Customer Reviews

It Comes From Within: the Frank Pettit Story

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I never read a book about trains before. I never thought I would. But when I sat down with this book, I couldn't put it down. The writing is superb; the content matter keeps you on the edge of the seat, even though I was on a bus, and the historic pictures were so much fun because of their spontaneous, rather than, set-up feel. I recommend this book even if you never thought you'd want to pick up a book on trains and Frank Pettit. Actually, I'd recommend this book even if you can't read!

We kids who grew up in the 1940s and 50s saw toy trains all around us. If we were lucky to have indulgent parents, we even HAD toy trains all around us. Of the plethora of miniature trains, Lionel was preeminent in many of our households, although its main competitors, American Flyer and Marx, were also popular. Those of us who played with Lionels thought of them as a natural part of the physical universe, particularly as a benign, happy, wholesome part, for the world was always bright in Lionelville. It would never have occurred to us to think that discord, dishonesty, jealousy, and even intellectual thievery could exist in the factory that made these wonderful icons of all that was right in the world, yet....

IT COMES FROM WITHIN is the story of one man's experiences working as an inventor and developer of new products for The Lionel Corporation, and it is an amazing story not only because it reveals the incredible number of operating action train cars and trackside accessories developed by Frank Pettit but because it also reveals the extent to which the chief engineer, Joseph Bonanno, often took credit for Pettit's creations, putting his own name on the patent applications. Thus, the reader learns some of the history behind an amazing number of Lionel's entertaining toys (which we "serious" model railroaders prefer to call models) while also getting some revealing insights into internal management of the company and the frictions that resulted from it.

The content does, perhaps, need to be taken with at least a small bit of skepticism. After all, it was developed from interviews with Pettit himself, and no Lionel managers or supervisors from that era are around to present their versions of the story. Let's define the book as a "brief history of Lionel from the viewpoint of a disgruntled inventor." This is not a condemnation of the story, for the wrongs enumerated by Pettit may well have been every bit as onerous as they are represented, and he does have many good things to say about "Pop" Cowen, owner of the company. At the very least, however, the reader comes quickly to understand that life at Lionel was not nearly as wholesome as it was in the many tiny plastic Lionelvilles that populated our miniature basement layouts.

Not surprisingly, considering the publisher, this "book" is more of a magazine, looking physically very much like an issue of "O Gauge Railroading," though its 88-page length makes it even shorter than the usual 100-plus-page length of a typical issue of the magazine. Of course, unlike the magazine, its content is focused solely on one man's employment--though "adventures" might be a more apt word--with Lionel, and it is entertaining, captivating, and instructive reading for everyone with an interest in the century-old company founded by Joshua Lionel Cowen. That said, if the reader is just starting to explore the history of that company, he should first turn to Ron Hollander's ALL ABOARD! THE STORY OF JOSHUA LIONEL COWEN & HIS LIONEL TRAIN COMPANY, for that book remains the foremost history of Lionel trains.

As of mid 2007, copies of IT COMES FROM WITHIN are readily available from the publisher as well as from popular Internet auction sites at prices less than the original $18. One can easily be brought to your mailbox, and you'll be set to learn a bit more about this wonderful toy train company and its delightful products-as well as a few surprises about its internal affairs!

Frank Pettit, chief designer for Lionel Trains and my uncle, had over 100 patents for designs and innovations he created for toys, expecially trains. This is an accurate story of the Lionel Trains Corp.

My grand-uncle, Mario Caruso, was the co-owner of Lionel Trains. My entire family; mother, father, uncles, aunts, from the Caruso/Pagano family worked at Lionel Trains, then located in New Jersey.

The company was bought by the lawyer, Roy Cohn, grandson of Lionet Trains founder Lionel Cowen. Roy Cohn immediately fired everyone. To this day, nobody knows where the pension fund went. All the money was taken from the company. My relatives 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.