The Art of Lionel Trains - Toy Trains and American Dreams [Hardcover]

Roger Carp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

When it came to electric trains, no retail catalog could match the excitement generated by the latest Lionel catalog. Lionel's staff artists created images of shining streamliners racing across the Great Plains to the West Coast and smoking steam engines heroically dragging mile-long strings of freight cars from one city to another. The wonder of it all is that these amazing train renderings, though incredibly realistic, were still identifiable as toys. The Art of Lionel Trains features the grandest examples of Lionel catalog and advertising art along with captivating text on how the artwork reflected the culture and values of the times. It's a fascinating story, a delightful trip down memory lane, and a wonderfully colorful look at America's premier toy train manufacturer. The perfect reference for nostalgia buffs, antique lovers, and toy train fans everywhere!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roger Carp is an associate editor for Classic Toy Trains magazine. Over the past decade, he has studied the history of Lionel trains and the Lionel corporation, interviewing dozens of former employees.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Kalmbach Publishing Company (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871162024
• ISBN-13: 978-0871162021
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,156,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Would Christmas be the Same without a Train, December 6, 2003

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Lionel Trains - Toy Trains and American Dreams (Hardcover)

"Saying 'Lionel' to anyone over the age of 40 brings forth nods of recognition and stories of smoking, whistling trains chugging around Christmas trees."

"The Art of Lionel Trains" is a showcase of familiar images, famous pictures and the artwork from catalog covers, newspaper advertising and other marketing pieces. Some of the pictures are sentimental and show the dreams of children.

When my mother bought my husband his first Lionel Train, I think he spent most of one afternoon putting the track together and then would amuse our cats by running the train at least once a day, complete with smoke billowing about in our mostly empty room. I kept wondering what was burning. My memories of Lionel Trains now include cats jumping across tracks to avoid the impending doom. They were actually quite fascinated for weeks.

This book highlights classic Lionel trains, helps to revive memories of toy trains from the past and analyzes art and its relationship to dreams and values.

The Chapters Include:

Dreams of Ambition 1900-1923
Dreams of Consumption 1920-1933
Dreams of Authority 1931-1947
Dreams of Security 1946-1964
Dreams of Nostalgia 1963-1993
Dreams of Tomorrow 1990-2003

This book is a history of Lionel Trains from 1900-2003 and is the perfect gift for Lionel Train fans everywhere. Each chapter contains detailed information on all things train through an analysis of advertising.

What I noticed, is a sense of family unity throughout the pictures. It also seems that a Lionel Train looks best with a Christmas tree. Artists actually started promoting this idea back in the1920s. The text in the advertising is readable in most cases. You have to love the pictures of the poor kids watching while "grandpa and dad" took over the train tracks.

Roger Carp has been a member of the editorial staff of Classic Toy Trains magazine since 1988. You might want to look for additional selections by Roger Carp:

The World's Greatest Toy Train Maker: Insiders Remember Lionel

Classic Lionel Display Layouts You Can Build

~The Rebecca Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bound To Bring Enjoyment, December 4, 2003

By 

Norman L. Andersen (Holliston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Lionel Trains - Toy Trains and American Dreams (Hardcover)

I read all 143 double spaced, profusely illustrated pages of it. I had no idea of what I would be getting into other than ad art and Lionel. I decided to make it a read inasmuch as it promised fine artwork and how it related to Lionel's marketing.

The book is not just breezy, casual reading. It is more than pretty pictures as well. It is a combination of analysis, interpretation and commentary on the more than 100 years of Lionel history through five owners. In this Roger Carp has succeeded. He has profiled the Lionel we know today as well as the company which existed through two World Wars and other skirmishes, one Great Depression, diversifications and contractions as well as other economic ups and downs.

The evolution of Lionel has taken many twists and turns. The philosophy of each new owner. Controlling costs. Fluctuations of sales. The cycles of selling toys, then "accurately detailed replicas of the real thing", then reissues. The reader will find that this cycle has repeated itself again and again.

Some of the illustrations will be familiar as they cover the period from 1906 through an ad from the July 2001 Classic Toy Trains. Actually this is fertile territory for a well-done art book on American model train advertising. Much of the ad art from early Lionel, Ives and others in catalogs and elsewhere is truly art. Maybe .... some day. It's bound to be a "must have".

In The Art of Lionel Trains you won't find witty little anecdotes or factory stories or any yet unheard exposes. You will find the "big" names, CEO's and top level management. The names of some of the many artists and photographers who contributed their talents to Lionel's enduring success. And you will find more than 150 beautiful reproduced color illustrations The author succeeds very well in telling the story of Lionel as seen through its ads, publications and catalogs. This is another Lionel licensed product bound to bring enjoyment to the reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wealth of Information, November 13, 2003

By 

Alan Wishengrad (Livingston, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Lionel Trains - Toy Trains and American Dreams (Hardcover)

The ART OF Lionel Trains has increased my knowledge of the Lionel Corporation in an area that was almost unknown to me. I have been a toy train collector for over thirty years but knew little about the philosophies and rationale that went into creating the Lionel catalogs, and copy for their advertisng. The book traces the history of Lionel and simultaneously explains how the company's marketing strategies were transformed into art copy. The literary and historical content of this book is exceptional, as well as the myriad of illustrations and accompanying explanations. I recommend it to anyone interested in the toy train hobby.