Hand-illustrated catalog in 1985?

Not certain - and I can't pull them out right now, but I seem to recall that some of the Jim Bunte catalogs of the nineties used illustrations.

I prefer the illustrations - but that's because I was raised on the catalogs of the '50s.  

I have the HSL CD's.  Catalogs in the early-to-mid '90s had photos of real trains faded into the background, but not hand-drawn illustrations.  I believe there might be a few illustrations by Angela Trotta Thomas in recent catalogs for Christmas-themed or non-train items, but her style is more about nostalgia, and clearly depicts the trains as toys.

There have to be some talented artists out there who could render a Lionel train in a realistic context.  Maybe Lionel could have a contest, at least for products carried over from the prior year, where the make-up of the set is already known.  I would pay a reasonable price for art like this, if it featured a train that I already bought for my collection.

There's another thread that talks about growing the hobby or passing it down.  It all begins with imagination!!

Always thought this was an interesting photo in the 1985 Traditional Catalog, as the train station in the left side of the photo certainly resembles the Noma Talking Station of the late 1940s.

I'm pretty sure almost the entire 1996 catalog with the Commodore Vanderbilt on the cover is art like this, but I suppose it's possible it's computerized. 

Possibly some in the 1996 catalog with the GE Dash-9 on the cover too, but I didn't dig them out to confirm. 

Also the Accessories catalog from that time that had the remakes of the 164 log loader, 138 water tower and 445 switch tower.

Much of the 1997 Classic I and Classic II (ones with the PA's on the covers, SF and NYC, respectively) were also in this form, I believe.

Then again, it's possible these are all something different and I'm just not seeing the distinction. 

Totally agreeing that it's missed in anything recent, though.  We are all photo-shop (or other CAD) all the time now.

-Dave

Gosh Dave, I'll have to look.  My CD set ends at 1995, and the later catalogs weren't handy last night when I wrote this.  @ed h that's exactly what I was thinking of.  Imagine your Southern freight racing along the Mississippi river on a summer evening!  The theme illustrations for the other sets also had elements associated with their road names.  My personal favorite is the Yard Chief- a work train led by a smoke-belching New York Central 0-4-0 snaking under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the twin towers in the background!

Ted S posted:

Gosh Dave, I'll have to look.  My CD set ends at 1995, and the later catalogs weren't handy last night when I wrote this.  @ed h that's exactly what I was thinking of.  Imagine your Southern freight racing along the Mississippi river on a summer evening!  The theme illustrations for the other sets also had elements associated with their road names.  My personal favorite is the Yard Chief- a work train led by a smoke-belching New York Central 0-4-0 snaking under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the twin towers in the background!

Yep, love that one, too. I had just returned to the O gauge railroading of my youth in the 1950s, and the 1985 catalog was one of the motivating forces for that.

The 1985 Lionel catalog is one of my favorites be ause of those great illustrations. I was very sorry to see that style discontinued so quickly. 

Photos of items simply cannot evoke the romance of railroading the way illustrations like these and the 1950s catalogs did. No way.

A few of the covers from the catalogs that Dave45681 mentioned, always liked that 1996 cover with the Commodore Vanderbilt on it.

Nice, but I wish the Santa Fe had been an illustration, instead of a photo.

I'm glad that some pix of the late '90s catalogs were posted.

Those catalogs were produced during the Jim Bunte years with Lionel - and Jim had a keen eye for design.  It shows.  

Didn’t one of these catalogs have some never made granddaddy to LC+ remotes in starter sets? I want to say one was a close cousin to a postwar 2031 Rock Island Alco.

Th Heritage 1998 catalog had nice illustrations

Sam Jumper posted:

Didn’t one of these catalogs have some never made granddaddy to LC+ remotes in starter sets? I want to say one was a close cousin to a postwar 2031 Rock Island Alco.

Yes.  I believe it was to be called the "Cub"?{edit: I'm sure Ed is right below, Scout is what it was supposed to be called}.  Essentially a stripped down basic TMCC remote. 

This might (could be off by a catalog or 2) have also been the catalog with the Amtrak "Talgo" train that was never made. {edit: well, I missed on another one.  memory can't be perfect I guess   }

EMD posted:

Th Heritage 1998 catalog had nice illustrations

Sorry, I guess I missed at least one after listing the 1996-97 ones!

-Dave

Here are a few more pics  from 1985 Traditional....looking at them again gives me a good feeling.......like when I was looking at PostWar catalogs....

Peter

Sam Jumper posted:

Didn’t one of these catalogs have some never made granddaddy to LC+ remotes in starter sets? I want to say one was a close cousin to a postwar 2031 Rock Island Alco.

The 1996 catalog with the Commodore Vanderbilt on the cover has the Rock Island Rocket set in it that was to include the Scout remote.  A few years ago I did this article for the TCA etrain publication regarding cataloged sets that never made it production.

http://www.tcaetrain.org/2d-ar...Derailed/index.shtml

Dave45681 - The Amtrak Talgo set you're thinking of was in the 1999 Volume 1 catalog.

Maybe it just costs too much to employ artists.

I too enjoyed them and found then fanciful.

Alan

ed h posted:

A few of the covers from the catalogs that Dave45681 mentioned, always liked that 1996 cover with the Commodore Vanderbilt on it.

 

Per another forum topic, you should not technically post these images as they are copyrighted by Lionel.

Just sayin ......... 

I believe the position of Lionel (this was quite a few years ago now) was stated that consumers want to see exactly what they are getting as opposed to an artist’s rendering of it. Thus, photographs  

Of course, the 1985 catalog showed both things, so it can be done.

I have always preferred the illustration approach which  used so wonderfully and evocatively during the postwar period. 

Getting back to my original question, does anyone know the name of the artist?  It's hard to believe that he hung up his brushes in 1986.  Perhaps he or she could be coaxed out of retirement??