Discussion: The Most Unusual Products?

[mersenne6]

The Marx Easter Bunny train certainly fits in this category as do the Marklin "train wreck" passenger cars - they operated much as the exploding box car of Lionel fame but these were turn of the century and made of enameled metal.  If I recall correctly they would fly apart with a sudden stop of the train.

[Firelock76]

ADCX Rob

 

Bob Keller

...The other was a Geep that Lionel released in the late 90s or early 2000s that didn't have the standard diesel locomotive sounds, but the sounds of a muscle car revving.

 

 

 

I don't know, that hot rod GP-9 sounds more like a Model T on steroids, what with that clickity-click engine noise and the "ooogah-ooogah" klaxon horn, which IS kinda cool, actually.

Ever get to use one of those klaxon horns?  I did last Sunday.  What a gas!

Oh, and they're a LOT louder than you think!

[jwse30]

While we're talking about the GP9s, Lionel also made one in the AEC roadname. That one had an air raid siren for a horn. Pretty cool the first few times you  hear it. Not so much after that though.

 

J White

 

[Bob Keller]

Thanks for posting the video. I couldn't recall if it was in the flame locos or the engine for the Corvette train that had the auto sound system.

[ADCX Rob]

Bob Keller

...The other was a Geep that Lionel released in the late 90s or early 2000s that didn't have the standard diesel locomotive sounds, but the sounds of a muscle car revving.

[Bob Keller]

Thw two most unusual products I recall are the operating flat car K-Line made with gerge Bush riding a cruise missile following Bin Laden who was riding a flying carpet. (They also released an operaing flat with Bush riding a horse chasing Hussein who was also riding a horse, but the "flying" car was the most over-the-top in my book).

The other was a Geep that Lionel released in the late 90s or early 2000s that didn't have the standard diesel locomotive sounds, but the sounds of a muscle car revving.

 

 

[tomikawaTT]

Let me insert a word about the exploding box car.

The original, built in the late '40s IIRC, was an attempt to teach 'slam - bang' runners on an O scale layout in the LA area to accelerate and decelerate gently.  The car had NdeM reporting marks and was clearly labeled, "PELIGRA - DINAMITA."  Handled appropriately it was just another box car.  A skyrocket start or stonewall stop would cause a ball to drop on the operating mechanism of a rat trap, followed by a short rain of large flying pieces.

John Allen, the well-known HO innovator, got the same result with his 'hot box' car.  A pinball machine ball, rolling on a vertically curved piece of track, could be driven off the end of the track by excessive acceleration/deceleration.  There it would close the circuit to a red light under the frame.  To turn off the light the body would have to be lifted and the ball put back on the track.  The vertical curve in the track could be adjusted from coarse to super-sensitive, to the point that the car would be impossible to operate with the power packs of the day.

Walthers later produced a commercial model hot box car.  The illustration I saw showed the track, but not the end-of-track drop wells.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with 1:80 scale Japanese tinplate)

[stebbycentral]

artyoung

I might add the "collectable" crap such as NASCAR sets, Crayon sets, etc. that's being made today. How many people are actually buying them? 

 

As a now retired employee of the John Deere company it always amused me to see the Deere branded train sets from Athern.  A John Deere FT unit?  Let alone a Big Boy in Deere colors?  Sorry folks, to the best of my knowledge Deere has never owned any motive power that wasn't originally designed to pull a plow!

 

[cwburfle]

Interrestingly enough, the Lionel name carries a lot of weight, even in the world of radiation and survey meters.  The Lionel uniits often command higher prices than their more common Victoreen counterparts.  I look from time to time because I'd love to have one in my Lionel collection

According to what I've read, the reason Lionel units command higher prices is because of the demand created by Lionel train collectors. :)

Lionel got into the gieger counter business by purchasing Anton Electronics.
Here is an article on one of their more odd-ball pieces:
http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/monitorsscalers/lionel455.htm

 

[Firelock76]

There was a Lionel set put out a few years ago that didn't make a whole lot of sense, to me at least, and that was the "Titanic Centennial Set."

Nothing wrong with a set like that on the surface (no pun intended), but to do it with a diesel locomotive and assorted unrelated (to the "Titanic") nautical theme cars?  It would have made a lot more sense to reproduce the London and Southwestern Railway "Boat Train" using the British profile locomotive and cars they use for the "Harry Potter" set.

Yes, I know the steam engine's a post-1912 design, but so what?  Makes a helluva more sense than a diesel set that's even more post-1912.

Anyway, I don't want to "Monday morning quarterback" Lionel too much.  If you're in the line of business they are you have to keep throwing "stuff" at the wall and hope some of it sticks.  It's the name of the game.

[sir james I]

NASCAR sets were a big bomb. Even worse, the engines were crap.

[JTrains]

I guess I don't see any of Lionel's items through the years as particularly "unusual" - I tend to see each of them as a frozen moment in time that reflects something that was germane when it was created.  Some do seem to border on the silly, but even that silliness had a reason that made sense to at least someone.

Space and military sets speak to a time of both great wonder and unprecidented fear that intertwined with one another. The paper sets tell of the sacrifices of WWII.  Vapor Records cars document the improbable story of a music icon helping to save an American institution.  All of them together provide a unique lens through which to view the last 100 years of American history.

[Penny Trains]

I'd say yes, with a caveat, when counting geiger counters.  The real geiger counters, the ones with the geiger-muller tube either inside the unit or more commonly as a hand-held wand connected to the main unit by wire are fairly useful since they detect many types of ionizing radiation and particles.  It's the "Survey Meters", those little yellow boxes with Civil Defense logos on them that most of us picture from those days that are the ones that qualify in my book as bizzare and downright frightening.  They are scintillation chambers which only measure the kind of high intensity gamma rays you get after a fission event.  i.e. after a massive attack or power plant exlosion a'la Chernobyl.  Now THAT'S a very weird thing for a toy company to be manufacturing!  Even on the side.  Yikes!

Interrestingly enough, the Lionel name carries a lot of weight, even in the world of radiation and survey meters.  The Lionel uniits often command higher prices than their more common Victoreen counterparts.  I look from time to time because I'd love to have one in my Lionel collection.

But as far as trains go, there have been so many "what were they thinking?" sets that I can't even think of one that is more strange than the rest.

[Firelock76]

Couldn't say about the Geiger counters, but the US Navy put those binnacles to good use during World War Two, not to mention all the other navigational equipment Lionel made during those years.

[lionelsoni]

Do binnacles and Geiger counters count?

[rtraincollector]

yes but those complete Space and military sets are bringing good money these days. 

Now as far as nascar they made so many of them it will take a hundred years for them to be collectable. Most nascar folks I have met are not collecting trains even if it is nascar related. Crayola set another flop. Who knows maybe it will be like the girls set but I wouldn't hold my breath a GM's low cost set. they did a lot of low cost sets thinking they would draw buyers in by having a Lionel at a low cost trying to make profit with crap because of the name. 

 

[Firelock76]

Yeah, that's rather bizarre, a toy train set with a political message, implied or otherwise.  Makes me wonder if when the horn button on the transformer was pushed the locomotive sang "Michael Row The Boat Ashore."

The biggest flop of recent years that I can think of wasn't done by Lionel, it was the "Wanderer" train set MTH put out to go with the Will Smith movie "The Wild, Wild West," but how was MTH to know that was going to be one of the few of Will's films that was going to bomb, especially since every one of his films up to then like "Independence Day," "Men In Black," and "Enemy Of The State" was a smash hit?

[artyoung]

Never saw the Greendale train, nor heard any controversy. All us "Youngs" are strange anyway.

My own pick would be the space and military trains from when I was a kid - seriously: exploding boxcars? Atomic Waste w/ blinking lights? And let's not forget that things like that were also made for the H0 crowd as well. Yep, scale enthusiasts really wanted things that explode. 

I might add the "collectable" crap such as NASCAR sets, Crayon sets, etc. that's being made today. How many people are actually buying them? 

[tinplatacis]

Definitely the Boys train.

[tch1213]

Toy train manufacturers have put out plenty of memorable and desired items over the years, but there's also been plenty of surprises, flops and headscratchers. From the Girl's Train to some of the more recent licensed offerings, what's your favorite toy train oddity?

My vote goes to Lionel's "Greendale" set from '04. It was a limited edition offering to commenorate Neil Young's not very well-known album from that year, based on the fictional town and story from its songs. It seems to really have been created as a personal favor, and the somewhat political content has always felt out of place to me and not very appropriate for a toy train (regardless of your position on the spectrum).

http://www.lionel.com/products/neil-youngs-greendale-train-conventional-alco-fa-6-30002

EDIT: Did a little more research and found how volitile the discussion around the Greendale train was when it was first announced. Please, let's not use the thread for that.