think the quality is better than the reputation, but I'm biased. Do you think MPC is a gateway for new hobbyists stuck at home the past 2 years?

Great video Chris. That Trainmaster is beautiful. I had always heard that the quality of MPC trains were not up to par with postwar, but not sure if that is true. They seem to be running quite well to me :)

You let the secret out now mpc will be hard to find too. Better buy quick! :) I love MPC I was a teenager at the time a do remember some of the items. The are good trains. They are still running 50 years later that says something.

Awesome video buddy! Great looking trains, especially the blue comet set!

Great video, love all of them

You have a very nice collection Chris I m going to be getting the newer Kato N scale P42 DC Genesis locos soon

Kline trains are my nostalgia trains and I like buying them

Killer video chris! glad u gave MPC some love!

great fun!

Holy moly this is amazing

An excellent video. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.

Excellent video!

Dang now I kinda want some MPC. There’s no nonsense.

Great Video!!! Thanks for Sharing!!!

That so cool and awesome I actually have a MPC gp-9 of the Illinois Central runs great 😸😸🤎❤💚

I have a 93 Lionel FM trainmaster that's made in the USA which pulls really well and is quite durable.

The horn battle... lol

I think we're going to continue to see a rise this stuff as modern O scale prices get out of control and it's not stopping or people are gonna go to HO. I want to make a video on this but it might not go so well.

I’m not a big MPC fan but damn that Trainmaster is wonderful!

Chris, I should be furious with you about blowing the secret of MPC Lionels but I just can't be! For conventional runners like me the MPC Era (and the early Dick Kughn Era) have a lot to offer. The engines and cars are affordable, the engines are easy to repair once you know how it's done, and there's plenty of instruction videos out there to tell you how to do it. And if you don't like the old whistle and diesel horn sounds the MPC's are very easily upgraded with sound systems from ERR by 3rd Rail, Dallee Electronics, and Williams by Bachmann. I've got a Trainmaster in Jersey Central markings from 1986 (Statue of Liberty Series) and the thing will pull tree stumps! I got lucky with that one, right-place-right-time and paid $200. Good deal! And I'm not surprised the Blue Comet is a popular as it is. There's lots of Jersey Central fans up in Jersey ("No foolin'!" he says) who snap those things up quick! EVERYTHING Jersey Central gets snapped up quick, I had to "settle" for the MTH Blue Comet. :)

Awesome video ! Love your channel. This channel and country bunker trains are the only O Guage channels I watch. Very informative and interesting. 🤩

I enjoy your channel it's very informative

Thank you 😊

The new Lionel trains with legacy and all the cool different features are nice but they will never be as nastolgic and special as the Mpc and trains before them

If you have watched any of the old TM Books and Videos a lot of the layouts that are featured had MPC trains all over the place.

Hi 😀. I just subscribed to your channel👍. Like your videos 😀👍 Envy your collection🙄. Appreciate you sharing the passion with us 😀👍. Cheers 🍻. Enjoy the passion!

when i started collecting , way back when , this is all what they had . ( this was the era of general mills ownership) the models were reasonably priced. before the rocker niel young bought the company and jacked the prices out of sight from kids and general collectors like me .

Saw a guy I know on the last page of the new CTT magazine........FAMOUS!

Late comment but a hobby shop in Michigan had a complete Chesse Steam Special set last time I went 👀 Awesome video and sets as always!

You, sir, have a great on-air presence! I work in post, series, stuff, LA-based! If you have any interest in chatting, working on a series you might be perfect for!

I just got into ho scale stuff and don't have a layout scince I don't have room for one and your layout makes me want one even more and your vids are awsome keep it up man! ✌️

MPC has always been under rated. With the price point of Lionel exceeding a lot of budgets in this inflationary period, these trains will increase in value. The older Lionels are not as colorful (except for a lot of the later high end trains) and having Lionel's name pasted on the side of many tenders as well as having many engines resemble a Hudson knockoff really detracts from its resemblance to real railroads.

☺️☺️☺️ Great video

Another guess as to the growing popularity is the pandemic. eBay prices for modern Lionel have been rising, and mpc’s lower cost make them appealing.

MPC locomotives in my current roster 8580 Illinois Central F3 ABA (I have the passenger set for this one) 8260 Southern Pacific F3 ABA 8365 Canadian Pacific F3 ABA 8480 Union Pacific F3 ABA 8952 Pennsylvania F3 ABBA (there were two B units 8059 and 8164 one with a horn one without) 8970 Pennsylvania F3 ABA 8763 Norfolk & Western GP-9 8754 New Haven Rectifier 8002 Union Pacific Berkshire 8215 Nickel Plate Road Berkshire 8100 Norfolk & Western J (I have the passenger set for this one) 8206 New York Central small Hudson 8603 Chesapeake & Ohio small Hudson 8610 Wabash small Hudson (I have the passenger set for this one) 8900 Santa Fe small Hudson 8404 New York Central Hudson (wearing #783)

The next train you should get is the nickel plate road 765

I LOVE ILLINOIS CENTRAL!!!

Hi Chris, I just found your channel this past week, subscribed and I think I've watched nearly all your videos now. This was a great one, thanks for explaining what the MPC era is. I'm British and collect 00 gauge so I'm not always familiar with a lot of the jargon. A quick video explaining the different eras and control methods you use would be great. Thanks for the entertainment

As much as I love the Postear era, people are selling the for insane prices. MPC allows me to afford locomotives that look similar to the original Postwar model for half of whatever the Ebay price is. MPC at this point is going to outnumber pretty much my entire O gauge fleet. Current items: 8857/8858 Northern Pacific U36B 8659 Virginian Rectifier 8762 Great Northern EP5 8558 Milwaukee Road EP5 8654/8655 Boston & Maine GP9 8353 Grand Trunk Western GP7 Hoping to snag a 783 or 784 Hudson at some point.

Being from NJ bet you know my favorite.