history oh lionel ho

1. 1957-1966.

2. 1974-1977.

3. 1988-1989 (RailScope).

4. 2003-2004.

All the above!

TRW

   From LIONEL: A COLLECTOR'S GUIDE AND HISTORY, Vol. III: Standard Gauge, by Tom McComas and James Tuohy, 1978, pp. 103-06:

  Lionel entered a burgeoning HO market in 1957. Trains were made by Rivarossi. They were advertised in a 2-page folder distributed with 1957 Lionel catalogs. But they did not appear in the catalog itself.

   In 1958, Rivarossi could not keep up with demand. But Lionel sales dropped from $22 million in 1956 to $18 million in 1957. Joshua Cowen had retired and moved to Florida. His son, Lawrence, was in charge but Lawrence wanted to leave the company. Lionel signed a contract with Athearn to add more HO trains. But Lionel also cut quality. Locomotives looked good but the catalog illustrations revealed a rubber-band drive. That displeased quality-conscious HO operators. In 1958, Lionel sales dropped to $14.4 million. For the first time since the Great Depression, Lionel had a net loss: $500,000.

   In 1959, Lionel poured even more money into HO. Lionel acquired Hobbyline, a small HO manufacturer, and used their dies to make a new yard engine and freight cars.

   From 1960 through 1966, Lionel made most of their HO trains. Cars were patterned after military and space cars intended to make "O" gauge trains more attractive. But HO customers wanted scale size and authentic details. "Fantasy" cars and cars that shot rockets or exploded when hit by a missle (like "O" Gauge Exploding Boxcars) did not appeal to HO modelers. Lionel's losses mounted. In 1966 the HO line was unceremoniously dropped.

   In the 1970's, Lionel / MPC [owned by General Mills, the breakfast cereal company] tried to revive Lionel HO trains. Although the quality was good, they attracted few customers.

During the 70s, I remember the Lionel GP30 and U18B being fairly popular with advanced hobbyists who were purchasing them for upgrades. Lionel's GP30 was regarded as the most accurate HO plastic GP30 available at the time and the U18B was not a common prototype and many were surprised a model of it was offered and scoffed them up.

Bob   

TM Books & Video did a video called Lionel OO and HO: In Action, which is now the 3rd in their Lionel Action 4 DVD Pack. I recommend picking it up. They also shot Lionel's short 2002 run of Challengers for I Love Toy Trains Final Show, which had QSI Sounds.

Actually, Lionel considered their adventures in the "How Ordinary" scale after four tries probably not a good idea.  The investors packed up their bags and invested instead in...Sabena Airlines...remember them?

You know...

Such

A

Bad

Experience

Never

Again!

Of course, that roll-of-the-dice was less than stellar, also.

They finally decided to let Bernie Madoff have a go at it!!!

right.

..........

Hey, it's a better story than you get from the lamestream media lately!

quote:

Greenberg did a Hard cover guide on Lionel HO.

I am under the impression that there are two Greenberg books on HO.

I believe one covers the trains made (or marketed) by the genuine Lionel Corp in the postwar era.

The second covers the trains made (or marketed) in the modern era.

SHAMELESS PROMOTION...SEE SALE BOARD

This is an interesting thread. Does anyone know why Lionel decided to catalog two H.O engines around 2000? Were they good engines?

My only Lionel HO is a Texas Special Passenger Set from the early 1960s, of course the  real Texas Special didn't have dome cars, but that didn't stop Lionel. 

I think you mean the UP Veranda and Challenger that Lionel produced around 2003. Yes, they were good engines, DCC with QSI sound. I've referred to the Veranda on another thread on this forum because it had great sound, which has found its way into Athearn's present-day plastic gas turbine offerings. There are many YouTube videos of Lionel's original. The Challenger was nice too and like the Veranda was issued in several road numbers (and color schemes) but I have read somewhere that Lionel got sued over that one (!). I don't know why Lionel decided to produce these two but they did a nice job on them; the legal trouble, if it happened, might account for why they dropped out of the H0 market afterwards.

That sounds like a nice set - Can you post some photos of it?

I have an almost complete collection of 1959-1966 production, including several boxed sets.  I to have the texas special set