# Who else enjoys the Lionel General Mills era?



## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

Hello,

I'm a long time reader, first time poster to this forum. Here's my train related history. I grew up in Central Maine. Rode my bike to a nearby railroad crossing to watch Maine Central freight trains pass by. This was the 1970's. I can always remember being into trains. My first electric train set was the low cost Lionel Cannonball set from 1972 / 73. Enjoyed the Lionel General Mills era until late 1970's. At my local hobby store. I saw and had to have a HO scale custom painted Maine Central GP-38. Stayed with HO throughout my teen years. Then after college, decided to try N scale because of apartment living. Then came work, marriage, a house purchase, and finally a baby. Decided N scale was too small when Ian started showing interest. I located my box of Lionel trains from my parents attic and started building a layout with my MPC stuff. I was having fun playing with my childhood trains again. As Ian got older, he wanted the type of modern trains he saw during our rail watching outings. I started purchasing the modern Lionel and MTH that Ian had a liking for. Ian is now 17 and really wanted Amtrak viewliners and the new ACS-64. After year's of waiting and disappointment when each new catalog came out, he decided to try N scale. He now has the ACS-64 and viewliners. I'm selling off almost all of the modern O gauge and will be building a smaller layout with the focus on the MPC era trains of my youth. So the current day O gauge manufacturers lost a youth and middle age guy as customers.

Thanks, if your are still reading after this rambling bit of my life. 

The original question was, how many of you out there are in the similar age demographic (50) as me and do any of you have a love for the General Mills era? Here's a picture of some of my recent train meet finds.









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## Guest (Apr 4, 2019)

Mike McCutcheon said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm a long time reader, first time poster to this forum. Here's my train related history... The original question was, how many of you out there are in the similar age demographic (50) as me and do any of you have a love for the General Mills era? Here's a picture of some of my recent train meet finds.


Great story! I'm in your demo age range but I grew up with HO. My route to O Gauge was a little different: We started building Department 56 Christmas Villages. When it was time to add a train, the O Gauge Polar Express was the perfect fit. So my entry into the O Gauge part of the Hobby came in my 40's. Still I can appreciate the "Playable and Toylike" GM Era. I run a Lionel Girls Train in my Easter Village for that reason. This is a layout where I'm no striving for maximum reality. The "Toylike" trains are a great match for this purpose.

Emile


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## Guest (Apr 4, 2019)

Had a lot of it as at the time my son was really into our hobby. Lots of fond memories.


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## superwarp1 (Dec 13, 2016)

I remember it well, I remember wondering why there wasn’t any superO track in the catalogs or hudsons, or Berkshires that were always in the catalogs of the late 60’s. When your ten you didn’t know what was happening to Lionel at the time


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## PDDMI (Oct 25, 2015)

Hi Mike, and welcome!
As an FYI...I did notice what appeared, to me anyway, to be a typo in your Scales Modeled info...and then again...maybe not?


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## c.midland (Sep 22, 2015)

I'd venture to say that the MPC-era is my favorite era. I'm 47, so fit the demographic. I have all the catalogs, and fairly large "collection" of MPC.

My first train set:









Looks like this bottom-of-the-line MPC junk got at least 2 people started in the hobby...


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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

My bottom of line set is still working today. At least being mostly plastic, no worries of zinc pest!

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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

PDDMI said:


> Hi Mike, and welcome!
> As an FYI...I did notice what appeared, to me anyway, to be a typo in your Scales Modeled info...and then again...maybe not?


PDDMI: Thanks for letting me know about the typo. It's fixed.


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## Luke 221 (Feb 12, 2013)

The Thunderball was my childhood set from 1976. Regrettably I only have the cars and no engine. I did recently find this Thunder Freight at a the LHS for 60 bucks


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

For many of us, the MPC era was the bridge that kept Lionel "on life-support" (so to speak) until later decades when new tooling, new features, and new technologies were eventually introduced. Nonetheless, MPC was an important bridge in that regard, because it provided the O-Gauge resurgence few of us ever expected would happen -- especially after The Lionel Corporation's last catalog that was a feeble 8 pages. That's right -- just EIGHT pages... resembling more of a pamphlet than a catalog. 

With that resurgence, however, came compromises -- usually in terms of lesser detailed products. I recall the original postwar 6464 boxcars had rivet detail down the entire sides of those boxcars, whereas the Lionel MPC 9000-series boxcars usually had a couple rivets high on the side accompanied by one or two rows of rivets on the low side... but the bulk of the boxcar side was smooth with no rivet detail -- presumably making the decorative graphics easier to apply. But hey... something was better than nothing, which is where things were headed in 1969.

If one assumes the MPC era represented the 1970's to mid-1980's (i.e., before Dick Kuhn took the reigns in 1986), it's hard to believe MPC trains are now a good 35-50 years old. So that's 15 years worth of product that were essentially "reproductions" of trains many of us missed out on as kids. My dad, God bless him dearly, introduced me to Lionel trains in 1966, when Lionel still had a very healthy catalog (for those days). But a mere 3 years later, The Lionel Corporation was essentially clearing out warehouse inventory from prior years' production.

So seeing Lionel MPC's reproductions of trains I never would have dreamed I'd ever see again became quite the rage. Having just come off the drought of 1969's product offerings (or lack thereof), the stage was set for each subsequent MPC offering in the 70's and 80's to be a highly sought after collectors item. Or so we thought. What we never realized -- nor could we have accurately predicted -- was the future technology treadmill that was to bring us command-control operations and highly detailed locomotives and rolling stock years later. 

From that perspective, Lionel MPC quickly became the cobbler's poor children with no shoes in many respects. But hindsight is always 20/20. So for those of you want to focus on Lionel MPC products, you'll likely find a wealth of product out there in the market that's been kept in reasonably good condition. At the very least, it represents a chapter of Lionel toy train production marked by colorful offerings that sustained many a toy train aficionado who's moved on to today's highly detailed and 1:48 scale offerings.

Lots of good Lionel MPC memories for sure.  But I'm also glad Mike Wolf came along when he did to push the envelope and light the fire for suppliers to deliver the caliber of toy trains we now have today. 

David


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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

Thanks to everyone that has replied so far. Some great info and memories being shared. Being born in 1968, my first memory of Lionel is General Mills.


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## Traindiesel (Sep 8, 2015)

For me personally, MPC was just ok. It provided me with a couple of box cars and hoppers that kept the flame flickering for 0 Gauge. Even as a young kid in the 60's, I would sit in the chair watching my General set running on the cool looking Super O track, and wonder and wished for something that looked like the real trains I saw. I didn't know what those real trains were called but I knew I wanted models of those. My post war sets included the General set, UP silver Alco AA diesels with 4 matching passenger cars and the Military set with the #44 engine that fired rockets. Cool stuff, but nothing that I'd seen on the rails. MPC didn't improve my outlook any as the only things I liked about 0 gauge was the Super O track, the ZW transformer and my #60 Trolley. This caused me to dabble in HO for a while.

But when K-Line and MTH arrived with their scale offerings, and forced Lionel to do the same, it was like the Wizard of Oz movie when it transformed from black and white to color!! The world of 0 Gauge had evolved to what I had always hoped and dreamed it would!! My HO stuff has been entombed in their boxes for the last 30 years!


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2019)

Like many, I was a boy in the 1950s during the height of the post war era. When GM took over Lionel I was interested but the locomotives weren't the same quality as the post war locomotives. What interested me was the freight cars. With the new fast angle wheels. They rolled much better than post war cars did and I added lots of GM era cars, especially the 9200 or 9700 boxcars (6464 types but so much more variety!). 

But as much as I loved those trains I have gone over to new trains with modern electronics. Wireless remote control and sound have won me over. The old trains, post war, General Mills era, Kughn era, etc were great in their day but I don't want to go back to conventional control. I think it's great that you love those trains and enjoy them today, they just aren't right for me anymore.


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## bigdodgetrain (Jun 12, 2015)

in the last 10 years wife has collected over 100 of these cars


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## ERIE610 (Jan 19, 2015)

*I COLLECT WHAT I LIKE*

Hello. About 5 years ago I went to a local Estate Sale where there was a vast O Gauge collection for sale. Most of the items offered up for sale were Lionel Post War. I did not buy anything the first day of the sale where everything was full price. I went back the third day of the sale when everything was 50% off. I was very surprised that there was still some good items left. I did manage to find some 6464 boxcars left that were worth buying. This Estate sale reignited my love of toy trains. I pulled out from the attic my long in storage childhood train sets from the mid 50's. An Erie 610 switcher & an 1130 Steamer both being Lionel. I also pulled out the MPC Era Lionel DT&I switcher set I had bought for my kids in the mid 70's. Ever since my love of these trains has been reignited I have been looking for additional Lionel items from the post war era thru the MPC era. There are some Menards,Railking, MTH, Weaver, Williams & Marx items in the collection as well. I would say that about 40% of my rolling stock is from the Lionel MPC era. 

LATER


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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

The only MPC engine I own is the 2-4-0 steam engine that came with the Cannonball set. I'm staying with my command control diesels with sound for motive power. The new layout will be a mix of era's. 80% MPC rolling stock, current day diesels running on FastTrack. I don't want to limit my fun to just one era.


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## JoeSaggese (Aug 17, 2018)

c.midland said:


> I'd venture to say that the MPC-era is my favorite era. I'm 47, so fit the demographic. I have all the catalogs, and fairly large "collection" of MPC.
> 
> My first train set:
> 
> ...



This was my first set in the early 70s. I remember filling the gondola with tootsie rolls and grab one as the train passed by. I still have this little set.


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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

We are at 3 forum members that started with the Cannonball set. 

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## CKCECB (Feb 22, 2013)

I started with MPC, too, and still love the billboard reefers. When I got back into the hobby about 7 years ago, the first "new" purchase I made at the hobby shop was a used MPC GP9 and dummy. 

Some of the stuff makes me mad, though, especially the plastic wheelsets. But some of the low tech is ingenious. A month ago I was digging through my boxes looking for a plastic manumatic uncoupler to show my son how a coal dump car works (couldn't find my operating track).

85% of my stuff is MPC era, including older K-line. At the time, K-line was for the most part a cheap knockoff of MPC.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

It is an interesting period, and as Traindiesel says, "it kept the flame flickering" but just barely for me. I've always looked at that period as very challenging for O-Gauge model railroading (whereas, despite problems, etc., I view today as the golden age). However, there are some real gems - rare but absolutely jewels, made during that time.

I paid a lot of attention to O-Gauge during that period, but all I could afford was a small (4 x8) N-gauge layout. I had three boys to raise and put through college and had little money to spend. By the time I was ready to step back up to O, K-Line and MTH were in the game and things were, as I said, golden.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I missed the MPC era . I was into HO slotcars In the early 80s I got into HO a little bit and went to a Wilmington show and saw more Lionel than I could ever have imagined. My wife actually bought me my first set, the L<A<S<E<R


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

I have a good bit of MPC rolling stock and locos, but they don’t get much run time these days.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Another thought for those of you interested in Lionel MPC items: At this point in time, you should be able to pick up any MPC loco or piece of rolling stock that might happen to hit the market at quite a bargain. Generally speaking, most folks followed the technology treadmill trends that gave us more highly detailed models of locomotives and rolling stock -- thus putting a downward pressure on MPC prices.

Don't get me wrong... DURING the actual MPC era, there were always "hot items" that dealers played pricing games with -- particularly when an item was "short-shipped". I recall a dealer based in central NJ who increased his prices any time he received less than what he ordered from Lionel. And in general, there were always a handful of locomotives (like the Southern Pacific GS-4) and rolling stock (like the 5712 woodside reefer) that had quite a roller-coaster ride of inflated prices over the MPC years. Now today, of course, sellers can't give these things away. So it's strictly a buyer's market for anybody looking to pick up MPC items -- at least those items that do manage to find their way to the secondary market these days.

David


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## laz57 (Sep 19, 2015)

I liked all the billboard reefers that came out especially the “sin train”, of beer, alcohol, tobacco products. I also liked the cereal boxcars too.


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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

I'm glad that common MPC rolling stock is super affordable. During the MPC era I was only 1 year old to teen years. I had switched to HO scale before I became a teenager. So I didn't have much MPC from my youth. Just a few accessories and extra cars received as gifts. I'm enjoying being able to purchase all the MPC catalog items that I dreamed about 40 something years ago.

Thanks again to everyone that has shared info and memories.


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## Pebo (Sep 27, 2015)

Hi Mike!

The MPC was a great time.......my favorite set from the era is my 1983 20th Century Ltd set. I still run many of the 9200, 9400 and 9700 series boxcars on my home layout. I use the jade green PennCentral small gondolas in trains decorated for Christmas. Lastly, I have many MPC hoppers for my coal consists.

Peter


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## empire builder (Apr 12, 2014)

I too grew up in 1950's lionel era and the MPC era is what brought me back to toy trains.

Country Joe I can relate to modern era products but when they decide to not play nice I simply flip a switch and ahhhhh an old 1950's/MPC lionel runs circles around them and I can feel the aggravation meld away.


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## Mike McCutcheon (Jul 17, 2015)

Empire Builder:
I hear you. Sometimes in this high tech world, it's just more relaxing to watch low tech trains move around the layout.

Peter:
Great story on you favorite MPC set and rolling stock. Hope to catch up with you next week in York.


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## bluecomet400 (Sep 13, 2015)

Welcome to MTF, Mike. 

The first 2 trains I received as gifts as a kid are pictured here. I still have them, and they have a lot of miles on them. 

I have a few other MPC items, but for the most part, if I'm going to have any "modern" trains (anything with knuckle couplers), I'm going with full-scale like MTH Premier, K-Line or Williams. 


John


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