Posts Tagged ‘Lionel’

Pop quiz:  what are the three most widely recognized American toy trains manufacturers? I bet you’ll remember them when I tell you.  They are: “Lionel, American Flyer and Bachmann Trains”. Bachmann’s American also. And you might have thought that American Flyer was just a line of trains and not a train maker, but it used to be both.  Here’s other interesting facts about these American model train makers that you might find interesting:

Lionel Trains:  

Lionel was perhaps the gold standard of model train makers in your father’s day. Lionel’s great marketing allowed it to outrun the competition. One strategy Lionel deployed was intermixing model trains with Christmas traditions by putting out images of train tracks around Christmas trees.  Their O scale trains which were one 48^th the size of actual locomotives ruled the roast up until the 1950’s when HO scale trains started to take over the market. Starting in the 60’s Lionel went through several ups in downs but is still around. Lionel O gauge is back and as hot as ever. Their great trains are well loved by all.

American Flyer:  

We mostly recognize American Flyer trains as a line of trains now, but they were their own manufacturer until 1966 when they were bought out by Lionel. American Flyer was born in Chicago around 1900.  They were bought out by A C Gilbert who also popularized the famous “erector sets” of the early 20^thcentury. American Flyer was the most robust national competitor to Lionel and its trains are perhaps the most popular collectible trains to this day. After World War II the company slowly failed as its trains switched to S scale.  When Lionel bought American Flyer in 1966, they kept and refurbished much of the equipment.  Lionel’s newly produced American Flyer trains are a top seller since the turn of the millennium.

Bachmann Industries:  

This is actually the most venerable of the three model train makers, started way back in the 1830s but was the last of the three to enter the toy train business. Ancestors of the original founders of the company, the Carlisle’s and the Bachmann’s, are still on the company board, though the company is now based in China, not in Philadelphia. Bachmann rose up after WWII by marketing starter kits to a middle class audience.  Their success continues to this day and they are still one the leaders in HO model trains in the world.

We have never had more alternatives in model training.  The internet has really made the model training hobby into a buyer’s market. The internet makes it so you can now locate any gauge from almost any era of time.  The three American classics that I just mentioned can now be fully experienced for what they are: American jewels.

Here is more information on Toy Model Trains. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.

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We love O model railroads and locomotives, there’s just no denying it? You can pick up the trains and really take a gander at them.  They’re not little trains; no one is going to carry one in his pocket.  You also can really make out the detail.  This is not one of those small little locomotives you need to go get your microscope for.  Don’t worry mom, your baby is not going to choke on any of the parts of this train.  Why do O trains just seem to come at us from some place deep in ourselves?  Here’s why:

Nostalgia: 

Baby boomers grew up with these trains and had their impressions ensconced into their minds even before they developed a notion of their own identities.  They’re the model trains from the holiday displays you remember as a boy.  They’re the o toy railroad that you wished you would wake up to on Christmas morning.  And they’re also likely to be the toy locomotives that you didn’t get because they were too expensive.  Because of this they are also the trains that remained forever in the realm of the wished for. Now that you have become a hobbyist again, they are the trains that are most likely to scratch that long festering itch.

Lionel:  

It was Lionel (now Lionel LLC) that popularized these trains.  Lionel is probably the representative model train making company in the United States.  They have survived more ups and downs than any other train maker and had more face lifts than Elizabeth Taylor’s had husbands. The reason why you associate toy trains with holiday is because of an advertising campaign invented by Lionel in the 1930’s.  It was these strategies that made them the kings of the model training world in the first half of the 1900’s.  It was mainly because Lionel started to corner themselves at the higher tier of the market that the prestigious train maker opened themselves up to usurpers.  By the Vietnam era when model training was at an all time low in terms of American participation, Lionel’s cheaper, littler sized fellow train makers drove it out of business. Now produced in China like most toy locomotive manufacturers, Lionel is ready to make a comeback.  The Lionel brand still retains a certain allure that other long standing train makers like Bachmann don’t.

Weathering and detailing are a breeze with O scale trains:  

Even though O gauge requires a lot more room than HO or N, its size also adds a great host of positives.  O scale model railroads are not as large as the German g scale that appeals to out-doorsy enthusiasts.  Real world trains are 48 times bigger than O gauge model locomotives.  It is a locomotive that is easy to pigment, decal and weather.  You don’t require incredibly fine motor skills so even the least coordinated of young people or most palsied of old folks can work with these locomotives.  Trust me, even when I’ve had one too many lattés and my mits are shaking like leaves in a storm I still have no problems with these locomotives.  Also, because of its dimensions, you can really take in the little aspects of these trains.  The O gauge human miniatures have discernable faces and the locomotives can be detailed to the point of making individual sleeper windows look open or closed. O gauges reputation is well deserved.

Hobbyists appreciate O gauge because of its full tradition:  

Mostly because of Lionel’s long history in American model training O scale is one of the favorite collector’s items.  Vintage Lionel locomotives of bygone eras consistently fetch good prices on e-bay and many toy locomotive enthusiasts like to collect Lionel locomotives from different decades so that they can have a sort of living history of the evolution of toy locomotives. 

But O scale is also a wonder in itself. It does take up more room than other smaller kinds of trains, but this drawback seems well worth it for most of us.  Lionel, because of its wonderful brand identification, is unlikely to fall to its debt troubles.  Even if all Lionel died, it is likely that someone would design a train of this scale.  Just ask the rocker Neal Young who loved O gauge locomotives so much that he was at one point part owner in Lionel and is still kept on an advisor to the company!

Here is more information on Model Train Scale. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.  

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During their nadir, Lionel model trains were legendary internationally for their focus on detail and the standard of manufacture. They continue to are : from Hogwart’s Express for Harry Potter fans to the Polar Express or merely the straightforward Pennsylvania steam freight train, Lionel offers a large range of trains that are true to the originals, real or hypothetical.
In reality, a Lionel electrical train was one of the first two electric toys to be inducted into the national Toy Hall-Of-Fame ( the other was the straightforward Bake Oven ). It was his marketing expertise that gave rise to the phenomenon of model train collecting at the start of the 20th century.
His idea commenced when he devised moving promoting gondolas employing a tiny electric motor he had developed, and when he revealed that folk were more inquisitive about the gondolas than in the products they were lugging around he got the idea of using his electric motor in toy trains. By means of fantastic dept displays at xmas time Cowen gave rise to a public interest in toy trains, and shortly they were among the state’s most well liked toys.

Cowen’s arrival of the two 1/8′ gauge 3 rail track became the standard, and signaled his dominance of the toy train market. A curious innovation of the O-scale track was the O27. The standard O makes a circle 31 inches in diameter when the curved rails are put together, while the O27 was only 27′. The O27 could run OK on O gauge track, but not vice versa, as the 27′ curve was too sharp for standard O scale trains. After Lionel’s golden decade covering 1946 – 56, the company dropped as a rising number of folks switched to the smaller HO scale ( that Lionel ultimately sticked to ) and kids’s interests went from toy trains to toy vehicles. This was only to be expected since the age of the car had arrived, and although vehicles had been in existence for many decades, it was only now that the number of models had expanded to the limit that toy manufacturers considered it worth manufacturing them. Toy cars were less costly to folks than trains that required rolling stock and tracks to go with them. The company was at last sold to a business known as General Mills who ran it from 1969, even though it never hit the heights of earlier years. Then in 1986 it passed on to Lionel collector Richard Kughn, and became known as Lionel Trains. Quality quickly rose again but in 1995 the company was sold to a consortium known as Wellspring Associates LLC. The company now trades using the nom-de-plume Lionel LLC, but will always be known to fans as Lionel Toy Trains.

Real vintage Lionel model trains can be identified from the couplings. Prior to the Second World War, Lionel couplings looked like hooks, while after the war there were two types of coupling : the Scout series couplers and the more modern peg couplers. The Scout series were the entry-level series with G shaped couplings that don’t open. The more complicated couplings have pegs that may be pulled on the bottom to open them.

Post-war also saw the arrival of electrical couplers. This was better than the 1st version as there were no contact shoes to get snagged with switch points.
The Lionel model trains are normally stamped with four numbers, identifying each item. These can be found either underneath or on the side of each vehicle and locomotive.

The company now operates from Ohio, and the new 2009 catalog offers many new items including the New York Transit tube set, and the Dewitt Clinton Heritage Steam Passenger set, and there is also a large number of new rolling stock. Lionel model trains are still live and kicking, and the new catalog proves that it has not lost its gusto for innovation.

Click here for more information on Lionel Model Trains
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Incredible model train set up at a friend’s house, which Danny refers to as the “Lionel Train House”

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Music: “Rock Island Line” by Big Jim Adam. … model train set rock island line lionel gauge

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