The Chessie Steam Special

This is one of the more attractive Lionel/MPC short madison sets and dates from 1980.  It's the Chessie Steam Special and was one of the separate sale sets, where you bought the cars and the locomotive separately.  The locomotive was the first MPC reissue of the postwar Berkshire (2-8-4), one of Lionel's most popular locomotives of that era.  It's equipped with the "Mighty Sound of Steam", which was basically a static generator that was interrupted to simulate the sound of steam chuffing.  It also has an electronic whistle, but otherwise operation is purely conventional as you can see from the E-unit lever that sticks up out of the boiler as it did with postwar steamers.  This locomotive is on the cusp of a change of eras, from purely conventional control to electronic control.  The cars, as you can see in this True HD 1080p video, are quite attractively decorated and together with the locomotive are a representation of the Chessie Steam Special that actually ran back in 1977 to commemorate 150 years of American railroading.