Popular Mechanics - Lionel in 1950

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Neat article about Lionel in1950 . If you enjoy Lionel trains you will enjoy this link:

http://tiny.cc/nrrQd

Mike Spanier

2

I can’t get the link to work.

3

Nice Article…

4

Thanks, fixed it.

Mike Spanier

5

Mike,

Beautiful “Popular Science” article of Lionel Trains, thank you for sharing that with us.
That Lionel article is one of the inspirations which caused me to want and buy Lionel Trains.

The bridge in the article appears the same, as the one on the Lionel 2009’s cover, which one our fellow forum members, BobM., had posted about.

Merry Christmas,

Ralph

6

Yeah, I have that issue – picked it up at a flea market some years ago. Shows you in what high regard Lionel trains were held at the time.

How I’d love to go back to 1950 with a fistful of money, and clean out Madison Hardware!

7

Great article on Lionel. I enjoyed the rest of the magazine too - especially the Gus Wilson’s Garage article.

8

Great article. I think CTT did a cover story about the Gold F3 years ago, neat to see it on a 1950 magazine cover.

I also got a kick out of the rest of the magazine.

9

Great link! Thanks for sharing. [tup]

I was 1 year old then and that was when my dad bought his 1st Lionel. I’m sure he had a copy of this sitting on the coffee table at the time. [8D]

10

I learned a lot about car repairs from Gus when I was a kid and a regular reader of Popular Science. Some of the stories were collected in a paperback book in the late Fifties/early Sixties, but as far as I know, there’s no compilation of the whole series anywhere. Those “Model Garage” stories are half the fun of reading back issues of PS.

11

arkady,

I used to eat my heart out looking in the window and store of Madison Hardware.
I found out years later that that corner portion of the building was owned, not rented, by Madison. If you remember there was a lady’s undergarment apparel store, by the subway entrance, on the corner of 23rd. St. and Park Ave. S.
Madison had mostly Lionel and probably other goodies in the store, it’s back room, side room-back of the apparel store, basement, oh, excuse me, in the CITY it’s the cellar and all the upper floors.
A Madison family member was married into the Lionel family and how true, I’m not sure, Madison owned the largest inventory of Lionel goods, at one time.

Ralph

12

Others who remember Gus Wilson with fondness may be interested in this site, which my sister called to my attention:

http://www.gus-stories.org/