Lionel Trains
“Real enough for a man to enjoy — simple enough for a boy to operate.”
Remember that feeling of power, knowing you held the controls not
of a child’s toy, but of a real, honest-to-goodness, working train?
Built to scale, yes, but no matter. This was the genuine article, and
the only limits to the expanse of your line were your imagination and
mom and dad’s generosity. That was the magic of owning a Lionel
Electric Train, the toy that became an obsession for kids and adults
alike.
Joshua Lionel Cowen founded his manufacturing company in 1900, and
by the following year, he had designed “The Electric Express” as an
attention-getting display for toy store windows. But demand was too
strong to confine the train to an advertising gimmick, and Cowen soon
began selling his electric-powered trains to the general public. Cowen
hadn’t invented the electric train, but by the end of the decade,
Lionel trains were the locomotives to beat in the toy world.
Realism was the Lionel standard, and the company delighted its
young customers with impressive replicas of the major lines from across
the country. The railroad was still a novelty to many, and having a
scale version of the real thing in your very own living room was a
dream come true for engineer wannabes. In addition to the engines, cars
and tracks, Lionel manufactured increasingly detailed accessories—from
gates to switches to animated coal elevators, working water towers and
more. The trains themselves also benefited from the company’s
innovations, leading to engines that switched directions, whistled, and
even puffed smoke.
To keep track of the ever-increasing Lionel lineup of cars, tracks
and accessories, the company issued fully-illustrated annual catalogs.
For many youngsters, the books were one-stop shopping for Christmas,
Hanukkah and other holidays. Why even bother checking out what Sears
and Montgomery Ward had to offer when you knew all you wanted was that
working drawbridge and the passenger car with interior lights?
Like most toys, Lionel trains had their ups and downs throughout
the 20th century. The Great Depression kept most families out of the
toy stores and World War II halted production altogether, but the Baby
Boom was very good to the toy train world. Fathers who had grown up
with Lionel train sets now bought updated versions for their own kids,
creating one of the few hobbies that both generations could agree on.
But at the same time, real railroads were swiftly being replaced by
interstate highways and airplane travel as the transportation system of
choice. As rail travel went, so went Lionel, and by the late 1960’s,
the company had declared bankruptcy.
But nobody wanted to see the era of toy trains fall by the wayside,
least of all the kids who still wanted nothing more than to run a real
man’s railroad. Lionel passed through several corporate hands over the
ensuing decades, but the trains kept coming. Classic models were
updated, and new innovations like RailSounds (realistic train sounds
customized to the model being replicated) and the remote control
TrainMaster system carried on the Lionel tradition proudly.
After more than 100 years, Lionel trains remain the toy of choice
for many kids, and kid-at-heart hobbyists have helped keep model
railroads up and running well past the real railroad’s heyday. No
matter how fast modern transportation gets, there’s still a thrill in
hooking those lines of track together, fastening the car couplings and
turning on the juice to a real, honest-to-goodness, working train.
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