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Lionel Train History 1930's & 1940's

Learn more about Lionel Train History from the 1930's and 40's. It was like another whole new era in itself, wasn't it? We hope you will submit your pictures and Reviews for us. We know there are some great clubs out there featuring these Lionel years. We hope you will help us add to these pages with your stories.



This page focuses on the late 1930’s through the 40's. We hope you will send in your pictures of your Replica Railroads and train layouts.

1938-No. 97 brought the Coal Elevator. It was a Multi Set with animated accessories.

1939-Lionel goes to New York’s World Fair, which gave them the great boost of recognition and patriotism kicked in again.

1940-No. 313 included even more accessories which is what people were asking for. It had the Bascule Bridge which raised and lowered.
No. 164 had a Log Loader with a working Conveyor Belt.

A Big Year! In 1946, the new “Smoking” systems had arrived! Locomotives that puffed smoke, like the Pennsylvania S-2 steam turbine. It even had a remote-controlled coupling system! It came with a lifelike and working Water Tower with a moving spout. Lionel was beginning to do railroad layouts that matched actual railroads.


lionel-penn-steam-locomotive


The Pennsylvania Super Steam Freight Set includes almost anything you could ask for! This updated model has a speedy 2-4-2 Mikado steam locomotive and tender-hauling an impressive consist of freight cars which include a boxcar, single dome tank, hopper and caboose. The Mikado is equipped with the Trainmaster Control System, RailSounds which include CrewTalk and TowerCom, and the CW80 transformer. Each freight car comes complete with die-cast metal sprung trucks. Boxcar features opening doors. Hopper has a removable single-piece coal load. The caboose has interior illumniation. A large loop of FasTrack completes the set.

People fell in love with their toy trains again! The new inventions in magnetic couplers made all new concepts accessible to the masses. The Pennsylvania GG-1 was now using the new “pantographs” which powered you with overhead lines, the F3 Diesel Locomotive had a ZW Transformer with 275 Watts (remarkable back then), and it could power four of your trains at once!

A new line began to immerge in the later 1940’s. It was more of an “Americana” type feeling with agricultural and utilitarian components.
No. 6462 was New York Central’s Gondola Car.
No. 6520 had Search light Cars
No. 3656 was a Cattle Car with a Platform.



How many of you Babyboomers and Beyond remember in the early 1950s, you would see these great Lionel catalogs with the greatest trains? The Railroad Layout buildings were now of The New York Yankee Stadium, and you had lighted cars and Cabooses like the No. 6417.

Or maybe you remember sitting in the family room glued to the Lionel TV show that even had ads for girls, with Lady Lionel train sets in pastel colors, or for the boys it was the trains with space age and Cold War themes.
No. 445 had a new animated switch Tower
No. 2343, the Santa Fe, had new sleek aluminum Passenger cars.

We are going to continue our 1950's, 1960's and on Lionel Train History, so please read on.

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