BBeM: Toys & Games Item

Toys & Games

Lionel Trains...

...and its competitors,
Marx and American Flyer
Marx trains American Flyer trains

There are 11 comments for this item.

Posted by Duff at 12:15 pm (PDT) on Thu August 6, 2009
I still have my 1957-vintage Lionel "O" gauge set (Santa Fe F-3 and Virginian FM diesel engines and Milwaukee EP-5 and Pennsylvania GG-1 electrics, plus passenger & freight cars and the big ZW transformer -- originally on a 4' x 16' table), and have recently been augmenting it in an effort to put together a large working layout. I'm going with Lionel's TMCC wireless remote control this time, and with the Gargraves Trackage system, since its appearance -- tie spacing, track cross-section, hidden center rail -- is much more realistic. But the layout is at our vacation home, and I'm not there often enough to get the project done.
Posted by Beth at 9:37 pm (PDT) on Thu August 27, 2009
My brother had a Lionel that if you put little white pellets in the smoke stack, it would puff smoke as it traveled around.
Posted by WJV1955 at 8:26 am (PDT) on Wed July 28, 2010
Good old Lionel trains. Brings back so many memories of Christmas when I was a child. When the train boxes came out of the basement sometime after Thanksgiving, you knew Christmas was close by. Was nothing more exciting than setting the train table up and making a new layout for that year. It made me a lionel collector to this day and they still bring out the kid in me.
Posted by paktype at 1:45 pm (PDT) on Fri June 24, 2011
I never had an electric train set as a kid and I always wanted one. My wife finally got me an MTH set for my 32nd birthday. Still have it.
Posted by SUBSURF at 5:08 pm (PDT) on Fri June 24, 2011
MTH/Mikes Train House. Makes some quality stuff, I have a few of their larger pieces, collected over the years, but no setup. Is yours setup or still in the boxes. Either way take care of it it will become more valuable. When I see how much the Lionel set I had when I was 9 years old is worth today, I kick my self., what scale is yours, HO gauge, O gauge?
Posted by paktype at 11:31 am (PDT) on Mon March 19, 2012
I think its O gauge (the larger one). I'm very interested in expanding the set but I can't believe how expensive a hobby it is. A switch is like $75.
Posted by Tommie at 4:29 pm (PDT) on Tue April 17, 2012
Most kids I knew had Lionel sets but I had an American Flyer S gauge set. It was smaller, but the track was better- two rails instead of three. I never understood why Lionel had to use three. After I left home to go to school, mother sold my set in a garage sale- without my permission. She figured I outgrew it, but some of us never do!
Posted by Alan at 9:20 pm (PDT) on Tue April 17, 2012
I agree with Tommie. I had an American Flyer just because it had realistic track.
Posted by Duff at 2:00 pm (PDT) on Wed April 18, 2012
I agree about the unrealistic nature of Lionel's track; 3 tubular rails with widely-spaced metal ties. Yuck. I'm in the process of building a layout for my old Lionel "O" gauge trains (and a bunch of new ones), but I'm using track made by Gargraves Trackage. It's still 3 rails, but the center one is blackened so it's less noticeable, the rails have a realistic "T" cross-section, and there are reasonably-spaced wooden ties, as in this photo: I think the 3 rails (center hot, ground on both outside rails) enables all sorts of wiring gimmicks, such as the ability for switch tracks to flip automatically as a train approaches -- this relies on the circuit being completed by a wheel axle, from one outside rail to the other. The main advantage I can see to Lionel's track is that it's durable and easy for young children to put together. The Gargraves track is less so.
Posted by Tommie at 3:12 pm (PDT) on Wed April 18, 2012
This looks much better than the standard track. My father built O gauge craftsman kits in the 1940's and laid his own track by spiking rails to individual ties. I have a few of his completed freight cars and an unbuilt diecast steam locomotive kit- a NYC Hudson. Unfortunately, some key parts are missing and it can't be finished. The company was called Scale-Craft.
Posted by Bob Matthews at 1:06 pm (PDT) on Sat April 27, 2013
Best part as a kid was setting up the intentional crashes

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