Questions of Historical Interest

[IDM1991]

Greetings;

After re-reading Lionel Trains, The Golden Years: 1950-54, and its sequel covering the years 1955-59, a few questions popped into my head, and I was wondering if anyone can answer them:

1) We often read of Joseph Bonnano, Sam Belser, Frank Pettit, and other old Lionel employees in the pages of CTT.  What happened to them after the Lionel Corp. sold its tooling to General Mills in 1969?  If any of them were alive after Richard Kughn began to make and sell the trains under his Lionel Trains, Inc. banner in the late eighties and early nineties (or, for that matter, after Wellspring acquired Kughn's company and what remained of a bankrupt Lionel Corp. in 1995), did they have any opinions about the new trains being manufactured?

2)  Some magazines publish master lists of surviving steam locomotives; has CTT ever considered publishing a master list of surviving postwar display layouts, many of which have been featured in the magazine over the years?

3)  What is presently in the space once occupied by the Lionel showroom in New York City?

- Ian D. McKechnie 

[Firelock76]

I don't see any practical way one could publish a master list of surviving Lionel display layouts.  Aside from those in museums (if any) the others would be in private collections and the owners would be reluctant to give out their names and addresses, understandably so considering the value of those displays.

I believe the old 26th street Lionel location is offices now with no connection to the old company. 

[rtraincollector]

good questions 

[thesiding]

Last I heard it was a showroom for linens  Certainly not Toy Trains

The Flyer showroom also is still a sales room but I beleive it sells collectaable figurines etc

The Toy building itself  is supposedly condo as of this new century   But Madison Hardware?                 

A 7/11 ????

could have been worse could have been a Starbucks

At least a Lionel Layout is still at FAO  as of Febuary of this year

[sir james I]

Joseph Bonnano moved to Michigan and helped MPC restore Lionel. It has been reported that he died in a car accident. Over the years Mich. Lionel had some very dedicated employees that were stepped on and fired. At times employment there was like a swinging door. A lot of bickering occurred here but a lot was accomplished as well.

S.J.

[Hudson#685]

The Lionel Factory in Hillside, NJ, the last time I passed that way, it was still standing.

[Roger Carp]

Good morning to everyone who has been participating in this interesting thread.

I'm delighted to shed some light on the questions being raised.

Mr. Bonanno remained at Lionel as chief engineer until around 1963, when the activities of that department were severely curtailed. He then went to work for a couple of toy companies with factories also in northern New Jersey: Deluxe-Redding and Topper. He retired in the late 1960s and died about 10 years later. 

He did not accompany Lionel to Michigan in any way. The person another writer has in mind was the late  Bruno Branstner, a respected model maker for Lionel. Bruno was killed in an auto accident in Michigan in 1975. His son, Richard, was the first head of engineering in Mount Clemens, and he died at a fairly young age not long before Richard Kughn acquired the assets of the company in the mid-1980s.

Sam Belser and Frank Pettit were cut from the staff after Roy Cohn gained control of Lionel in 1959. Mr. Belser remained in the toy business, launching his own small firm as a manufacturer's representative. He retired later in the 1960s, moved with his late wife to Florida, and died while in his 90s in the late 1990s. 

Frank Pettit, as you can learn from reading his memoir (It Comes From Within: The Frank Pettit Story) published by OGR, continued to invent and consult for the toy industry and other businesses. In fact, he was creating in his workshop at home into his last years. The fluttering flagpole put out by MTH in the mid-1990s was his last notable work for toy trains. Frank died in 2000 at age 94.

Finally, surviving displays are scattered throughout collections in the U.S. CTT has reported on some major collections of them and will continue to do so. Keep reading!

Thanks,

Roger Carp

Senior Editor

[Penny Trains]

Leave it to Doctor Carp, the man with the degree in Lionelology!  (Say that 5 times fast! )

Becky