The topic of reference books comes up quite frequently in web forums as well as in e-mail queries. Greenberg Books, acquired by Kalmbach Publishing in the mid-1990s, was the largest producer of toy train reference material. All of these books are currently out-of-print and it is unlikely that we will ever revive them.
Oh, before you ask, the answer why is the limited market for the books and their limited sales potential.
However, many hobbyists have entered the hobby since the last postwar volume 1 was revised and printed in 2000, and many don’t know the extent of the line of books available in the secondary market.
So here is the second installment of a compilation of titles, photos for your reference where I could find examples of various editions, and my two cents on whether or not they are worth crazy money or original cover price.
I checked before I started this blog post and most of these are available used through Amazon.com at or below retail, prices higher for hardcover editions.
Modern Era reference books (most recent to oldest)
Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Trains 1987-1995 Vol. 1: Richard Kughn Era Motive Power & Rolling Stock, 1st Edition, 2002 by Michael Solly
The Lionel Trains, Inc. (LTI) period was remarkable because the firm was owned by toy train enthusiast Richard Kughn. His willingness to invest in new, nontraditional products was intended to not just restore the brand’s lost glory, but to expend the line to new heights. The naming of this volume was recognition that there was an opportunity to create a dividing point in identification of modern era Lionel trains by creating the Richard Kughn era.
Production was exploding, and considering the fact that the 1970-1991 volume had 338 pages and this single volume was 248 pages, you could see the need to insert a natural break in the coverage of modern equipment lest you have a 600 page tome in just a few more years. The transition from MPC to LTI ownership, and again, the transition from LTI to Wellspring Associates ownership, provided a practical demarcation point.
There was a bit of shuffling of coverage from the previous modern era Vol. II (see below) and the new Kughn Era title absorbed the custom run products from the previous edition. It was with some sadness I noted that in 2002, the forward indicated a revised volume II would be forthcoming, because it never arrived.
Other changes included roughly 11 pages of introductory text for steam locomotives that covered motors and body styles. Gone were the shelf of trains photos and products tended to have a photo next to the entry rather that causing you to bounce around between a text entry and the page where a photo was.
Additionally, you will find simple line drawings illustrating differences in cabooses, flatcars, gondolas, hoppers, refrigerator cars and tank cars. To track down specific cars, you’ll find an index by product number in the back.
While it is likely that there were some products were not captured for this volume, this comes as close as possible to being an all-in-one document for the Lionel Trains, Inc. years.
Worth crazy money? I would easily pay original cover price, simply because it showcases the production of a revitalized Lionel that no longer wished to rest on its laurels, and began to develop new means of enjoying our trains such as TrainMaster and RailSounds systems.
Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Trains 1970-1991 Vol. 1: Motive Power & Rolling Stock, 3rd edition, 1991, by Roland LaVoie and Michael Solly
If you’ve heard those monster truck show ads on the radio, they’ll certainly do the “be there, be there, be there!” shtick, but you also might hear a “This is the Big One!” That certainly applied to this edition. At 336 pages this is the largest of the modern era Greenberg Guides documenting the three-rail hobby.
This is a beautiful book to leaf through. The photos and clarity are first rate and you can clearly see that while MPC/Fundimensions doesn’t get a whole lot of respect, many of the old favorites were reborn in new, more colorful (and better applied) paint schemes.
You will find lengthy discussions of locomotives and exploded diagrams of steam locomotives, and comparison charts f car body types for the rolling stock.
If I had a million dollars to blow, there are still a vast number of products from this era I’d have no interest in acquiring. However, there are many, many I’d be curious to learn about, such as the nos. 8310 2-4-0, the 8502 2-4-0, and the 8977 0-6-0. This books has photos of them all.
The book also brings home the variety of road names made available, which included boxcars for Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay, the Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad, Minnesota, Dakota & Western; Providence & Worcester; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; and Seaboard Coast Line among many others. The book doesn’t include a photo of everything, but you will see the main body types in a variety of road names.
Wrapping the book up is a chapter including photos of trucks and a text discussion of coupler armatures and wheel sets. The book is indexed by product number with page number indicating the page of text entry and photo (if used).
Worth crazy money? This is a colorful and an attractive book. But unless you are a lover of MPC era trains, I’d search for a bargain. If your interests begin with “the digital era,” buy the Kughn Era Vol. 1 instead.
Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Trains 1970-1988, 2nd Edition, 1989, by Roland LaVoie
This edition followed the format established with the 1st edition, though notably, the increasing number of products required smaller locomotive photos. The volume includes an 8-page essay by Roland LaVoie called Visiting Lionel, which included a visit to the production line, and ends with Richard Kughn buying the company.
Worth crazy money? I’d say no, but mainly because there are other editions competing for your attention (and money). Shop around.
Greenberg’s Guide to Fundimensions Trains, 1985, 1st Edition, by Roland LaVoie
This is where the modern era documentation began. It was a thinnish volume compared to later editions, but it set the tone for modern era documentation. It was an all-in-one book with locomotive, rolling stock, and accessories with the standard descriptions. The locomotive photos were the largest of the series (in some places four to a page). The book includs Glen Halverson’s essay on transitioning from the Lionel Corp. to Fundimensions, a chapter on known factory errors and prototypes, and a section on both trucks and couplers and Fundimensions boxes.
I found the book interesting and surprisingly valuable, even at this late date, due to the coverage of the transition years. This fills in some gaps about how they approached manufacturing and creating a product line that promised to be an improvement over the postwar line.
Worth crazy money? No, but if you want a reference book with more “present at the creation” of the modern era, this is certainly a book you should consider for your reference shelf.
Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Trains 1970-1991, Vol. 2: Special products, sets department store specials, accessories, boxes, errors, prototypes, Classic-series, Large Scale; 1st Edition 1991, by Roland LaVoie and Michael Solly
I have always thought this was a fun volume. It was a first (and only) attempt to combine sets (cataloged and uncatalogued), custom club production, the revised prewar-style Classics product line, accessories, modern era boxes, and even Lionel Large scale in one book. This book had a little bit of everything, and I looked forward to what it might evolve into.
But the tsunami of production we saw in the late 1990s had not yet hit, and it probably would not have been too many years before it split into a second or third volume. Alas, interest in the modern era has never reached the heights that interest in postwar trains reached, and that it probably why it failed.
Worth Crazy money? Not at all, and you can find it on Amazon for as little as $16. I can’t imagine that there are that many copies available in circulation, but this is the only place to find some of the information, such as early modern era sets. And if you are interested in the decade’s worth of production of Lionel large scale, as far as I know, this book and an article we ran in the March 1998 issue of Classic Toy Trains are the only hobby market documentation done of the whole Large scale product line.
Greenberg’ Guide to Lionel Trains 1970-1997, Vol 3: Accessories, 1997, 1st Edition, by Roland LaVoie
This is another first and only edition, dating from 1997. This covers all of Lionel’s accessories through the publication date, and there are quite a few. The books covers totally new items such as the Union Pacific Mi-Jack intermodal crane (1989-90) and the steam clean and wheel grind accessory (1994-1995); MPC-era accessories, and even glue-together building kits.
If there is a disappointing aspect to the book, it is that many of the photos are pictures from catalogs, and some of those seem to be run larger than they should be (the Lionel lift bridge images are a case in point). But there are good studio shots of many items that got my interest such as an array of transformers made by MPC and LTI, products such as oil and lube attached to their original blister packs, Lionel TruTrack roadbed (also attached to the point of sale card), and even the toy-like Andy Sandy gravel loader .
Chapter 12 covers peripherals such as Johnny Cash: Ridin’ the Rails, a Lionel promotional album, Lionel mirrors, clocks, and belt buckles, and even the RailScope TV set. Alas, there are no photos in this section.
It seems like the author tried to put too much material in the volume, and the photos could have been vastly better. I counted 60 studio photos (all the pics with the gray backdrop) and 43 photos from catalogs. The catalog images were generally poor with many being terrible. It appears that many were enlarged to fit a space – well beyond the ability of the image to remain clear. Maybe a slightly thinner volume would have been better than so many grainy photos of catalog listings.
Worth crazy money? Absolutely not. You can find this on Amazon for under $40, but if I had to do it again, I’d pass. While there is some valuable information in the book, the flaws outweighed the benefits for me.
All Era
Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Paper and Collectibles, 1990, by Robert Osterhoff
Yes, you read that title correctly. However, don’t think that phasers have been set to snooze. This book touches on virtually everything made by Lionel that was not a train or train accessory. It is a mix of collecting paper and collecting “stuff.”
The chapter titles say a lot:
1. Introduction to Lionel paper (publishing efforts and stock certificates.
2. Prewar paper 1901-1944.
3. Postwar paper 1945-1969.
4. Modern era paper 1970-1990.
5. Service station paper (bulletins, service and parts manuals, and service station lists).
6. Instruction sheets for Lionel trains 1901-1969.
7. Billboards.
8. Service station tools
9.Non-tran collectibles (non-train and nautical products, Airex fishing equipment) and Corporation memorabilia from clothes and jewelry to promotional films.
Notable subjects covered include publications (Boy’s Railroad Magazine, The Lionel Magazine, Model Engineer, Model Builder, and the internal company magazines Lionel Lines and All Aboard. It also covers the beloved Bantam paperback Model Railroading. This volume had 10 printings and six editions (used copies are available for s little as $8.75 on Amazon.com).
Stock certificates: I’ve always had a passive interest in collecting stock certificates and bonds (Scripophily) based on their graphics. This book shows a variety of Lionel stock certificates through 1985. Descriptions include comments about the graphics and signatures from various long-dead Lionel officers. Values are included, but are obviously out of date.
Alas the only scripophily purchase I’ve ever made were some Austro-Hungarian War Bonds.
Prewar catalogs: Very interesting material. This includes ancient (1903) catalogs of “Electrical appliances and novelties for boys.” This progresses through what we might see as a simple handouts today, to easily recognizable catalogs. Information is also included for dealer price lists, private catalogs, advanced catalogs, instruction sheets, and even layout plan booklets. I found this chapter interesting, even though my interest in trains from cave man days concentrated toward the end of that era.
Postwar catalogs: This chapter has 37 pages on the common and the incredibly hard-to-find. Revolutions in printing and marketing resulted in a steady wave of paper coming out of Lionel’s headquarters destined for retailers and consumers alike.
You find the standard catalog fare such as advance and consumer catalogs, but also information about instructions sheets, fact books for retailers, shop posters, banners, and various paper city sheets that were distributed. Trains aren’t the only products covered, you’ll see photos of science set catalogs as well as record players, raceways, the “U-Drive” boat, and even examples of envelopes and stationary of the era.
Service station paper: This area might have been the toughest to mine for information, because over time, so much would have been discarded as shops closed or store ceased offering service on trains. It lists bulletins starting issued from 1938 through 1989. It lists The Lionel Herald, which was the re-named Service Station Bulletin, which commenced in 1961. The chapter lists service and parts manuals from the early 1930s through 1986, and lists of authorized service stations from 1939 to 1977. Not many images and mostly dates and page counts with some descriptive text.
Lionel Instruction sheets: The listing starts with the prewar no. 4U Bild-A-Loco and works its way through locomotives, rolling stock, accessories, transformers, some train sets, controllers, Lionel OO and HO, and showroom display layouts. Pretty much numbers in a table. The useful part is that if you have something you need, knowing that it actually exists can help you launch a quest for it.
Billboards: Probably nothing gives a boost in appearance to a layout – for less money – than a billboard. These comforting and colorful plugs for soap, candy, motor oil, and automobiles have been cranked out by Lionel since 1933. This section shows 126 mostly color photos of HO and O gauge billboards, along with dates (where known) and the source (for example as set contents or in a catalog). It was strangely comforting to see so many friends from days and layouts gone by.!
Service station tools: I don’t repair trains and don’t want to know how to repair trains. However, this behind-the-scenes chapter explained tools, test sets, riveting sets, and has a chart comparing the testing capabilities of various test sets. The chapter has photos of pliers, riveting sets, and even an HO magnetizer!
Non-Train collectibles: Don’t write this off as just hat pins and playing cards – these include wartime production small compasses for lifeboats, ship binnacles, nautical compasses, and military headsets. Entries include prewar raceways, science and chemistry sets, the no. 570 Linex stereo camera, as well as phonographs, and the famous inventors series of kits.
If you want a little information abut the Airex line of fishing gear (that has its own collector base of non-train folk) it has about a page and a half of listings of reels and lures.
Corporate memorabilia includes caps, pins, caps, and aprons and the like for both the Lionel Railroader Club and general consumer purchase. There are a wide range of promotional pins listed, as well as promotional films and phonograph records.
So if you’ve ever spotted something at a train show like a Lionel deck of cards, a ballpoint pen lettered for Lionel, or even a vintage date planner book – this book will certainly help you identify what your have (at least up to the 1990 publishing date).
Worth crazy money? I would most certainly be inclined to say “yes,” due to the rarity of some of the items referenced here –but fortunately, you don’t have to take a chance on a big buck hard copy. The author, Robert Osterhoff, offers an updated (2010) digital edition of the book on a DVD for $18 plus shipping. Check out his website www.trainpaper.com for more information about this.
MTH Electric Trains
What?!?!?!
There was a Greenberg Guide on MTH Trains? Absolutely. And the reason you don’t know about them is why you’ll never see another, at least from us!
In a very short period of time in the 1990s and early 2000s, MTH released an astonishing quality of brand new, never done in O gauge new models of locomotives, rolling stock, and accessories. It seemed natural that people would buy their products and would want a reference to what had been made.
I truly believe that while plenty of hobbyists were buying the MTH gear, they were operators and didn’t care where their trains fit into a larger picture of toy train production. It wasn’t until some years later that many realized that they had a collection, and began to approach it as such. Many operators evolve into curators of their collection and begin to fine-tune their interests by prototypical era, or road name, or region.
So this lack of interest doomed the creation of reference material. It would be pretty tough to re-create the content today after 20-plus years of additional train production.
The Greenberg Guide to MTH Electric Trains was created in the mold of the standard Greenberg Guides for Lionel, American Flyer, Williams, and Kusan (!). Noting that, even for a first edition, the additional comments were a bit slim. There was a forward by MTH founder Mike Wolf and an article on MTHs then-manufacturer, Samhongsa. This article appeared in the December 1999 Classic Toy Trains.
The book covers the premier line, the RailKing Line, and the Tinplate Traditions line of products. The book excels is documenting the amazing variety of brand new models that the firm introduced to the three rail world: Locomotives like the EMD DDA40X, the Union Pacific gas turbine, New York subway cars, Doodlebugs, and odd-balls like PCC trolley cars, the Baldwin AS-616 and the Fairbanks-Morse H-10-44.
Whether the book, or for that matter, the two MTH Pocket Price Guides, were too early, or weren’t needed at all isn’t for me to say. However, at every York show we get a few readers who inquire about our creating books covering this subject.
Worth crazy money? I don’t think so. Check out A Toy Train Story published by MTH in 2000, or Richard Ridolfo’s Comprehensive Guide series covering Premier line and RaiKing line products published by The Train Shop at Brentwood Antiques, 106 Lafayette Rd., Hampton Falls, NH 03844 or www.thetrainshop.com.
Greenberg Guides MTH Electric Trains Pocket Price Guide 2001, Kent Johnson
Greenberg Guides MTH Electric Trains Pocket Price Guide 2002, Kent Johnson
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