Manufacturers come and go in model railroading, and the O gauge market is no exception – 2 or 3 rail, scale or semi scale. From vast offerings to specific products, let’s find out who is producing today for the customer. If you know of a manufacturer not on this list, please contact us at editor@classictoytrains.com. […]
Howard Hitchcock, CEO of Lionel, talks about Lionel’s 125th anniversary, as interviewed by Classic Toy Trains Editor Rene Schweitzer. Howard was kind enough to give us some time to talk about their anniversary, new products, virtual events, and show us some brand-new anniversary items in this video! You don’t want to miss this exclusive video […]
The Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA) will be celebrating their 55th anniversary at their annual convention set for July 21-26th in the historic railroad town of Scranton, Penn. The tours will include the famous Steamtown and the Electric City Trolley Museum just to mention two. Convention activities will include multiple running train layouts, seminars, […]
In January 2022, when Lionel released the Volume 1 Big Book, a few pages beyond the Visionline Class A you’d find an old, but familiar locomotive, the A5. Tooling from K-Line became the skeleton for this small 0-4-0 switching locomotive. However, even with good bones, it took Lionel two and a half years to deliver […]
Dick Christianson, the founding editor of Classic Toy Trains and the consummate cheerleader for Lionel trains of the postwar era, was recently asked about his top locomotive. He’s owned several great steam and diesel models from the 1940s and ’50s. As editor, he observed virtually every locomotive Lionel cataloged in those decades and long after. […]
Lionel catalog volume 1 for 2024 is filled with plenty of treasures. I should know because several months ago, I spent hours studying the latest additions to the O gauge line and then shared my observations on Trains.com. It was a lot of fun, especially after hobbyists who had read my opinions replied with their […]
LCCA announces custom Lionel set and Brakeman car: The Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA) announces some Lionel custom-run products. The LCCA announces a custom-run Southern Pacific train set with “Black Widow” livery (No. 2401200). The set includes an FT diesel and three passenger cars, (coach, dome, and Hopkins observation). Requires O-31 curves for operation. Price: […]
Also in this issue: Showroom out west Rare Lionel photos from 1940 take us inside First decade at the Gilbert Hall of Science The company thrilled New York City in the 1940s Tribute to a forgotten showroom display Where Lionel ran accessories in 1945 Lionel builds a hub for the Midwest The Chicago showroom handled […]
Hidden in the back of the Lionel 2023 Volume 2 catalog — behind large Legacy steam and diesels locomotives, plus a few heavyweight passenger cars — was the small yet proven Alco S2 switcher. The S2 was one of Alco’s most reliable and successful locomotives. Powered by a turbocharged inline 6 cylinder engine, it pumped […]
My first train set (or locomotive) was…? When I was quite young, my parents bought me a secondhand Christmas train set. My best recollection is that it was probably a Marx set with strange couplers and lithographed tinplate sides. There was a small 0-4-0 steamer, a silver Gulf Oil tank car, a tan baby Ruth […]
Not every hobbyist has a spare room in which to build a layout. You may have limited space for a layout or need to share a room that’s used for other purposes (like a family room). That was my situation, so I decided to build a multi-level shelf layout. Benefits of a shelf layout You […]
The FP45 diesel was a passenger locomotive first produced in 1967 at the request of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Only 14 units were made, nine for AT&SF and five for the Milwaukee Road. By the early 1980s, all but one were out of service or scrapped. Six survive in museums today. The first […]
