It’s every thing to do with the O gauge:  Part of the explanation why Lionel fell from power in the post World War II era can be explained by the scale of its trains. Lionel trains were usually in O gauge, but with the expansion of model training in the 50’s more and more middle class model train hobbyists began to purchase trains for smaller spaces.  Real world trains are only 48 times the size of O scale model trains.  This was simply too great of a space requirement, so fans turned to HO scale which only required a 4’ x 8’ space.  Lionel’s failure to stay in tune with changing times is what cost it and what makes its odd scale a real draw for enthusiasts these days.

Lionel calls up long lost recollections:  Because Lionel has survived for so long and was so popular in yesteryear it is one of the favorites of collectors. We cannot under estimate the nostalgia that Lionel inspires. These are, after all, the hobby trains they were raised on or would like to have grown up on. Lionel’s trains seem never to break and so they’ve survived its lean years time capsulled in craft and second hand stores.

You’ll find no lack of manuals and news items on Lionel:  Lionel’s got its own little subset of devoted enthusiasts including the rocker Neil Young. There are two types of books on Lionel.  First, there are books that are specifically focused on to getting you started with model training using Lionel O gauge trains.  Second, there are several books that focus on the many repackagings of Lionel trains from the early days to the present.

Finally, Lionel is popular because they just made good trains:  Ahh, the engineering of Lionel trains!  Larger than most other trains, they are ideal for detailing and decaling and weathering. The size of Lionel trains make it a favorite among people who love to paint and detail model trains. Hobbyists also love that the trains are so big and so bold.  You simply can’t miss a Lionel train.

For the reasons that I have mentioned above, it is unlikely that Lionel O gauge trains will fall out of favor any time soon. It’s hard to contemplate the model train world without Lionel. Lionel never disappoints.

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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What are the hot collectible locomotives today?  Here’ the huge three:

Lionel trains:  

We have to begin with the huge tuna, Lionel locomotives.  Lionel train has been the longest lasting toy training obsession.  Lionel locomotives once dominated the model training community.  Baby boomers will remember the Lionel Holiday displays they saw as children. Lionel still has a quality that most toy locomotive manufacturers would kill for.  Famous folks like the rocker Neil Young and the actor Tom Hanks have been long time Lionel enthusiasts.  Lionel has a strong literature that helps support it.  Because Lionel was ruled in the 1950s and because the post War decade was the high point of model hobbying, it is no surprise that Lionel should be as prestigious as the brand is.. Lionel’s value is raised by the fact that it positioned itself out of range for most customers back in the 50’s, creating a scarcity that helps bouy its value even today.

American Flyers:  

The only model locomotive brand that can really give Lionel a run for its money is American Flyer.  Although Gilbert failed to usurp Lionel with his S gauge train in the 50’s, American Flyer trains are perhaps even more sought after today than Lionel’s historic locomotives.  Gilbert’s effort, however, made some of the most beloved locomotives around and collectors go absolutely ape doo doo over these vintage toy trains.  The fact that they are one of the few types of trains that run on S gauge, an in-between scale smaller than O but hugger than HO, only adds to the uniqueness of these locomotives.  They are so popular among collectors and fans that Lionel LLC, the current owner of the American Flyer patent, plans on releasing many of the most popular locomotives from this period.  Watch out for them.

Ives:  

If you actually want to get a locomotive that no one has try finding an old Ives train.  Ives was the third challenger in the Lionel versus American Flyer triumvirate.  An old Ives model train is a real find.  Most are in O scale just like Lionel but they are real collector’s items these days. 

Clock operated trains of the Victorian era:  

These toy trains from the very early period of toy training are really a discovery.  They don’t have the complicated detail that the Lionel and American Flyers would have after World War I.   These clock operated locomotives, however, really paint you a picture of how such trains were viewed before model training became so popular.  You can really make out the hand crafting on these simple wooden trains. They were clock operated because there was no electrical source yet.  And they were pricey back then.  They clearly had the children of the well off in mind.  These trains can really capture the imagination of another age.  In fact, you might say that model training came to us just like kindergarten.  Both were part of Germany’s obsessions with childrearing in the early 20^th century.

There is great joy in restoring one of these old model locomotives.  You could choose a far worse hobby.

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

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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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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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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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All metal and wood surfaces on model trains should be gently sanded until the surface is smooth. Your best bet is to use fine 400 grit sandpaper. It serves its purpose and its texture won’t damage your model trains. If you’re painting plastic, most often, you’ll only need to ensure it’s clean and dry. Since oils from our fingers will transfer onto plastic, you run the risk of the paint not applying properly if it’s not free of oil or other particles. Usually, primer isn’t necessary for model trains made of plastic.

Although higher quality paint brushes will cost a bit more, the investment is worth it in the long run. Brush streaks will be easily seen and the potential for loose fibers to stick to your paint is higher with less expensive paintbrushes. The same applies to your paint. Enamel paint is most versatile and appropriate for HO and O scale model trains. It’s also recommended you consider an airbrush technique for larger areas. This ensures more even coverage and isn’t nearly as time consuming.

If your model trains require more than one color, as most usually do, consider using the newer “painter’s” tape versus traditional masking tape. It’s easier to remove and you’re less likely to be left with the sticky residuals common with masking tape. Another product on the market that’s excellent for model trains is a liquid painting mask. Application is a breeze and once it’s dried, you can continue with your painting project. Once the project is completed, you can easily peel the mask off. You’re left with clean lines where your two paints seamlessly meet.

A few other tips to keep in mind:
•    Add a few bb’s to your jars of acrylic paint. It makes mixing easy.
•    Remember to thoroughly clean your brushes after each use so that they’re ready for the next project.
•    If you apply decals to your recently painted HO and O scale model trains, be sure to allow at least 24 hours for the paint to properly dry and set.
•    Use warm water to wet the decals with – it easily prepares the glue for setting.
•    As a final step, a coat of Dull-Cote seals the decal in place and prevents edging.

By incorporating these tips and preparing in advance, your painting projects for your model trains are far more likely to be successful.

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