A little lionel film

Thanks for sharing

That's an interesting period piece, 1950's I imagine.

Dad is wearing a white shirt and tie when it's time to put the children to bed on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile at the Lionel factory, toy train executives review new product development. Busy workers assemble 80,000 pieces of track a day, with three workers each putting one of the three rails in place while the track assembly jig turns quickly on a turntable, then a press machine stamps it together. Factory women hand-test each operating car and accessory. Back home on Christmas morning, junior runs his new electric Lionel train and sis gets to watch. Sis will have to be happy with her dolls and Lionel oven.

Now the China people have the fun of repetitious factory assembly of our Lionel toy trains.

this is a classic. I have watched it many times.

Bob C.

That is a great video, I had not seen that one before (that I can recall), so thanks!

I wonder whether the folks at Lionel have considered putting these videos (or links to them) up on their web site under a history page.

Fun video.

Very neat old film. Brought back lots of memories. Thanks for sharing!

Rod

Excellent!  Thank you for posting! This is the first I've seen it.  I have loved trains for as long as I can remember.

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

pennsydave posted:

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

Yes I did.  I was caught up in it all, though, so it didn't matter.  Like you, that would have been like a dream.  I had no adults interested in trains, so I bought my own when I was old enough to earn money 

Ace posted:

Not to hijack the thread, but there are probably more GG1s in that picture alone than there were in real-life!

spwills posted:

Ace posted:

Not to hijack the thread, but there are probably more GG1s in that picture alone than there were in real-life!

LOL

You have a point!

Nice video. Thanks for sharing. Yes trains where considered toys back then and my parents did not want us to take too much time playing with toys. Now look at me! I'm making up for lost time!

jump to now,   picture Chinese ,, jump to future ,,start those  machines here again,

pennsydave posted:

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

The way I understood that, while he was setting up the new Lionel set for his son he reminisced about older Standard Gauge trains he had had when he was a kid. Which also suggested that his old trains were outdated and his son deserved new trains with the latest features.

Ace posted:

pennsydave posted:

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

The way I understood that, while he was setting up the new Lionel set for his son he reminisced about older Standard Gauge trains he had had when he was a kid.

Yes Ace, you are right.  I even thought they were going to do a flashback.  The only flashback was him holding the prewar trains.

I Love the shot of the GG-1 racing the K4 @ 3:20.....

pennsydave posted:

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

The father was recalling HIS train that he had gotten many years ago. The outfit container he had opened contained the '0-gauge' trains.

Ron M

ron m posted:

pennsydave posted:

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

The father was recalling HIS train that he had gotten many years ago. The outfit container he had opened contained the '0-gauge' trains.

Ron M

I was wondering why he was opening a wrapped train set and then setting it up? 

Jerry

Very cool film. Thanks for posting.

Pretty cool piece for sure, makes one think how things have changed since the 50s...and not just with toy trains.  

Ben

I cannot click on anything to watch this video. What format is it in, can it be placed on YouTube?

JR posted:

I cannot click on anything to watch this video. What format is it in, can it be placed on YouTube?

It's on YouTube, search "Iron Ponys".

Thank you Arthur!

That was fun!!

If you enjoyed that video, go to U Tube and search for Joe McDoaks.

Richard Cuozzo posted:

If you enjoyed that video, go to U Tube and search for Joe McDoaks.

Hey is this the same guy who would years later voice Mr Jettson on the jettsons show?

Great movie, thanks for posting!

Jay in Ottawa

Richard Cuozzo posted:

If you enjoyed that video, go to U Tube and search for Joe McDoaks.

Yes look up "So you want a model railroad?"  It's a winner!

I am glad you guys enjoyed the film.This has make me think back to when I was school.One of my first teachers dad worked for the railroad.One day brought a few records that had songs about trains.I think her dad was a solder or sailer during ww2.Being a kid I now wished I could have meet the guy.Or at least asked some good questions.Oh another thing about mr ohanlon he can be seen in a scfi movie called kronos.

Ace posted:

pennsydave posted:

Did anyone notice the father was unpacking Standard gauge cars but ended up with an O gauge train set?  Neat film though.  I probably would have passed out if I ever received a train set like that as a kid.  

The way I understood that, while he was setting up the new Lionel set for his son he reminisced about older Standard Gauge trains he had had when he was a kid. Which also suggested that his old trains were outdated and his son deserved new trains with the latest features.

Thought the technique to reflect on the past was clever and watched it twice.  Currently merging three generations of family captured on 8mm film, analog videotape, and digital video to highlight continuity, for lack of a better word, and now have another idea to make transitions work.