all the catalogs were great ,most for their colorful depictions of the trains. I liked the one that introduced Super-O track.
Bob C.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
1969 - it was their last catalog. It contains a number of one year only items. The sets shown in the catalog were packed in white boxes with pictures of the contents glued to the outside Due to the relatively small number of offerings, it should be possible to collect everything in the catalog if one desires.
1952 - Greatest cover image ever.
Recently bought a well-worn copy.
It was suprising to see how "thin" the catalogs were even in the postwar boom years. Only a handfull of sets and just a fraction of what the modern catalogs offer yet most of us still gripe about what doesn't appear in the latest volume.
1948. 2332 GG1 & Madison set
Definitely between 1950 and 1952.
1950 was the year Lionel really advertised Magne-Traction to the fullest extent, and some great illustrations of the then new 773 Hudsons and the 2023 UP ALCO's.
1952 though definitely has the best catalog cover and the best two page accessory spread with the 356 Freight Station, 362 Barrel Loader, 445 Switch Tower, and the 450 Signal Bridge.
I can't settle on just one but I have narrowed it down to the following years, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957 and 1958. They all provided magnificent art work which tantalized a model train enthusiast's imagination. 1957 was a milestone because it introduced Super O track and the great Norfolk and Western Class J 4-8-4 Northern. 1958 introduced the space and military lines and included another great spread on the N&W Class J. I think the catalogs in the early 1950s introduced a new high in their backdrop artwork. That cleverly designed scenery brought the trains to life because it depicted them in such enticing scenery. Sorry I couldn't settle on just one but I love those catalogs.
I know this topic covers only Lionel catalogs but I have to throw in an American Flyer catalog into the mix. The 1950 AF catalog wins hands down in my opinion for AF catalogs. The excitement on the kid's faces as they race down the basement steps to view a beautifully detailed AF layout is what memories are made of.
C W Burfle posted:1969 - it was their last catalog. ...
That wasn't a "catalog"... it resembled more of a "pamphlet". All 8 pages of it! 
My personal favorite is the 1966 catalog -- simply because it was my official introduction to Lionel trains, and I have fond memories of my Dad and I browsing through it together. Priceless memories. 
The catalog was far from Lionel's post-war heyday years though, as the company had already begun to venture into other areas beside O-Gauge Trains... including HO Trains, Raceway sets, phonographs, telescopes, and science/chemistry sets. Only half of the 40-page catalog featured trains.
I'm sure catalogs from the 1950's represented the strongest offerings of Lionel's post-war products. And those catalogs tend to be the ones post-war enthusiasts remember for their terrific artwork of the times.
David
For me it is 1948 with that great picture of the GG 1 and the Madison Cars,I read it many times.
Mikey
CharlieS posted:That wasn't a "catalog"... it resembled more of a "pamphlet". All 8 pages of it!
Couldn't post without making a negative comment about someone else's choice?
Give it a break, CharlieS. 
CW and I have an ongoing debate about toy train collecting vs. operating. If it makes you feel any better, I only have two postwar Lionel catalogs, and they're both in pristine condition: 1966, my favorite; and 1969, CW's favorite. So there.
By today's standards where catalogs look more like phonebooks of years past (when phonebooks were actually printed), even the 1966 catalog feels like a pamphlet. But at 8 pages in 1969, the catalog was right in sync with The Lionel Toy Corporation that year... as the doors at Hoffman Place in Hillside, NJ were all but closing. Paging through that catalog -- even today -- one can't help but realize how close we came to the end of O-Gauge toy train offerings altogether. And look where we are now. Nobody could have predicted what we have today. Nobody.
David
P.S. BTW, for anybody who wants old Lionel catalogs in pristine condition, look up Dan Olson in Washington state. Not sure of his current selection of catalogs, but that's where I got mine years ago.
1958, received my first train for Christmas.
1958. Loads of stuff in the catalog.
1958.
No doubt, 1954 is it for me. It starts with the cover and just gets better with each page. To top it off, my first set was the 736 Berkshire work train from the 1954 catalog.
Rollan
My favorite Lionel catalogs would be those in the 1986 to 1995 era when Richard Kuhn owned Lionel Trains. During that period the quality of the MPC products were improved, detail returned to the rolling stock, the Scale Hudson was re-introduced, rail sounds was invented and many accessories were added to the product line. This period sadly marked the end of the Made in USA model train era and my interest in buying the Chicom trains.
1954
My first catalog
Lou N
1958. It was my first, the color, price listings, and layout illustrations. It hooked me for life at 7.
I kinda liked all the 50's catalogs back when they still had an appreciating value.... ever since Richard Kuhn gutted out Madison hardware, they are all over the place now...madison must have been sitting on 1000' of em.
1953 (I used this to select a set to ask for for Christmas in 1955 because that was the only catalog I had). Also liked 1955, 1957 and 1959 a lot.
Robert Coniglio posted:all the catalogs were great ,most for their colorful depictions of the trains. I liked the one that introduced Super-O track.
Bob C.
That would be 1957.
1955. Santa Claus brought me my first Lionel train.
Curt
1946...perhaps a bit dull, but the trains I got for Christmas are in it. The first catalog I actually marveled over was probably 1950. I have the actual 1946-54 issues.
1967. I couldn't put it down. Of course, I could not pick it up either.
What, me worry?
Big John Henry posted:1958. It was my first, the color, price listings, and layout illustrations. It hooked me for life at 7.
Ditto....except I was 3, not 7.
I will have to say 1956 since my first set was the 520 but my dad must have bought it at a discount store or a dealers NOS because I got it for Christmas 1957 when I was 4 and still have it.
1957 for the reason's mentioned above...plus it housed my first Lionel train st.
1946. Lionel was back. I looked at all the old catalogs I could find waiting for something new. The look of trains in the 1946 catalog was a lot different from the pre war trains and many had SMOKE and those COUPLERS that looked like couplers. After that they even seemed to get better.
No one liked the 1966 glossy catalog with the Super O Hudson set and the Virginian O gauge set. The sets were cataloged since 1964 but the 1966 catalog was glossy and came in 2 variations. One has inserts showing the Super O Hudson and Virginian O gauge layouts.$225.00 fora train set was expensive to me a high school student at the time. I am glad Lionel chose to make the Super O Hudson set a Post War Celebration Set ( I should get another as an investment). Collectors will eventually realize the set is the best deal Lionel has offered in the modern era. You can still get that set for under $1000.00 and add Super O track and a ZW for less than another $500.00. Also you get a better tender with the Hudson.
That wasn't a "catalog"... it resembled more of a "pamphlet". All 8 pages of it!
The small size of the catalog is probably the main reason I think it's realistic to try to collect everything that was offered.
I would not recommend any of the locomotives to an operator, they just weren't constructed that well.
By the way, the 1968 catalog had even less. Only one set was offered. There were two steam engines, and no diesels. On the positive side, one of those two engines was the 736 Berkshire.
There was no catalog in 1967.
1952. The birth year of both me and Alfred E. Neuman. What me worry?
1958. New Haven EP 5 on the cover. I was ten and loved to look at that catalog. Still do!
For me, all of them.
It was a more innocent time and those wonderful catalog illustrations always looked like the real thing. Of course, most of us were kids back then, so we weren't so discerning. They "looked" like the real thing, so they were. Truth be told, most of us back then probably asked our dads "how fast can these run?"
The catalog text would proclaim "realistic whistle" or "realistic diesel horn." Now we all understand it was merely a bicycle buzzer, and yet as kids we were probably all pretty excited about sounding the horn while running the trains.
Today, the trains are far more realistic. Yet, for me there's power in imagination. I suppose I am old school, but in my eye those classic trains still have their realism. Maybe that's why I'm still an 027 - traditional O operator. I know the trains made today are more realistic than ever before. Yet in my eye, my trains are just as realistic... even if they aren't.
Those classic Lionel illustrations in all those catalogs captured that realism perfectly. And it is that desire to re-live our childhood memories and capture that more innocent time, which is the reason most of us have continued in the hobby to this day.
Even if the trains have changed, the motivation is still the same.
No one has mentioned the 1950 catalog with the gold 50th anniversary cover. I am still kicking myself for not buying that one when it was offered to me for $5.00 in 1970. I took a 2 for $5.00 deal, the regular 1950 catalog and a 1952 catalog. The last and hardest catalog for me to obtain was the 1947. Catalogs from 1958 and on I got as they came out. Catalogs from 1957 and before I collected as an adult. I am still working on some of the dealer and miniature catalogs. I love those catalogs and who remembers the Mattel toy gun catalogs? Growing up in the 1950s was great for me and my friends . We were blessed. I feel sorry for today's youth. I would not trade visiting a once a year Christmas toy land with operating train layouts and Erector Set displays for all the digital games in the world
C W Burfle posted:... The small size of the catalog is probably the main reason I think it's realistic to try to collect everything that was offered.I would not recommend any of the locomotives to an operator, they just weren't constructed that well.
...
I don't have the 1969 catalog in front of me right now. But as I recall, the handful of sets were all O-27. My interests had grown to the slightly more expensive "O-Gauge" items of the day, but production of those items had dwindled considerably in the waning years of the 1960's. What little O-Gauge rolling stock remained in factory inventory was relegated to the back cover of that year's catalog -- just five 6464 boxcars and a tanker were pictured along with a few pieces of O-Gauge track. That's it -- just one page! 
Super-O was already history. 
Ironically, those of us who lived through that time period experienced emotions that largely contributed to the success of the follow-on Lionel MPC era: namely, seeing production of The Lionel Toy Corporation dwindle to such poultry levels in the late 1960's gave enthusiasts all the reason they needed to purchase tons of MPC stuff a decade later, with anxiety that toy train production would once again suffer a similar fate several years down the road. Little did we know how wrong we were thinking. 
David
What little O-Gauge rolling stock remained in factory inventory was relegated to the back cover of that year's catalog -- just five 6464 boxcars and a tanker were pictured along with a few pieces of O-Gauge track. That's it -- just one page!
Everything David wrote is true. The sets were all 027. And the best locomotive they offered was a 2029. On the other hand, according to the catalog, those six cars all came with "Die cast trucks". Sometimes I wonder what they meant. Three of the cars are shown with metal trucks, and three are shown with plastic trucks. How did they actually come?
In 1968 there were only two 6464 boxcars. The Berkshire that was cataloged for separate sale only was probably left over stock.
So, one could say that the 1969 catalog was expanded over the 1968 catalog. Could the train line have been starting to rebound?
Regardless, 1969 more or less marked the beginning of my involvement with Lionel trains. Even the trains in the 1969 catalog seemed out of reach. Fortunately for me in my area there were plenty of used trains available, and lots of new, old stock trains still sitting on store shelves at discounted prices.
Somehow, I did manage to get a brand new 2041 Rock Island AA sometime around then.
I guess I did not understand the topic.of this thread. I thout it was about what was in the catalog but it seems
that it is about the value of the catalog itself to the catalog collector.
no it is just about what is your favorite catalog. we are not talking to the values to collectors
Bob C.
1952. Year I was born, but I never saw this edition til years later. The greatest Lionel artwork ever is the Chicago scene with the two A-B-A sets of F3s in Santa Fe and New York Central passing each other near the blast furnace installation. Simply incredible !
I have to say the 1957 catalogue because that is the year that Santa brought me my first Lionel trains set which appeared in that catalogue. It was a freight set with 3 operating cars ( milk, Pacemaker boxcar, and log dump car ) , a three dome Sunoco tank car, and lighted Lionel Lines caboose, all pulled by a 2065 hudson steam locomotive. I still have that set and it still operates until this day.
I loved all the catalogues from 1956 on. I used to sit looking through those catalogues and let my imagination run wild. Those catalogues were some major fuel for the imagination!!!
The 1954 catalog. I ordered it from Lionel. First piece of mail I ever sent, and the catalog was the first piece of mail I ever received. 
