Lionel lioneltrainswelcome

INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF LIONEL (FASTRAK, O GAUGE AND O-27)

 

  • People ask 'why don't they make things like they did in the old days'?
  • Lionel does
  • Only Lionel Trains and other brands of O-Gauge and O-27 Trains have a forward, neutral and reverse system just like the old days
  • They can be stopped with the power on, allowing the use of operating milk cars, log dump cars, coal dump cars and many other accessories while the train is standing still
  • Other scales , including large scale (or G scale) and HO, do not have a neutral; cannot be stopped with the power on; hence, cannot have and do not have operating cars to work with accessories
  • This is but one of many features that has made Lionel Trains the gift and toy that lasts forever
  • Lionel Trains are passed from generation to generation, and re- appear every holiday
  • They were designed to be handled and played with by children, survive collisions and work as well when they are 50 years old as when brand new
  • Your children will be teaching their grandchildren how to run a Lionel Train
  • Lionel and O-Gauge provides the ultimate in maximum play value for your children and the entire family
  • Control is simple and straightforward, such that children can run an entire system by the age of 3 to 5 years
  • Fathers, uncles, mothers, aunts and guests will all run them - they will be the feature of the Holidays. Sometimes you may have to put your foot down and reserve time for the children to run them! Send the adults to bed so the children can play with the trains
  • You can add unlimited amounts of equipment to your Lionel Train, fully simulating real railroad operation, with the added feature of combining the new sets with almost any old O-Gauge trains and equipment made since roughly 1920
  • New computer technology has been blended with old fashioned Lionel quality and durability
  • Lionel Trains have always been a product that works and will not be broken by the end of the holidays, unlike most toys in this modern 'wear it out and throw away world' which often are broken by the end of the Holidays
  • Packaged starter sets are manufactured by a number of companies in addition to Lionel - all usually include everything one needs to start - transformer, wire, small oval of track, locomotive and 3 or more cars. All usually offer substantial cost savings over the price it would cost to purchase each component separately
  • Starter sets will range in price from approximately $ 100 up to $ 2,400
  • One of the best features of Lionel Trains, however, is the fact that there is no real difference in the reliability from the lowest to the highest price
  • Instead, the increased prices are for more equipment, more features, replacement of plastic trucks with much more costly metal trucks with springs ('trucks' are the wheel assembly)
  • As you go up in price, there is a gradual transition from the most contemporary designs allowing low cost automation, back to the hand assembled designs of the 1940's and 50's, primarily involving hand crafted assembly, and highest possible durability
  • Such designs include Lionel's most traditional and most powerful locomotives
  • Another very important feature entering the cost considerations is magne-traction - invented by Lionel Trains in 1950
  • This feature is available only with Lionel Trains
  • Magnets in the locomotive create magnetic forces to increase pulling power, increase adhesion of the locomotive to the rails and reduce chances of a locomotive tipping over on a curve
  • Sets up to $ 400 don't have magnetracion but instead use a rubber tire for traction. (The rubber tire was originally an American Flyer brand innovation and is now used widely by most manufacturers, including Lionel, so that much lower priced locomotives can be offered
  • The rubber tire system is very reliable but is not as good of a system as Lionel Trains magne- traction
  • Lionel sets above $ 400 have locomotives with magne-traction and are unbeatable with all the best of the 1950's. They are hand assembled and many are identical with the same models from the 50's
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