Industries

Throughout the 25 years of postwar train production, Lionel offered a wide variety of accessories to enhance any operators layout -- from the smallest oval to largest full basement railroad pike. Accessories ranged from small -- only a few inches in size such as the # 260 Illuminated Bumper -- to nearly 30" in length such as the 313 Bascule Bridge or 456 Coaling Ramp!

Initially, many of the accessories offered by Lionel in the mid-1940's were prewar items adapted to work with postwar trains and couplers. These early accessories were generally all metal construction and focused on the handling of logs and coal. Later accessories would have simulated workers loading and unloading miniature cargo of all types including barrels, ice cubes, culvert pipes and much more.

For this section of the website -- Industries -- we'll focus on the backbone of Lionel accessories that brought action, height, size and a wealth of interaction to any layout. Lionel realized running trains in a circle was interesting, but quickly boring for any child. Operating trains in conjunction with loading and unloading barrels, logs, coal and much more would keep them interested for hours and hours!

 *   Scroll down & click on any photo for more details regarding the bay window caboose   *