Lionel MPC

The one thing that is good about a collection of toy trains that is stored away in boxes, is that you can unpack and enjoy them every now and then. Yesterday, I just felt that I had to let some Lionel MPC trains run. These were the Lionel toy trains that I started to gather a decade ago and as my interests have slightly shifted in time, they have ended-up in boxes. But what a smooth runners they are indeed. No, hick-ups, no surprises, just performance. You place them on the tracks and they simply run. It just made me feel good. Three rail AC rules.

A few things struck me. First, they run perfectly over Merkur rails. Secondly, now that I have wider curves than 027, finally my Lionel 9193 Budweiser Vat car also runs smoothly over the tracks and does no longer derail on switches. And thirdly, as the photo above clearly shows, American Scale zero ain't European scale zero. But that is old news.

The Lionel 9193 Budweiser Vat car is typical for the MPC period. It is from 1983, colourful and cheerful. Not very realistic as train car to transport beer in, but who cares. And that reminds me of the reasons why I was interested in Lionel trains as a kid; the large size (compared to h0) and the bright colours. The essence of MPC is plastic fantastic toy train fun.