Lionel Trains of the 1950's

Country singer Ronnie Milsap once crooned about inviting a lady to join him on a journey in their hearts back to the 1950s. He reminisced about the ballads they had once danced to in hopes of reviving a love grown cool. The lyrics all but hypnotized listeners. For they, too, felt the nostalgic pull of being lost in the fifties and returning to simpler times. Thinking and writing about Lionel trains from the golden decade of the 1950s similarly removes me from the bustling, everyday world I occupy. But rather than becoming lost, I end up energized and pushed in a firm direction. There’s an immediate joy felt at train meet or in a store when Lionel engines and cars I loved as a boy cast their spell. I can’t help drifting…

Between 1950 and 1959, Lionel did much to hold its spot at the forefront of the growing hobby of model railroading. Technological innovations as well as creative marketing made its trains the most popular plaything in America. Those toys also influenced the outlook of a generation of youngsters swiftly coming of age then. ALWAYS ON TOP The 10-year period in Lionel’s grand history spotlighted here saw the introduction of powerful and attractive locomotives as well as innovative and entertaining operating cars and accessories. Advances in plastics molding and painting transformed Lionel during the 1950s. So did the ingenious use of newly designed motors and animated mechanisms. Clever promotion of its products in mass-circulation magazines and television made Lionel familiar to everyone. Setbacks did occur, of course. Shortages of raw materials generated by…

Joshua Lionel Cowen had good reason to consider 1950 a golden year. After all, he, along with Harry Grant, had led the way in establishing what was known around the world as the Lionel Corp. half a century earlier. Now that elderly yet still vibrant gentleman prepared to be celebrated for his numerous triumphs. Tributes appeared in magazine profiles of Cowen and Lionel. Later in 1950 came ceremonies near the grounds of the company’s factory in northern New Jersey to which all employees and their families were invited. All but lost in the shadows cast by Cowen and his wife were other executives, including Lionel President Lawrence Cowen, Executive Vice-President Arthur Raphael, Works Manager Charles Giaimo, and Chief Engineer Joseph Bonanno. 1950 WAS A GOLDEN YEAR Without a doubt, 1950 did represent…

DURING EACH production year, the Lionel Corp. made certain items in such limited quantities that collectors classify them as rare. Some were engineering prototypes and mockups of which only one or two examples were produced. Color samples, test runs, and sales samples were made, although in slightly greater numbers. Finally, Lionel authorized limited production runs at its factory. The most coveted of any prototypes and mock-ups from 1950 is the no. 213 railroad lift bridge. Lionel never mass-produced this accessory, but a crude preliminary model was kept in the company’s archives and an engineering sample, complete and operational, was made. A unique item is a gold-plated F3 diesel, as illustrated on the cover of the December 1950 issue of Popular Science magazine. No such diesel has ever been reported, although in 1949…

The consumer catalog for 1950, exciting though it was, did not overwhelm children with vivid colors. What did stand out was a pair of diesels: the nos. 2343 Santa Fe Electro-Motive F3s and 2023 Union Pacific Alco FAs. Kids were familiar with the Santa Fe diesels, which had dominated Lionel’s O gauge roster since their debut in the consumer catalog for 1948. The Alcos, however, were something new and bold. Lionel’s leaders used the Union Pacific diesels as the motive power for two outfits in 1950s, notably the no. 1464W three-car passenger train that included O-27 streamlined cars painted yellow and gray with red highlights and lettering to match the diesels. That set served the company well during its 50th anniversary, and its silver-painted successors did even more. Over the next few…

In the autumn of 1948, Lionel first ventured into commercial television by producing the 13-week series Tales of the Red Caboose. The show received less-than-spectacular reviews at the time and generated no discernible increase in sales. For those reasons, Joshua Lionel Cowen was reluctant to try any new ventures into TV. But two years later, NBC approached Joseph Hanson, the advertising manager at Lionel, with an offer to sponsor a Saturday show starring Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, the great outfielder for the New York Yankees. Everyone, including Cowen, was impressed with that concept. The Yankees had won the World Series in 1949 and would again in 1950, and DiMaggio was a legend in his time. The deal sailed through. Lionel Clubhouse debuted in September 1950 and ran every Saturday afternoon from 5:30 to…