There were several, but I pick Frank Petit, the inventor of many operating accessories.
Bob C.
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Well .... without Joshua there would be no Lionel .... So ... in my book he is #1.
Mario, and the guys at the display department.
Richard Kughn for bringing the company out of the General Mills era. Neil Young for developing TMCC.
Brad
Roy Cohn. For all the wrong reasons, not the least of which were his ties to organized crime. He and a group of investors (sound familiar?) took control of Lionel in the late fifties, but his effect on American history extended far beyond the toy train racket.
Pete
You and me, we are the ones that purchase all this stuff to make Lionel what it is today
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Louis Marx and A. C. Gilbert. If it weren't for them Lionel would have died out quickly for lack of competition. 
Dick Branster - From reading the TM book, he (and George Toteff) were the driving force that brokered the General Mills deal and resurrected Lionel.
Just curious if any forum members knew him?
Mike Reagan
Mike Wolf.
He raised the bar and forced Lionel to make more detailed, scale models wth more functionality..
Lou Kovach, Neil Young, Jon Zahornachy and team...These gentlemen started TMCC and then lead it into the Legacy era.
My Dad! His Dad, and my Uncles....
With out them I never would been in this enjoyable relaxing hobby...
Always had a new Lionel train every year when I was a kid! And many a Sunday after church we would head for the local train meet!
I would add Joseph Bonanno as well
J Daddy posted:My Dad! His Dad, and my Uncles....
With out them I never would been in this enjoyable relaxing hobby...
Always had a new Lionel train every year when I was a kid! And many a Sunday after church we would head for the local train meet!
And the soms who wanted trains as a gift and/or hobby!
Following the 1990 re-issue of the 4 well-known postwar, Madison-style passenger cars with location names like Madison, Irvington, Manhattan, and Sager Place... Lionel subsequently produced a set of 10 or 11 similarly styled cars under the banner "Legends of Lionel". These were released over a period of several years.
The series started with a 4-pack (SKU 6-19074), that appropriately enough included the observation car honoring the company's founder, JLC. Two other cars honored Mario Mazzone, inventor of the old smoke pellets; and Arthur Raphael, sales manager back in the day. Ironically, I've seen the 4-pack pictured with coach #2624 being EITHER Mario Caruso, plant manger of Lionel's Irvington plant location OR Frank Petit, inventor of several Lionel operating accessories.
A 2-pack (SKU 6-19096) honored Joseph Bonano, chief engineer; and Thomas Pagano, parts production superintendent.
Four individual cars were later produced over time, honoring:
- Liontech (SKU 6-29090): the only car in the series not honoring a specific individual, but rather the overall technology leading to what we have today in TMCC and Legacy;
- Lawrence Cowen (SKU 6-29091): JLC's son and major stockholder;
- Richard Kughn (SKU 6-29139): owner and chairman of LTI from 1986-1995; and
- Lenny Dean (SKU 6-35412): long-time Lionel employee spanning several decades of different Lionel ownership.
All in all, that makes for a very nice train celebrating Lionel's "Who's Who" over the years.
David
Roy Cohn. For all the wrong reasons, not the least of which were his ties to organized crime.
I just looked him up to verify that he was also a player in Senator McCarthy's house un-American committee. According to the article in Wikipedia, he was disbarred as an attorney.
From the article:
Under Cohn's leadership, Lionel was plagued by declining sales, quality-control problems, and huge financial losses. In 1963, he was forced to resign from the company after losing a proxy fight.[
Handy Andy and Barry Brokowitz beat me to the punch....Louis Marx, for maybe forcing Lionel to generate the infamous Scout sets, (and Marx still owned the low-end market), and Mike Wolf for, inititially, getting away from Williams and other "Liionel copy-cats" and offering new and different prototypes.
The customers who bought the trains, all through the decades, are the folks who ultimately made Lionel successful.
EMD posted:Dick Branster - From reading the TM book, he (and George Toteff) were the driving force that brokered the General Mills deal and resurrected Lionel.
Just curious if any forum members knew him?
Very interesting reading in that TM book regarding the rebirth of Lionel in the early 1970s. From what I recall reading Lenny Dean and many other less known employees were instrumental in getting Lionel back in action.
Years back I spoke to Lou Shur, one of the owners of Madison Hardware. He knew Josh Cowan and the Lionel management team well. He spoke well of them and told me that later in the companies history several of the plant team went back to Italy and met with even more success there. Josh Cowan was a genius who brought in all of the right people to make Lionel successful and at the time grow to be the largest toy manufacturer in the world. All of the people mentioned in this post were critical to Lionel's development and success; Joseph Bonano, Mario Caruso, Phillip Marfuggi, Frank Petit, Arthur Raphael, Mario Mazzone, and even Lenny Dean in the parts department and later on in a marketing role. There would be no Lionel trains without these people. Guys like Roy Cohn and Ron Saypol were just Wall street guys trying to make the best deal from the 60's remnants of the company
"largest toy manufacturer in the world"? That description has also been applied to Louis Marx and Company, who made, not only trains, but an almost infinite variety of other toys that once filled the dime stores. So by what measurements, and who WAS the largest toy manufacturer? By financial measurements? Sheer quantity would seen to go to Marx. Marx had plants in Erie and Girard, Pa., and Glen Dale, W.Va.
Charlie Montagna. He was Chief Engineer in the 60's. He answered every one of my letters when i was a kid. He's still around and now i send him stories and pictures of what i do now as an engineer. That sort of guidance and patience was quite a gift to me.
Lou N
Neal Young, the only person the current youth generation X ever heard of (or from).
