Google has recently made available the photo archives of LIFE magazine. Included are a number of photos from the old Lionel factory, as well as Lionel trains in other photo stories.
Here is the link to the Lionel trains photos.
Also, try the search terms “model trains”, “model railroad”, etc. Lots of neat prototype railroading photos as well. You can spend a few hours at this site.
Lou
This is great! The related articles must’ve been something.
Thanks for posting the link. They are precious.
I assume that since the factory photos were taken in August 1949, any related article might have appeared in a fall or winter issue that year. My public library has a ton of hardcopy Life magazines, but they only go back to 1950. Still, it is cool to see old Lionel ads, Lionel trains in placed in “other” ads, and Lionel’s submarine and helicopter cars staged for the “last-photo-of-this-week’s-issue” section (these are not available for viewing in the archive yet).
Lou
Oh boy, I’m so old I remember seeing that radioactive picture. Another famous one is when they set off a bunch of helicopters from the cars all at once.
Yes, they set up row upon row of helipcopter cars and launched them simultaneoulsy for the end-of-magazine photo shoot. Similarly, they launched dozens of Lionel submarines in a water tank with a woman swimming with them for another end-of-magazine photo. Both of these were done in the late fifties. I’ll have to check the old Life magazine collection at the local library to find out which issues they appeared in.
I think this photo from life is really neat:
I wonder which “big wig” got the privilege to man the transformer? It must have been an honor, or simply seniority ruled. Do you think this still occurs?
Actually MPC did have those kinds of meetings. But todays Lionel; who knows.
What transformer?
Rob
It’s the big ZW that is hidden under the table. Only 1 was allowed undoubtedly to power up the engine on that small radius trackage.
great pictures, thanks for sharing.
