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Lionel Corporation
Lionel Corporation was an American toy manufacturer and holding company of retailers that was founded in 1900 and operated for more than 120 years. It started as an electrical novelties company. Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence. Toy trains and model railroads were its main claim to fame. Lionel trains have been produced since 1900, and their trains were admired by model railroaders around the world for the solidity of their construction and the authenticity of their detail. During its peak years in the 1950s, the company sold $25 million worth of trains per year.
In 1969, the company sold their model train lines to General Mills. It continued to operate until 1993 as a holding company for their toy stores. In 2006, Lionel's electric train became the first electric toy inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The model trains are still in production, sold by Lionel Corporation's present-day successor company Lionel, LLC.
The original Lionel Corporation was founded in 1900 by Joshua Lionel Cowen and Harry C. Grant in New York City. The company's devotees disagree over the date of incorporation: the official paperwork is dated September 5, but the paperwork was not filed until September 22, more than two weeks later. Initially, the company specialized in electrical novelties, such as fans and lighting devices.
Lionel's first train, the Electric Express, was long thought by historians to have been intended for use as a storefront display, rather than for sale to consumers. Delivered in December 1900, it operated on a brass track and was powered by a battery and a motor that Cowen had intended to use for an electric fan. Cowen hoped the public's fascination with railroads and electricity would draw attention to his other goods for sale. Instead, the public approached store owners about buying trains, prompting Lionel to begin making toy trains for the general public. Lionel sold 12 examples of the Electric Express.
More recently, Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Trains (2014) concluded differently: it said that the first Lionel product was the motorized Converse Trolley, with the Electric Express being made to diversify the motor's use.
Lionel's earliest trains were larger than the sizes commonly available today, running on two-rail tracks with the rails 27⁄8 inches apart. In 1906, Lionel began offering a three-rail track that simplified wiring of reverse loops and accessories. Its outer rails were 21⁄8 inches apart, which did not match any of the existing standards that other manufacturers had been using since 1891. Whether this was an accidental misreading of Märklin's 2 gauge specifications or an intentional incompatibility is unclear.
Lionel marketed the non-standard track as "The Standard of the World," soon adopted the name in catalogs as Standard Gauge, and trademarked the name. When other U.S. companies began using Lionel's standard, they usually called it wide gauge. Starting in 1915, Lionel followed most of its U.S. competitors and adopted the smaller O gauge standard for its budget-level trains.
During the pre-Great War era, Lionel competed with Ives Manufacturing Company, Boucher Manufacturing Company, Dorfan, Louis Marx and Company and American Flyer.
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Lionel Corporation
Lionel Corporation was an American toy manufacturer and holding company of retailers that was founded in 1900 and operated for more than 120 years. It started as an electrical novelties company. Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence. Toy trains and model railroads were its main claim to fame. Lionel trains have been produced since 1900, and their trains were admired by model railroaders around the world for the solidity of their construction and the authenticity of their detail. During its peak years in the 1950s, the company sold $25 million worth of trains per year.
In 1969, the company sold their model train lines to General Mills. It continued to operate until 1993 as a holding company for their toy stores. In 2006, Lionel's electric train became the first electric toy inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The model trains are still in production, sold by Lionel Corporation's present-day successor company Lionel, LLC.
The original Lionel Corporation was founded in 1900 by Joshua Lionel Cowen and Harry C. Grant in New York City. The company's devotees disagree over the date of incorporation: the official paperwork is dated September 5, but the paperwork was not filed until September 22, more than two weeks later. Initially, the company specialized in electrical novelties, such as fans and lighting devices.
Lionel's first train, the Electric Express, was long thought by historians to have been intended for use as a storefront display, rather than for sale to consumers. Delivered in December 1900, it operated on a brass track and was powered by a battery and a motor that Cowen had intended to use for an electric fan. Cowen hoped the public's fascination with railroads and electricity would draw attention to his other goods for sale. Instead, the public approached store owners about buying trains, prompting Lionel to begin making toy trains for the general public. Lionel sold 12 examples of the Electric Express.
More recently, Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Trains (2014) concluded differently: it said that the first Lionel product was the motorized Converse Trolley, with the Electric Express being made to diversify the motor's use.
Lionel's earliest trains were larger than the sizes commonly available today, running on two-rail tracks with the rails 27⁄8 inches apart. In 1906, Lionel began offering a three-rail track that simplified wiring of reverse loops and accessories. Its outer rails were 21⁄8 inches apart, which did not match any of the existing standards that other manufacturers had been using since 1891. Whether this was an accidental misreading of Märklin's 2 gauge specifications or an intentional incompatibility is unclear.
Lionel marketed the non-standard track as "The Standard of the World," soon adopted the name in catalogs as Standard Gauge, and trademarked the name. When other U.S. companies began using Lionel's standard, they usually called it wide gauge. Starting in 1915, Lionel followed most of its U.S. competitors and adopted the smaller O gauge standard for its budget-level trains.
During the pre-Great War era, Lionel competed with Ives Manufacturing Company, Boucher Manufacturing Company, Dorfan, Louis Marx and Company and American Flyer.
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