Power and color for 1954
By the time the holiday shopping season began after Thanksgiving, veteran Lionel salesmen such as Jerry Lamb, Myles Walsh, Hank Siess, and Joe Malcolm had traveled thousands of miles, introducing the new line to department, toy, and appliance stores. As they drove from state to state, they heard radio announcers describe the first mass polio immunization shots and Roger Bannister’s breaking the 4-minute barrier in the mile.
But more immediate matters concerned Lionel’s sales force. Growing numbers of children were being born – more than 4 million in 1954 – and soldiers were returning from Korea, eager to buy trains for their sons and themselves. Continually challenged by Gilbert’s American Flyer S gauge line and the inexpensive trains made by Louis Marx & Co., not to mention manufacturers of HO scale trains, Lionel responded magnificently.
“You want power,” Lionel’s salesmen must have told their authorized distributors and retailers, “we have more of it this year than ever before. Get a load of our four new steam engines.” Numbers 646 and 665 featured a 4-6-4 wheel arrangement but used different boiler castings and came with different tenders (the nos. 2046W streamlined type and 6026W square type, respectively). Also new was the no. 2065, another Santa Fe-type Hudson, for the O-27 line.
The 682, the finest Turbine developed by Lionel, was the star of the new steam fleet. It featured an elegant white stripe on the running board plus lubricator linkage. The Turbine came with a no. 2046W-50 eight-wheel tender lettered for the Pennsylvania RR.
Power wasn’t all Lionel promised for 1954. “Forget the dull black freight cars from past years,” salesmen insisted, “and look at our new red crane car, green log car, and gray and maroon hopper. Even our scale-like 6464 boxcars are better! Remember how plain they looked? We’ve added a grand total of seven new ones, including dazzling models decorated for the Western Pacific, New York Central, and Missouri Pacific.”
Having caught the attention of buyers, salesmen did just what Lionel’s catalog artists did: They brought out the diesel locomotives that represented the cream of 1954. And who wouldn’t want the nos. 2321 Lackawanna Train Master, 2356 Southern Ry. F3 A-B-A combination, or 6250 orange-and-blue Seaboard NW2 switcher? For sheer fun, the no. 50 gang car deserved to be on every child’s wish list. With so much to offer, a salesman working for Lionel couldn’t help but feel confident as he showed off the line for ’54.