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Freight Car Friday – Railroads Around the Bay
We’re setting up for our final World’s Greatest Hobby Show of 2013 today in San Mateo, California. The San Francisco bay area has been a transportation hub for California since its earliest days. As...
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A Visit to the California State Railroad Museum
While in Sacramento for the World’s Greatest Hobby show, several of us jumped at the opportunity to visit the California State Railroad Museum. The museum is widely regarded as one of the best in the...
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Freight Car Friday – Barrel and Culvert Cars
This week we look at some more of our favorite “fictional freight” cars. Both of these variations on the gondola first came into the Lionel line in the 1950s and we’re still producing variations of...
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Freight Car Friday – A Visit to the North Carolina Transportation Museum
We’re gearing up for our open house tomorrow here at our Concord, North Carolina offices. While we’re setting up, the LCCA, who are sponsoring the event, are enjoying a tour of the wonderful North...
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Freight Car Friday – Auto Parts Cars
Lionel’s new scale autoracks will make it possible to model the transportation of finished automobiles like never before. But this is only one side of the story. Railroads also form an integral part of...
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Freight Car Friday – Freight Cars that Changed the World: The Reefer
Freight cars are apart of our everyday life, whether we realize it or not. As part of a global transportation network, trains carry the goods and raw materials that make life as we know it possible...
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Freight Car Friday – Freight Cars that Changed the World: Big John
There aren’t many freight cars big enough to make it to the Supreme Court – but the Southern’s innovative Big John did. And it paved the way for a host of new freight car designs for multiple...
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Freight Car Friday – Freight Cars that Changed the World: The “40 and 8″
The role of railroads in wartime has been well documented. From the American Civil War to today’s conflicts around the globe, railroads remain important assets and targets. Perhaps no single type of...
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Freight Cars that Changed the World – The Tank Car
Soon after the energy potential of petroleum was discovered in the 1850s, the railroad tank car developed quickly to meet the boom. These “cans of energy” helped revolutionize the world. The Densmore...
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Freight Car Friday – Everybody Makes Mistakes!
Mistakes happen. We’ve certainly made a few errors on our models over our 100 year history – some of them are now highly collectible. Sometimes it’s nice to know you’re not alone. Something’s not quite...
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Freight Car Friday – First Responders on the Rails; The Railroad Police
With vast systems covering thousands of miles and employees and millions of passengers and dollars of economic progress riding the rails, railroads have long maintained their own emergency teams....
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Freight Car Friday – Fire Prevention on the Rails
A railroad fire department? These may be some of the least known of the railroads’ own patrols of emergency response teams. The need for these fire fighters became evident in the earliest days of...
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Freight Car Friday – A Hospital on Rails
With their special tank cars, marked cabooses and other equipment, the railroad fire and police forces have some of the most distinctive cars. But medical teams have used the rails too. In remote...
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New Product Spotlight – Medal of Honor Train Set
The Medal of Honor has been awarded to many heroes since its introduction in 1861. This highest award of valor also has a railroad connection. The Medal of Honor was first awarded to six surviving...
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Freight Car Friday – Cement Service
Cement may not be one of the flashiest commodities hauled by rail, but the heavy bulk material is well suited for the high density efficiency of trains. Railroads have used a great variety of cars to...
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Freight Car Friday – Freight Car Trucks
Engineers have spent more time and resources perfecting the trucks than just about any other part of rail cars. Yet these vital parts are easy to overlook when we think of the cars themselves,...
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Freight Car Friday – Ethanol Trains
From coast to coast, long strings of new black tank cars hum along the rails carrying the fuel for the economy and a key ingredient of our energy independence. From the cornfield to your gas tank, the...
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Freight Car Friday – Unusual Loads
Railroads can haul almost anything. Coal, automobiles, steel beams, grain, oil, lumber – you’ll see these on almost any train anywhere. And while these loads may keep the railroad in business, it’s the...
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Freight Car Friday – Wood Chip Cars
Railroads are designed to handle heavy loads, but not every load breaks the scales. Wood chips are one of the least-dense loads commonly carried by rail. Because of their relatively light weight, the...
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Freight Car Friday – Moving Freight, Part 1
We spend a lot of time thinking about how trains look, but what about how they work? How does a freight car get from Point A to Point B? (Sure, a locomotive helps – but why that car, in that train, for...
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