Customer Reviews

All Aboard : The Story of Joshua Lionel Cowen & His Lionel Train Company

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have had several copies of the previous edition of this book but kept giving them away to neighbors of mine. It is a wonderful look at one of the oldest and most successful toy companies in the world: Lionel Trains. This book covers everything: humble beginnings, postwar boom, near destruction at the hands of famed veteran of the "Red Scare" Roy Cohn to it's present day owners. If you had Lionel trains as a child or have always loved them from afar I cannot tell you how much fun this book is. With stories on all of the most famous cars and the people behind the genius it's an engrossing read.

All Aboard! The Story Of Joshua Lionel Cowen & His Lionel Train Company is the fascinating story of the man who made the electric toy train one of the most popular toys for boys and hobbies for grown men in the last century. Published in part to celebrate the Lionel Train Company's 100th Anniversary, All Aboard! is also a testament to how this producer of toy trains dealt with the competition of electronic games at the end of the 20th century and is experiencing a surge of popularity at the beginning of the 21st Century. Original published in 1981, this new, revised and updated celebratory edition of All Aboard! is welcome and highly recommended reading for toy train enthusiasts in general, and Lionel Train collectors in particular!

Simply put, Hollander has written and compiled the highest quality, most comprehensive, and most readable book about the history of the Lionel electric train company that has ever been done. I make that claim while scanning my bookcase holding 45 books on electric toy trains, the majority of them dealing with Lionel, indisputably the penultimate brand name in America, at least where toy trains are concerned.

Hollander writes of the origin and the evolution of Lionel trains from their beginning around 1900 through their status at the commencement of the 21st century, including their near death in 1969 and their miraculous resuscitation by the General Mills cereal company in 1970. Don't be alienated by the earlier statement that this is a history book. It is in no way a dry rehashing of facts, dates and dollars such as comprise boring histories. On the contrary, "All Aboard!" is more of a love story, for Hollander is truly in love with his subject, and his excitement in telling us about the Lionel legend carries the reader through the book on wings of delight.

Highly descriptive text leaves us with a wonderful acquaintanceship with Lionel's parent, Joshua Lionel Cohen (who "Americanized" his name to Cowen), shows us the birth of his baby, draws us word pictures of that baby's successes and failures, its grand leaps of inventiveness and its faltering steps of failure in the changing business and economic climate of a century of American enterprise. Along the way, we are presented with copious visual reinforcement (both in color and in black and white) of the story that the text is weaving for us. We see photographs of the movers and shakers of this great company, some of the wondrous trains that they produced, and some of the expert art work that marketed those trains to the boys and fathers (and girls and mothers, too) of 20th century America. That art work, in annual catalogs and in magazine and newspaper advertisements, forged an emotional bond between American youth and the Lionel Corporation that endures today despite changing fortunes and changing ownership. Its effect on our culture has been phenomenal and is clearly addressed in Hollander's book.

I can levy only two criticisms against "All Aboard!" The first is that I sometimes find the page layout annoying in that many sidebars and notes are included to give us insights into Lionel's executives, competitors, and plans. These are valuable and interesting, but they do interrupt the flow of the main text. The reader must either pause to read the sidebars or else ignore them at first and then return to them later. The second criticism is that the final chapter, which is the only "revised and updated" part of the book since its original release in 1981, lacks the intimate, revealing analysis that gives the rest of the book its finesse. The first eight chapters read as though Hollander had been an insider at the Lionel Corporation for its eighty-one years of birth, growth and turmoil, whereas the ninth chapter, which looks at the technological advances in toy trains from 1982 to 2000, is told by an outside observer who is no more privy to corporate thoughts than are the rest of us.

If one has already enjoyed the 1981 edition of "All Aboard!", I cannot recommend purchasing the current edition just to have the new chapter. On the other hand, if one has never seen either edition of "All Aboard!", then, no matter what other books he may have read on Lionel trains, he has missed the most definitive and enjoyable book of all, and I cannot recommend Hollander's book too highly.

As toy train collector I say without reservation that this book is the best there is in documenting the history of Lionel Trains. e.g., it lays to rest several ongoing myths. One, the founder (Joshua Lionel Cowen) was a wonderful, loving, caring father and employer. He was, at times, these things. But like many successful people he was also a bully, tyrant, and egomaniac who could, and did, plant the knife of financial greed squarely in the back of his son (Lawrence Cowen) and long time, devoted employees. Chapter 7 covers this unsavory and little known side of the founder.

A second ongoing myth laid to rest is that Lawrence Cowen (son of the founder) was a daddy's boy who came along for the ride (!) and was merely a corporative decoration with none of daddy's marketing and inventive genuis. Quite to the contrary, Lawrence Cowan had to placate a father who knew it all and was jealous of the son. Lawrence was responsible for the most successful selling train (by far) ever made by Lionel, the beautiful Santa Fe F3 diesel introduced in 1948. The father had nothing to do with the success of this train as he was still locked in to what had been successful (steam engines) but was rapidly being replaced by new technologies (diesels).

The book is excellent-including an additional chapter covering Lionel's history from 1982 to the present-but in my opinion too many pages are devoted to pictures (whose number abound in the book) at the expense of more detailed documentation. When the first edition of this book was published (1981) many of the individuals who were players in Lionel's heyday were still alive. The author should have interviewed these individuals in much more depth. He does some interviewing of the players, but only a very few and hardly in depth.

All of the above said I reconmmend this book as the best source of facts regarding the history of lionel Trains; facts presented in an interesting "can't put the book down" manner.

This is one of my best books about Lionel trains. Profusely illustrated with photos of Joshua Lionel Cohen and the people that helped make Lionel a giagantic toy train builder. This is a book you're sure to read over and over.

My grand-uncle, Mario Caruso, was the co-owner and co-founder of Lionel Trains along with Joshua "Lionel" Cohen.

Frank Pettit, chief designer for Lionel Trains and my uncle, had over 100 patents for designs and innovations he created for toys, expecially trains, including the smoke tablet, cattle car, news-stand, a transformer, etc. Amazon lists his biography "It Comes From Within: The Frank Pettit Story." This is an accurate story of the Lionel Trains Corp.

My entire family; mother, father, uncles, aunts, from the Caruso/Pagano family worked at Lionel Trains, located in Irvington, New Jersey during the 1950's, which was the largest toy company in the world. During World War II, Lionel Corp. developed and manufactured instruments for the navy.

The company was bought by the lawyer, Roy Cohn, grandson of Lionel Trains founder Lionel Cowen (Cowen & Cohn are very similar names). Roy Cohn immediately fired everyone and stated that "We are out of the toy business." To this day, nobody knows where the pension fund went. All the money was taken out of the company. My mom and dad, my relatives and others never received a penny of their pension that they worked so hard for.

Read this fascinating history of what was once the largest toy manufacturing company in the world.

Whether you're new to model railroading, have been involved for a few years, or this has been a lifelong hobby, it's definitely a great reference book to add to your collection.

If you are a fan of Lionel history, this work is a must have. I purchased this volume from an Amazon marketplace dealer and the service and condition of the book surpassed the on line description. This book captures the essence of a time, place and a man we have all come to admire. Excellent work!

What a great book, Mr Hollander tells a great story in plain words about the beginning of the Lionel Corporation, thru its hay day, its down fall, to the years around the early 2000's

The book itself was OK - pretty much what I expected as a history of Lionel and the model train industry in the pre and post- "baby boom generation".

However the seller has described this book in his listing as "Like New". This was inaccurate, but I purchased this particular book on the basis of that statement. Although the book was in decent condition as used books go, it didn't even begin to approach being "like new" in my opinion. I realize such characterizations of the condition of used products are highly subjective and very much in the eye of the beholder, this one didn't come close.