Lionel Rail Zeppelin

[cnw1995]

Has anyone seen or have this Rail Zeppelin - looks like the Hindenburg on wheels with a big propeller on the back. I think it's tinplate and a wind-up toy - but its alleged to work on O gauge track. What is it like?

Doug Murphy

[Anonymous]

Never seen it, Doug, but maybe somebody else in this wide-ranging forum or the "other" one can help.

[BigJim]

I have two of the all chrome edition. Mine came from Road&Track Mag. They are wind-up toys and run fine on O27 track. Both did not work when they arrived. I carefully opened them and just as I had suspected, one of the gears (the same in both) had pulled out of the frame and bound the works up. I slid the gear back into place and everything worked fine and dandy. Don't try and open them too many times or the tabs will break off.

[eZAK]

I seen a cream colored one at a show earlyer this month.

It looked good, But I myself did not like the wind-up aspect.

Now If some one made one with a motor that drives the prop witch in turn propelled the unit, I may take a closer look at that.

[wallyworld]

I have the Lionel Lines red, creme and beige version which I really enjoy. It has an appropriately orange propeller in back that twirls around at a pretty good clip as it moves forward. It comes in a Lionel box and is also a really cool collectable.

[NH_Chris]

I have one of the cream with red trim models in my office. I bought it so that my boys would have at least one toy they could play with when visiting my work. Though I haven't run it on track in a while, it tracked fine when I did. Mine will run about 40' on carpet with a good twisting of the spring. The spring is not as hard to tighten as, say, an early Marx windup. The propeller looks pretty cool spinning in back; it is tied to the motor's operation.

Since no one explained, I will give you my recollection of the short history of this loco. The Lionel-brand model is a model of an experimental train devised by the Germans in the mid-1930's. (The Lionel model is made n Germany by Schylling). From what I understand, they planned to use a propeller-driven passenger train for express rail service in Germany. Although the first prototype tested well, no further models were made because it was found that the open propeller was not conducive to passenger service. I believe it may have set some speed records at the time, but don't quote me.

[cnw1995]

How interesting! Thanks for the insights. I'll have to be on the lookout for one of these.