The Dark Story of America’s Toy Empire: The Lionel Trains Factory

Comments · 276

• CH

  @chetk4624 · 8 months ago

  My parents bought me a Lionel Berkshire Steam Loco set in 1950 for Christmas. It still runs and circles my Christmas tree every year as a memory of my wonderful parent. 75 years old and still runs. Bean counters have ruined more than Lionel trains.

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• EL

  @elrobo3568 · 8 months ago

  I am 80 and still have my Lionel marked 1957 and a lot of the old cars and metal accessories for layouts. I love Lionel trains still. Great video!

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• TM

  @TMBIntl · 8 months ago

  The second that you said a lawyer took it over was all I needed to hear, knowing that it was gonna be a disaster.

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• WA

  @WarThroughTimeCinematic · 8 months ago

  This was way darker (and more fascinating) than I expected from a “toy” story. The image of Cowan building that first “Electric Express” out of a cigar box + a fan motor just to make a shop window move… and then realizing people only wanted the train—such a perfect “accidental empire” moment. And the sensory details you describe (the ozone smell, sparks on the rails, smoke pellets) make it feel like Lionel wasn’t selling toys, it was selling power—until greed and “value engineering” hollowed the magic out. Chilling and insanely well told.

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• 3D

  @3dartistguy · 8 months ago

  I remember when one time when my father was away on a business trip, I slipped on the steps and bloodied my chin. My grandparents had come over the house and my grandfather had promised if I stopped crying, he'd run his Lionel trains the next day which kind of worked. I remember him running his trains in his living room the next daya and I eventually inherited most of them. I loved his lionel trains. They were made of heavy metal and so were the tracks. I still love running them especially during Christmas.

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• ST

  @SteveHerrick-yi4md · 8 months ago

  this was a fantastic story. Its the story not only of Lionel trains, but of most every product that was proudly made in the USA. The factories were filled with workers that were proud of the products they built. Products that were built to last ,and if it broke you could get parts or have it repaired, unlike these days where if it breaks you throw it away and buy a new one. A huge and in so many ways costly mistake

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• SC

  @scorso12 · 8 months ago

  I have several locomotives built between 1948 and 1956, they all still run. My friend has modern Lionel locomotives that cost a lot of money that stopped working. Apparently the computer control systems aren’t as reliable as the old school.

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• KW

  @kwramsey9790 · 8 months ago

  Some of the original molds for the die-cast engines were made by Wegman model Engineering in Fort Wayne. I got to see them visiting his shop with my dad in the sixties. Long hon but not forgotten.

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• RH

  @rhinehardt1 · 8 months ago

  I first smelled the Lionel locomotive smoke on Christmas morning 1954, and fell in love with it. As stated in the video, it was the smell of Christmas.

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• KE

  @keithlomax8661 · 7 months ago

  My first job was working for the Lionel Toy Store. I worked in the Hobby Dept. I would sell out of the Lionel Train sets every Christmas. At the time it was a fun job to have. Every week grown men would come in asking what new train had come in,

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• TI

  @timshort2601 · 8 months ago

  I remember the smell, and the sparks, and how it sounded as it went around, and the noise of the switches,  we had little bags of real coal

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• DA

  @daviddelguercio9324 · 7 months ago

  My grandfather built part of the Hillside plant.  He had the American Bowstring Truss franchise for the area.  The trusses were used to build the roof.  We have the 1956 base set, steam engine with smoke pellots, tender with whistle, BM box car, hopper with 3 cable spools, ingersol generator car, flat car, brown caboose.

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