Lionel Model Trains

by Oscar Salcedo

During their heyday, lionel model trains were famed the world over for their attention to detail and the quality of manufacture. They still are: from Hogwart’s Express for Harry Potter fans to the Polar Express or just the simple Pennsylvania steam freight train, Lionel offers a wide range of trains that are true to the originals, real or imaginary.

In fact, a Lionel electric train was one of the first two electric toys to be inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame (the other was the Easy Bake Oven). This was a great honor for a company that was started up in the latter part of 1900 by Joshua Lionel Cowen, an engineer with an incredible penchant for skilful marketing. It was his marketing expertise that gave rise to the phenomenon of model train collecting at the very beginning of the 20th century.

His idea began when he devised moving marketing gondolas using a small electric motor he had developed, and when he found that people were more interested in the gondolas than in the products they were carrying around he got the idea of using his electric motor in toy trains. By means of fabulous department displays at Christmas time Cowen gave rise to a public interest in toy trains, and soon they were among the country’s most popular toys.

Cowen’s introduction of the 2 1/8” gauge three rail track became the standard, and signaled his dominance of the toy train market. This was known as the Standard Gauge, and subsequently Lionel model trains were also made in O-gauge, which was 1:48 of the real railroad standard 4ft 8.5”.  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, because the 27” curve was too sharp for ordinary O scale trains.

After Lionel’s golden decade covering 1946 – 56, the company declined as an increasing number of people switched to the smaller HO scale (that Lionel eventually adhered to) and children’s interests switched from toy trains to toy cars. This was only to be expected since the age of the car had arrived, and although cars had been in existence for many decades, it was only now that the number of models had proliferated to the extent that toy manufacturers considered it worth producing them. Toy cars were less expensive to parents than trains that needed rolling stock and tracks to go with them.

The company was eventually sold to a business known as General Mills who ran it from 1969, although 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 rapidly rose again but in 1995 the company was sold to a consortium known as Wellspring Associates LLC.  One of its investors was Neil Young, who was a model train enthusiast as well as a rock musician. The company now trades under the name Lionel LLC, but will always be known to enthusiasts as Lionel Toy Trains.

Genuine vintage Lionel 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 advanced couplings have pegs that can be pulled on the bottom to open them.

Post-war also saw the introduction of electric couplers. The early version, immediately post-war, was operated by two extra rails either side of the middle rail. Each truck is in contact with these rails using contact shoes, and when a switch is thrown the power operates a solenoid in the coupler. The later type involved an inductive coil in the middle of the third rail reacting with a corresponding coil in the truck to provide electricity to the coupling.  This was better than the first version since there were no contact shoes to get snagged with switch points.

The Lionel toy trains are normally stamped with four numbers, identifying each item. These can be found either underneath or on the side of each car and locomotive. Genuine Lionel trains sell for from under $100 to over $1,000, so make sure the stamp is there when you buy one and check the coupler because than can give you a rough indication of its age.

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