What is the history of Lionel HO?

[BRAKIE]

Joe,During the Bicentennial every manufacturer cashed in on the celebration by producing a Bicentennial locomotive or train set thus Lionel used the name “American Flyer” as a attention getting shout out for that Bicentennial set(note the red,white and blue box-catchy isn’t it?) which had nothing to do with A.C. Gilbert’s American Flyer line of S Scale trains.

Today Lionel may have been sued using AF’s name on that train set.

[fwright]

Today Lionel may have been sued using AF’s name on that train set.

I believe by that time, MPC (the owner of Lionel in the '70s and '80s) had bought out American Flyer and owned the rights to the name and equipment. By the '80s, MPC had resumed production of a limited amount of American Flyer. To this day, Lionel owns the American Flyer name and production.

Fred W

[ADCX_Rob]

Well, consider my mind boggled! Lionel produces an American Flyer branded train set in HO instead of S! Makes no sense what so ever.

“American Flyer” was the Bicentenniel / USA themed road name, not the brand.

BRAKIE

Today Lionel may have been sued using AF’s name on that train set.

I believe by that time, MPC (the owner of Lionel in the '70s and '80s) had bought out American Flyer and owned the rights to the name and equipment. By the '80s, MPC had resumed production of a limited amount of American Flyer. To this day, Lionel owns the American Flyer name and production.

Fred W

Lionel acquired American Flyer in 1967.

[challenger3980]

nw2
Made that 3 times because in the 90s (?)they made a ho scale turbine that IIRC either didnt sell well or made too many that were heavily discounted atcsome point. But were fetching big ebay prices after a while. I believe these were the tooling that Athearn brought for their turbine and even the U50 might of been a project in the works for Lionel before the got out of HO again

Looks like it was 2004, according to the copyright date on the ad on this page: “The Veranda”. They also apparently offered a HO scale 4-6-6-4 Challenger at the time.

Wow Batman, talk about resurection of an OLD thread, I am surprised that I missed this one before this.

I was thinking that it was 2003, but close regardless. The Early 2000’s Production included Both Challengers and Veranda Turbines.

The Veranda Turbines were available in two schemes, Silver truck frames, and Grey truck frames, each with 2 road#'s available for a total of 4 variations in the Turbines.

The Challengers were available in Six schemes:

Black, Coal fired, no Smoke Lifters

Black, Oil Fired, With Smoke Lifters

Two Tone Grey/Yellow Letters and Stripes, Oil Fired, With Smoke Lifters

and MY Favorite.

Two Tone Grey/Silver Letters and Stripes, Oil Fired, with Smoke Lifters

Also Offered were:

Rio Grande, Black, Coal Fired, No Smoke Lifters.

Clinchfield, Black, Coal Fired, Single Stack, No Smoke Lifters.

Each of t

[rrinker]

Metro Red Line

No, I swear!

In fact, I did a little Google-digging around and discovered someone on eBay was selling a mint-condition (unopened) Lionel “American Flyer” HO scale train set. It turns out it was a promotional item sold at Sears, in conjunction with the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. Also, Lionel bought out American Flyer in 1967. Here’s the pic I got off of the eBay ad, and the loco and rolling stock match my recollection perfectly:

And besides, I didn’t exist at any time during the 1960s

Well, consider my mind boggled! Lionel produces an American Flyer branded train set in HO instead of S! Makes no sense what so ever.

Boggle it some more. I have some American Flyer HO from the 50’s, when Flyer was still a going concern under AC Gilbert.

–Randy