Wanswheel was a frequent contributor to the “Trains” magazine Forum. His research abilities were astounding and still are. We correspond by e-mail and he’s sent these along for my and everyone else’s enjoyment.
First off, anyone recognize the address 15 E 26th St, New York, New York? Of course we do, it’s Lionel’s old corporate HQ. Want to see what it looks like now?
Right you are, and it’s probably easily explained.
The EP-5? Chances are better than good they just gave the catalog artist some development concept sketches and said “Get to work!”
A Fleischmann 03 really is no surprise either. Lionel didn’t make the HO line, they imported it. Rivarossi, Roco, and Fleischmann were all sources.
Something else from Wanswheel. Anyone remember MajGen John Medaris, who ran Lionel for a time in the early 1960’s? A pretty remarkable man, even though he couldn’t stop Lionel’s downhill slide in those days.
I have the Lionel accessories catalog for the following year… got it at the 2020 Amherst Railway Society show for $5. I’m planning on scanning it, at the moment I’ve been too busy to but this is definitely nudging me a bit.
The prototype EP-5 is very cool! I’m also very fascinated by the track cleaning car displayed… looks almost nothing like the one Lionel ended up producing. If only the text was legible!
And Ellie, to read the catalog texts try hitting the (+) on the lower right hand side of the screen as much as you think you need, then give the image a few seconds to stabilize, worked for me. Put your computer’s cursor on the image and “click and drag” to move it around.
Aha! Thank you, worked like a charm
I think maybe the other day my internet washaving trouble because even without zooming in the text was more readable than I remembered. Either way, the “zoom” buttons certainly make a difference.
