In 2000, Lionel celebrated 100 years of continous manufacturing of high quality products for the Model Train Industry. Joshua Lionel Cowen and his Lionel Corporation pioneered virtually every development of 0 and 027 American model railroading equipment during those many years.
Today, as in the past, despite coninuously viable competition, Lionel products continue to be innovative, cutting edge and of ever higher quality.
Although Joshua Lionel Cowen started with a battery-driven electric fan motor in his wooden "cigar box on wheels" gondola, named the ELECTRIC EXPRESS, was not built to a particular scale, but for most of the first half of the century his company was known as the leader in "Standard" gauge model railroading.
In the Post-War years right up to the present, the staple has been 0 and 027 scale.
Today Lionel has a stable of
steam engines that includes
Pacifics, Hudsons (including a
Dreyfuss designed streamlined
Hudson), Ten Wheelers,
Camelbacks , Yard Goats,
Dock Siders and more...
...and diesels of every description;
FT's, F3's, E6's E8's, FM's (H16-44),
U Boats, Turbines, SD's, RS's...
All of these TYPES of equipment are
available at Model Train Classics
Plus. Watch our newsletter or the
date and time windows; we'd be
pleased to be your retailer for all of
your Lionel needs! We are an
authorized "Lionel Value-Added Retail
Dealer" for all of their sets, individual
locos, rolling stock, accessories and
notions. As a "Lionel Retail Dealer"
we are able to offer you full access to
their distributor network, wholesale
parts inventory and sales and
Since the model train industry chooses to manufacture with the collector as well as the occasional hobbyist in mind, production of any product is subject to limited numbers. While the types of equipment remain fairly constant, one cannot expect to find the exact piece shown in the catalog if it is not preordered during the specified time period.
ROLLING STOCK/PASSENGER EQUIPMENT
Lionel has always been the leader and innovator in the development of rolling stock and passenger equipment. Lionel's steady and unceasing pursuit of creating operating railroad cars probably was as much a factor in making the Lionel name famous as the smoking locomotive! Almost everyone in the world has marveled at the little guy tossing out those milk cans, the logs being loaded on a staked flat, or the coal flowing into a hopper! And that doesn't include the operating accessories that add so much to the "action" of a Lionel railroad empire!!!
But action roling stock is not the only claim to fame for Lionel. Their new, and much of the old, rolling stock doesn't take a back seat to anyone in the industry. Color and add-on details are attractive and plentiful, couplers and trucks with needle point bearings are more dependable than ever whether they grace a box car or a streamlined aluminum passenger coach. And the state-of-the-art interiors and lighting systems for those passenger coaches are every bit as wonderful as advertised.
Be it "Play Value" or realism you prefer, Lionel can offer both and most often, in the same product!
ACCESSORIES
Accessories have always
been a big part of Lionel's
"ACTION" railroads. From
the simple flashing crossbuck
to the Rotary Coal Tipple,
there has hardly been a
scene one couldn't model
with Lionel accessories.
Most model train lovers are fully
accessories Lionel has offered
over the years, and they just keep
'em coming. Most of the old
lineside standards are still in the
inventory and many new, more
scale-like railroad appurtenances
have been making appearances
year after year. And then there
are the original "action"
accessories that we all love so
much; the Automatic Gateman, the
cows loading into the stock car,
the little guy tossing out the milk
cans, the Exploding Box Car, the
#47 Coaling Station, the Gantry
