Maker record
Lionel
Lionel is an American maker of electric toy trains and model railroad equipment. Its first train, designed by Joshua Lionel Cowen as a store-window attraction around 1900, drew customer interest as a product in its own right. Lionel train sets combined detailed locomotives and rolling stock with three-rail track and transformers that let operators vary train speed. The company later offered both O- and HO-gauge trains, along with accessories and other toys. Its catalogs document train production from the early twentieth century through 1969.
- Founded
- 1900
- Countries
- United States
- Locations
- Concord, North Carolina, USA
- Founders
- Joshua Lionel Cowen
The story of Lionel
Around 1900, engineering entrepreneur Joshua Lionel Cowen designed an electric train as a store-window attraction. Customers asked to buy the train, and Cowen founded the Lionel Manufacturing Company to meet that demand. A powered wooden gondola running on 2⅞-inch-gauge track appeared in Lionel's early production, and the company's catalogs began in 1902.
Lionel's ranges developed around electric train sets, with three-rail track and transformers that allowed operators to control speed. Catalogs from the prewar years record changing locomotives, cars and accessories. Lionel resumed train production after the Second World War, expanded its offerings to include HO trains during the 1950s, and continued to sell O- and HO-gauge equipment alongside other toys. Its reproduced catalog record runs through 1969, documenting changes in the company's products across the postwar period.
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