Madison Passenger Cars

It is possible from what I have heard that the passenger cars were named to honor the first lady Dolly Madison.

Lee F.

Don't think so!

I've always heard that they were somehow linked to Madison Hardware, which was a VERY early Lionel dealer, and one of the biggest.

Two parts to the answer:

The easy part - toy train types have come to call any heavyweight passenger cars Madison cars because Lionel named its early heavyweight cars Madison, Irvington, and Manhattan. For a while they were all called Irvington cars, but now "Madison cars" seems to be the preferred name for the toy train crowd.

But, don't call a heavyweight car a Madison car when talking to scale modelers or to the prototype train crowd. They should just be called heavyweights.

The hard part - Why did Lionel call one of its heavyweights Madison in the first place? Many of the Lionel passenger cars were named after towns in New Jersey, and Madison is a town in New Jersey. 

Or it could be named after Madison Square Park, which is located right next to the old Lionel showroom on E 26 St.

Or it could have been named after Madison hardware (which itself was probably named for its location near Madison Square Park)!!!  

Jim

I believe this to be the correct answer.

One explanation is half way down the page in this link:

http://www.tandem-associates.c...nelcarpass.htm#HEAVY

Lionel's 1950's book Model Railroading called them "deluxe 6 wheel pullmans."

Two alternate stories I heard are that TM books came up with Madison as a name for these cars when they were making their first guide books on Lionel in the 1980's.

The other story is that Mike Wolfe came up with the name also in the 1980's to differentiate from the Lionel cars which were being called "Irvington cars" at the time.

Naming them after Lionel's "Madison" car makes the most sense. Thanks, all.

Jim,

I believe you are correct, on all accounts, at least it seems that way.

Ralph-RJL.