Books, Articles, Video on Lionel Cowen and on the History of Lionel Corporation

You didn't mention one of the best. And a must for every Lionel train fan:

https://www.amazon.com/All-Abo...ompany/dp/0761121331

I second the mentioning of “All Aboard!” I didn’t it was going to be interesting but it was actually a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

All Aboard was one of the first I purchased when it came out 30 plus years ago.  Its a great book!

Ron Hollander's "ALL Aboard" is one of the finest books I have ever read regarding JLC and the old Lionel Corporation.  Not that anyone really gives a hoot but I can recall the precise time and location when I purchased that book.  I was in Chicago in December of 1981 on a two week business trip when I came down with the mother of all stomach viruses.  I bought "All Aboard" the day I came down with the bug.  I was holed up in my hotel room for almost three days and "All Aboard" was my only company.  As sick as I was I loved reading that book.  I still have it to this day as well as the second edition which came out a few years back which updated Lionel's modern history.   Definitely a must read for any toy train enthusiast. 

Again, my opinion, but you can not beat a pile of torn up prewar catalogs as a point of reference as well.  A lot more too it, but they are a great reference.

Oh, and probably the place I learned the most was in the interview articles they used to have in the TCA quarterly.  I'm not sure what they cover these days, but in the 80's and 90's they really provided a lot of really good information on the history various companies and such. 

Again, my opinion, but you can not beat a pile of torn up prewar catalogs as a point of reference as well.  A lot more too it, but they are a great reference.

And old toy train / model railroading magazines.

Well researched book are one of the keystones, and Bob Osterhoff has done years of research in order to write his books.  I ascribe to Dennis's ideas of Catalogs as a good place to start. And the Quarterly.  The Q has gotten away from scholarly writings for a bit, but that is because of the lack of submissions of this type of article.  Ives Society has some good publications available to their membership as well.

For collectors, there are the Greenberg and Doyle publications, some of the older ones have misinformation in them, but still good info, especially when getting started. 

But, I have to say that Louis Hertz wrote the best 3 books on our hobby...they are a must read IMO.

What was it Hertz said?  One does not graduate from tinplate?

johnstrains posted:

You didn't mention one of the best. And a must for every Lionel train fan:

https://www.amazon.com/All-Abo...ompany/dp/0761121331

 

For sure! I've read it cover to cover at least 3 times.

Lionel: A Collector's Guide and History, by Tom McComas and James Tuohy, Vols. 1-6

You're right, I forgot All Aboard! Sorry.

Thank you very much for posting the links ..the letters from Josh to Harry dated 1901 when Josh was doing some spying   on Marklin are great .  The other two links  promote the wood gondola first myth ...Converse trolley second ..  the powered "truck" of the first pieces fight like a glove under the Converse Trolley .... it would have been dumb luck to design a power truck for a  random sized wood open box ...and by magic have it fit perfect under a commercially available  floor toy........ so modern day thinking powered truck was designed for the Converse trolley body ...and shortly there after or concurrently the wood gondola was introduced/offered . 

Here is a link to see a 1902 Lionel (Converse ) trolley and a pair of 1904-7  jail cars  ( both  2 7/8" gauge ) running 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma9Z4MhbHdU

here is the 1902 Trolley 

Cheers Carey 

Love the Ron Hollander book, and all of his subsequent essays in the TCA Quarterly; he writes with genuine passion fueled by a lifelong love affair with Lionel trains. By comparison, the Osterhoff tome is a SCHOLARLY, well-researched financial history of the Lionel Corporation and it's origin as a private company in that now-famous loft! I own, and have read both, and HIGHLY recommend them!  :-)

The TM books, the Greenberg Series, the Doyle books, the Hertz series, and all the wonderful TM videos, and ALL of Roger Carp's articles in CTT and his separately published special magazine issues have a wealth of knowledge about the legendary manufacturer of Lionel trains! ENJOY!

As Carey has noted above, the scholarship on Lionel history is still a work in progress, and will continue to evolve. But, you do NOT have to do fastidious and/or tedious research to ENJOY and operate/play (YOUR choice!) with Lionel trains of ANY vintage, or even (gasp!) reproductions! 

CountOrlock posted:

There are several books, articles, webpages, and a video on the history of Lionel, for anyone interested. I figured some of their authors might participate in this forum:

Robert Osterhoff, Inside the Lionel Trains Fun Factory: the history of a manufacturing icon and the place where childhood dreams were made.

Robert Schleicher, The Lionel Legend.

http://joshualionelcowen.blogspot.com/

http://www.spikesys.com/Modelrr/lionel.html

http://www.nypress.com/thered-...joshua-lionel-cowen/

"A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains"  video: https://www.amazon.com/Century...Trains/dp/B00005YDDN

Yolanda Somonelli, The Mighty Blue Comet…and the Man Who Immortalized It!”  Antiques & Collecting Magazine. June 1999, Vol. 104 Issue 4, p. 20-25.

I am confused by the "letters to Harry" and the whole site in general. Does anybody believe it is anything more than fiction?

The blog describes Cowen as going to Germany to visit relatives and being fluent in German due to correspondence with those German relatives. Funny, according to Hollander, Cowens family was Eastern European, not German.

Always wondered if there were any records kept/recorded on how many of each train number/QTY and accessory/QTY were produced during the prewar era. I know someone will say a lot , but it would be interesting

RonH posted:

Always wondered if there were any records kept/recorded on how many of each train number/QTY and accessory/QTY were produced during the prewar era. I know someone will say a lot , but it would be interesting

I would bet that records were kept. Whether they still exist is another matter.

The Project Roar book on uncataloged (promotional) sets contains quite a bit of information  on 1960's production numbers. Before the book came out, who would have ever thought we'd see those numbers.

Fiction or not, it makes for an entertaining read. We should recall the "legend" about JLC's producing motorized track vehicles was supposedly based on his motivation to produce an attention getting window display, and not to compete with the well established Gerbruder Marklin. Perhaps, "the truth is out there"! LOL!

Hello all ...letters to Harry seem to be fiction .....as the Marklin factory was not in Berlin .... so it would have been hard for Josh to have just walked in ....  someone had too much time on their hands and did some fictional tale .... close but no cigar ....  

Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story ....  

Project roar publications as done a marvelous job  peeling back the layers of the onion to get to the truth ...

Cheers Carey

Bob O is undisputedly the "paper king" and ALL of his books are excellent!

Well, since this is supposed to be a thread about sources of information on Cowen and his company, the Count should edit his original post and clearly mark that link as fiction.

When we look for information, we do want facts don't we?

C W Burfle posted:

CountOrlock posted:

There are several books, articles, webpages, and a video on the history of Lionel, for anyone interested. I figured some of their authors might participate in this forum:

Robert Osterhoff, Inside the Lionel Trains Fun Factory: the history of a manufacturing icon and the place where childhood dreams were made.

Robert Schleicher, The Lionel Legend.

http://joshualionelcowen.blogspot.com/

http://www.spikesys.com/Modelrr/lionel.html

http://www.nypress.com/thered-...joshua-lionel-cowen/

"A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains"  video: https://www.amazon.com/Century...Trains/dp/B00005YDDN

Yolanda Somonelli, The Mighty Blue Comet…and the Man Who Immortalized It!”  Antiques & Collecting Magazine. June 1999, Vol. 104 Issue 4, p. 20-25.

I am confused by the "letters to Harry" and the whole site in general. Does anybody believe it is anything more than fiction?

The blog describes Cowen as going to Germany to visit relatives and being fluent in German due to correspondence with those German relatives. Funny, according to Hollander, Cowens family was Eastern European, not German.

I'm thinking a lot (or all) of that is fiction someone loaded for some fun. Never read anything similar in any other documented source...

OK I would love to read some of these items such as all aboard or the Hertz books. Are any of them available in electronic format, as opposed to paper print only?

The Louis Hertz books were the first really thorough treatment of toy train history, and the evolution of the collecting hobby:

1. Collecting Model Trains

2. Riding the Tinplate Rails

3. Messrs. Ives of Bridgeport

The above three are NOT to be missed for the serious collector! 

As far as I know, these are only available as hardback books, and have NOT been reprinted.

johnstrains posted:

You didn't mention one of the best. And a must for every Lionel train fan:

https://www.amazon.com/All-Abo...ompany/dp/0761121331

 

Ron Hollander's "All Aboard" was THE book that got me back into the O gauge segment of the hobby.

Tinplate Art posted:

The Louis Hertz books were the first really thorough treatment of toy train history, and the evolution of the collecting hobby:

1. Collecting Model Trains

2. Riding the Tinplate Rails

3. Messrs. Ives of Bridgeport

The above three are NOT to be missed for the serious collector! 

As far as I know, these are only available as hardback books, and have NOT been reprinted.

Another very good Hertz book is "The Toy Collector". While not specifically about trains, Hertz discusses various aspects of collecting and displaying your stuff, most of which is very pertinent to trains.

I was greatly influenced by Hertz's views on collecting.

Most of these books are available through your public library--even if your library system doesn't own it, almost any book is available through inter-library loan. I've borrowed pretty much all the books we've talked about that way. Your reference librarian can explain inter-library loan process, or there is probably instructions on the "ILL" link on your library website.

Hertz was known to have been an Ive's enthusiast and collector. I once traded an O gauge diecast Ive's S2 to him at Polk's on 5th Avenue circa 1954. He was not particularly friendly and really did not smile as I recall. I have a nice copy of Collecting Model Trains in my fairly extensive library of books pertaining to the history of model trains. It is truly a seminal work in our hobby!

Tinplate Art posted:

Hertz was known to have been an Ive's enthusiast and collector. I once traded an O gauge diecast Ive's S2 to him at Polk's on 5th Avenue circa 1954. He was not particularly friendly and really did not smile as I recall. I have a nice copy of Collecting Model Trains in my fairly extensive library of books pertaining to the history of model trains. It is truly a seminal work in our hobby!

Not yet mentioned is Hertz's book on Ives: Messrs. Ives of Bridgeport. Took me a long time to find a copy. Still have not read it.

He also wrote books on other hobby subjects, such as slot cars. Don't recall the others at the moment, I will have to check.

CW: It was one of my three books by Hertz listed above.

Tinplate Art posted:

CW: It was one of my three books by Hertz listed above.

Sorry. I should have looked back through the thread before making the comment. I had read your post earlier, I  even added another Hertz book.