New Lionel corporate history book complements previous historical studies

There’s just something magical about Lionel trains. They spark heightened levels of emotion and memory within the hearts and minds of their adherents. They compel grown men to spend tens of thousands of dollars on what ultimately is little more than metal and plastic. And they’ve managed to endure for more than 100 years, thanks in large part to the original magic created by those who founded the company, which still lingers on, however faintly.

It’s this magic which has driven documentation of Lionel history for decades now. And it is unparalleled in the toy world — think about it: what other toy company has had more stories written about its founders, its products, and its see-saw history of success and failure than Lionel?

Click here to read the complete story in the October 2008 issue of Toy Collector Magazine.

Germany's Wimmer kept the wheels turning for less than $5 a set

At the end of World War II in 1945, Germany lay in ruins. Industries that survived the devastation gradually returned to producing consumer products. Those manufacturers included toy makers. One such company was HWN, for Heinrich Wimmer, Nuremberg, more commonly known as Wimmer.

Wimmer began operation in 1928 manufacturing clockwork lithographed tin toy vehicles and airplanes. After the war they continued production of the prewar toys, but added a line of O gauge tin toy trains and accessories that became very successful. While these trains were offered in electric, their clockwork counterparts were more affordable and still appealing.

Inexpensive train sets, by necessity, require imaginative methods of achieving play value without incurring significant costs. Adding additional play value to train sets which retailed for as little as 69 cents and generally not more than $4.99 demanded serious attention to tooling and material costs. For this reason Wimmer trains were kept small and tooling was reused where possible. Passenger coaches, stock cars and cabooses were generally made from the same tooling, but employed different lithography. While retaining the gauge of “O” (track width of 1 ¼ inches or 32mm) most Wimmer engines measure between 5 and 6 inches in length compared to 8 inches or more for Marx, the dominant low-end toy trains in American toy stores. The weight of an entire Wimmer train set is often less than a Marx engine. But what they lacked in size and weight they more than made up for in charm.

Read the complete story in the September 2009 issue of Toy Collector Magazine

The first three years of train production

Art Deco was all the rage. In Germany, Ferdinand Porsche was developing the Volkswagen “Beetle.” In the USA, Walter Chrysler was advancing the streamlined age with the development of his futuristic Chrysler Airflo. The modern industrialized age was everywhere, making its presence known. New and sleek was the maxim to live by, and everything from radios to automobiles were being redesigned. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad had introduced the Burlington Zephyr. The New York Central Railroad’s Commodore Vanderbilt had been a success, and their Mercury would soon see service. The Union Pacific Railroad had pushed forward with its streamlined passenger train, the M10000, and the entire country was awaiting its inaugural excursion. A new age had arrived, and its hallmark was streamlining.

In his Toy Building offices at 200 Fifth Ave. in New York, Louis Marx had his finger on the pulse. He had recently acquired Girard Model Works, of Girard, Pa., and was converting their toy train line into something much more representative of modern railroads. The toy trains Marx would produce were not going to look like children’s toys. His new Marx trains were going to look like the trains kids saw on the tracks of their towns, and those trains would be streamliners. Louis Marx would make sure the trains boys of the mid-1930s played with would also be modern streamliners, and he would see to it that working-class Americans could afford them.

Click here to read the complete article now in the June 2008 issue of Toy Collector Magazine.

It was the mid-1920s and World War I was over. The American people were clamoring for toys again – American-made toys. The war had left the American people with a bitter taste for anything produced abroad, and prior to the war the majority of toy trains sold in America had been European imports.

The great Nürnberg toy manufacturers Bing and Bub (KBN) had once dominated toy train sales, but now such U.S. manufacturers as American Flyer and Hafner were filling the void. There was room for competition, and a small manufacturer in the hills of western Pennsylvania was about to help fill that void and change the world of toys forever.

Girard Model Works Inc. of Girard, Pa., a small toy and train manufacturer contracted with a bright young salesman to sell their toys. This man, a marketing genius who had worked for Ferdinand Strauss and was marketing his own line of toys, had a novel idea. Sell toys in large quantities at low cost and make handsome profits, pennies at a time. The man was Louis Marx, and every toy and train collector knows his name.

Read the complete story in the April 2008 issue of Toy Collector Magazine. Click here to read this issue.