ALL:
Did Lionel sell or loan Christmas layouts to major department stores in the US and Canada? What happened to them after the holidays? I saw a picture of Frank Sinatra purchasing one for his house.
Ed Burns
I believe the display layouts were made the by store employees. And I would guess that the displays were taken down and mostly sold off after Christmas.
None that I ever saw were particularly sophisticated.
On t’other hand, I can imagine a store hiring a “model train person” to put something together. THEN you might get something spectacular.
I just can’t imagine Lionel building portable/shipable layouts and sending them to stores.
Don’t forget, those stores had people who designed their show windows. Not much of a stretch to build a simple layout and sprinkle snow on it. And then get it off the track.
Ed
Later on the timeline, I remember a few shopping malls with train layouts which were generally HO and associated with local clubs. I don’t know if those stopped showing up because of liability issues or because the mall operators wanted the space for pushcart vendors who generated revenue for the mall…
My father spent his entire career at Montgomery Ward in its Corporate Headquarters on the near north side of Chicago. He ran the Packaging and Design Department. Montgomery Ward featured American Flyer trains in its catalog and retail store operation.
MW would photograph American Flyer trains for its seasonal catalogs and the Christmas catalog. The trains and track and everything else to support a layout would then be transferred to the Sample Department for exclusive employee discounted purchases. My Dad had priority in his department head position. He would buy American Flyer stuff for pennies on the dollar and bring those purchases home.
As far as the retail stores were concerned, they took American Flyer equipment from their in-store stock for Christmas layout displays and then stored it for future Christmas displays. I assume that the Sears stores did the same thing with their Lionel trains.
By the way, Momtgomery Ward and Sears were fiercely competitive in everything that they did. As kids, we were forbidden to even enter a Sears store. We had a Sears store within walking distance of our apartment, but we always took the streetcar to the nearest Montgomery Ward store, about 5 miles away.
Rich
Well, there is this one. The whole film is worth watching.
LOVE the personal side stories, Rich! [Y][8D]
Tom
My mom and aunt were live models for the May company department store in downtown Cleveland in the early forties. Pre WW2. They had to dress in pajamas for the window display. The other window was the boys display and usually had tinplate trains. Not a bad gig for after school and weekends for the holidays. Every week was a different display of different parts of a house. The week before Christmas showed the trees and decorations they sold.
Pete.
Maybe a tangent, but I remember as a kid in Manhattan ('50s) that we went to see a large Lionel layout downtown at the holidays. Maybe 23rd St or so, maybe their headquarters…? Perhaps Lion knows…
I don’t know how many people remember the indoor slot car emporiums? My brother and I had 1/32 scale cars. One of the emporiums also had a model railroading club. While we had Lionel at home, it was there in that slot car track palace where I was introduced to HO scale. The realism of HO turned me off of Lionel.
Pete.
I do. “May’s On The Heights” at Warrensville Center and Chagrin. I was too young to participate but my mom would “park” me in the basement where the huge, was it 8 lane?, track was set up with the banked turns. I would watch for hours.
The racers beought their cars in special travel cases with tools and spare parts for tuning up in the “pit”.
There’s got to be photos of them somewhere?
Cheers, Ed
Tom, this thread immediately brought back childhood memories!
Rich
yes. Lionel had a showroom store in Manhattan with a year round display layout. There was also a hardware store In Manhattan I can’t think of the name of that was another “showroom” for the same in Chicago. You were probably in one of those Paul.
also Lionel did sell the display layouts. Like a super delux train set. Minus the table/ bench work. There was a bunch of designs all listed as display layouts. Starting with D- like D109 as product. number. Not sure how many there were. Those were what one would see in must in store displays
display layouts. Are a whole side interest for Lionel collectors. Thing SIG group.
Shane
I remember going to the Sears store on the Northside of Pittsburgh late 50’s with my dad. I was 6 or 7 at that time. It had a nice selection of Lionel trains and accessories with a small layout demonstrating all the latest offerings. My dad always bought at least one thing for the Christmas platform be it Lionel ot Plasticville. That year it was the Lionel floodlight tower (4.95). To this day I remember that special Christmas time memory with my father as clear as a bell. That tower still working fine on the Lionel layout and the original box sits on a shelf in the trainroom. Alot to be said about this hobby…not just toy trains…but a lifetime of wonderful memories.
I know Sinatra later in his life hired someone to build a replica of one of the Lionel Showroom layouts in his home in Palm Springs. TM did a video/DVD about it.
Lionel did offer display layouts dealers could get, going back to the early part of the 20th century. Kalmbach made a special issue of “Classic Toy Trains” about them…
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/vt-ct7151001
I certainly remember Lionel display layouts at stores. The local hardware store just an had oval on a sheet of that greenish grassy stuff. But it had the operating crossing gates and the switch tender who comes out of the shack, both of which captivated me. And I think it was Lionel’s actual O line not O-27.
The larger department stores in downtown Milwaukee had larger and more elaborate layouts, possibly with the assistance of Lionel itself, and usually featuring the over-and-under elevated track piers that Lionel sold. And the same emphasis on noisy and colorful operating accessories, incuding the milk can reefer, the coal dump, the log dump, the newsstand with the newspaper boy and the dog circling the fire hydrant, etc. Sometimes they’d also have a simple oval or circle in their display windows which were also captivating to me. I think those displays sold a lot of train sets.
Dave Nelson
Well, it’s fairly easy to remember on Long Island as of 2020 (think it was still open in 2021, haven’t passed by since summer though).
And ones that I can relate to, Rich. We never had any Lionel products but I and my siblings did grow up on American Flyer. Even at 2 years old I was smitten.
If I didn’
That has been a fantasy of mine for years, Tom. I would love to have an S-scale layout, just the perfect size, scale and bulk IMHO. But, as you say, there is a very limited supply of S-scale locos, rolling stock and structures to do an S-scale layout justice.
Rich
Could it be Madison Hardware on 23rd St.
Madison Hardware, 1967 by Fred Clark, Jr., on Flickr
Maybe?
I could sure have a good time here! Burgers on the left, Liquor on the right and Trains in the middle [:)]
Cheers, Ed