Awhile back I started a thread asking whether anyone here knew of where I could get a comprehensive listing of Lionel and K-Line catalogs and flyers. I knew people had been collecting Lionel and K-Line trains for quite a long time, so I believed I was going to get plenty of help from the members here. As it turned out, I didn't get any help for awhile. When some members finally did reply, it wasn't what I expected. They appeared to be in the same boat as me. They'd created their own lists, but they were far from comprehensive. Most merely listed what they'd already owned. A few listed additional items they'd learned about, but none of the lists were complete.
I started my collection of catalogs and flyers back in the 90s when I lived in Virginia. There was a long-time Lionel enthusiast who sold trains from his home attic in Norfolk, VA. (I think he was even listed as one of Lionel's Value-added dealers, so I think he also fixed trains too.) I'd go there occasionally with my son to buy trains. He'd tell us quite a bit about the history of Lionel whenever we visited. I remember mentioning to him how much I loved paging through Lionel's catalogs as a kid. He mentioned he had catalogs and flyers in stock he'd accumulated over the years. I told him I'd really like to buy one of each as long as the prices weren't too high. He told me he'd sell them to me for the cover price, so I agreed. He ended up having catalogs from every year from 1964-present (mid to late 90s). I was amazed that he actually had so many from past years, but luckily I had enough cash on me for all of them. My son and I spent quite a bit of time afterwards thumbing through them imagining what it would have been like to have all of those great trains produced throughout those years. Until then, only one Lionel catalog of mine had survived the years albeit without its covers and first and last eight pages. I'd only just returned to the hobby in 1994, but I had acquired a few Lionel, K-Line, and MTH catalogs and flyers during the period just before. Since acquiring that big pile of catalogs from that gentleman in Norfolk, I've added many more over the years.
Unfortunately I stopped around 2002 due to marital diffictulties. We ended up getting a divorce, and I became a single parent. The 3 kids I have were young, so they ended up taking up much of my time.
It wasn't until I became a member here a few years ago, that I got back into the hobby. I resumed collecting Lionel and K-Line catalogs and flyers whenever I saw a good deal on a lot on ebay. It's too expensive to buy them one at a time, because the shipping cost would be prohibitive. Slowly, I've made progress into filling the holes in my collection.
A big problem is some sellers of catalogs and flyers don't list the titles nor years. This made my list worthless. I'd have to dig through my collection constantly to see if what they depicted was something I already had. What a pain! It occurred to me I could scan pics of the covers and keep them on my computer. I could then easily check whether I had what was being sold or not. But what format should I use? I decided to use the web space I was already using for my model inventory. It's located at:
www.phrankenstign.com.
I've been working on it for years. Since I'm already paying for the domain and hosting, there would be no additional cost. My web-site is only using a fraction of what is available to me. I decided to add a new Lionel and K-Line catalogs and flyers section to it. Anyone wanting to check it out is welcome. It is located at:
www.phrankenstign.com/Trains/TrainsFrames.htm
Both the model and and the train sections are NOT commercial sites. I make absolutely NO money from them. There are no ads, so the load times for each page are only for the pictures of the catalogs and flyers.
At this time, I am still adding stuff I have in my collection. I should be done sometime next week. Afterwards I will add more whenever I get a good deal on a lot on ebay, or whenever I find a good deal elsewhere. It's mainly for my reference, but it may provide some information or enjoyment for members here. At some point I plan on adding my listing to it, but I haven't decided on the exact format it will take. Perhaps a thumbnail with a description next to it? Maybe. I'd be interested if anyone has suggestions on how to improve its usefulness as a reference tool. For now, I'm only going to concentrate on 1960 onwards. Perhaps once I'm done, I may start adding earlier years. I was born in 1959, so that's why 1960 seemed like a good year to start with. I remember thumbing through catalogs that had Super "O" displayed throughout, so the nostalgia factor definitely played a role there. Not so much for previous years, although CTT has played a role in my appreciation for Lionel stuff prior to 1959.
Let me know what you think!
Tony
Tony,
Very interesting. I like it. You may wish to optimize your site for iPads and phones where a "portrait" mode is a better fit to the device orientation. So catalog covers are vertical vs side-by-side. Place your index and legal at the top. Text on the index is very small making it a bit of a challenge on a touch screen device.
I was impressed how cleanly you got the scans of the foldout to be so clean where the staples/fold is. Obviously this is a downside to a vertical format.
I probably have several of your missing K-Line catalogs. Would have to dig them out though...
Thanks!
Regards, Roy
Thanks for checking the site out!
Hmmmmmm......
I hadn't thought of optimizing my site for iPads and phones, since I always use my desktop PC to use it. I'm not really sure what I could do. Most smartphones automatically switch from landscape to portrait mode when the phone is turned. About half of the pics are portrait while the rest are landscape already. Optimizing for one would be to the detriment of the other, wouldn't it? The pics are a fairly big size enabling one to read nearly all of the text on a PC, laptop, and iPad.
I made the text in the index a bit bigger. Hopefully that eases the challenge for touch screen users. (I could probably increase the size a bit more, but I don't want the numbers to be too close together. The space between them should make it easier to keep from accidentally pressing the wrong one.)
The foldouts are definitely a challenge, but I like being able to see the entire picture. There are many covers I've seen over the years that were either foldouts or wraparound covers. Until I actually owned them, I never knew. When I first saw them, it was a pleasant surprise. That's one reason I decided to scan those covers and stitch the pieces together. I'm sure there are many others who will be surprised at the number of covers that were actually part of much bigger pictures.
If you or anyone else has any catalogs that aren't pictured yet (other than those I've listed in the "Coming Soon!" section), please let me know if you'd like to sell or swap for comparable ones. I've got some K-Line Collectors Club exclusive catalogs I'll be adding, but that's about it for K-Line. As is evident from the site, there are numerous early catalogs I don't have. K-Line never had the vast numbers of collectors and operators Lionel had, but their products kept improving in the 90s to the point where I considered them a better value than what Lionel was offering at the time. I became a big fan, and that's why I collected their catalogs (and trains). I have quite a few MTH, Bachmann, Atlas, and various other ephemera from the other manufacturer's, but I didn't care for them as much as I did for the Lionel and K-Line stuff. Although I may add some of that other stuff later, I'm going to strictly concentrate only on Lionel and K-Line for now.
I've never tried to optimize anything for cell phones, so it was a bit of a challenge for me.
I played around with what you suggested. Here's what I came up with:
http://www.phrankenstign.com/Trains/Mobile.htm
I adapted four items for it from 1964, 1965, 1979, and 2013. I'm not sure what to do about the size of the years to make selection easier. I made the font size bigger, but it still seems kind of small for fingers on a cell phone. What do you think? Once the design is set, then I can concentrate on doing the rest of the items for each year.
The changes in my opinion worked great on my iPad, in both landscape and portrait!
Another suggestion - where you have the catalog years at the top, add a stationary note to "swipe right or left to view the available catalog years". Took me a minute to figure that out after rereading your post and catching that you had 1979 and 2013 years, so I went back and tried swiping and viola!
I am not near my catalogs at this time, but will be later this fall, so if you can remember to PM me later this year and you are still moving forward I would be willing to look at what I have to see if I can loan you some missing items.
I just completed the mobile optimized version of my Lionel & K-Line Catalog & Flyer web-site. I'll be updating both versions as I add to my collection.
The original landcape site allows much bigger pictures to be displayed with a lot more detail. The mobile site is good for referencing items on the run.
FYI I added a "swipe" message as you suggested.
btw I'll still be updating the model web-site concurrently too.
The web site is looking good on my iPad!
A quick search of my paper reveals a few items.
2004 & 2005 K-Line "First Editions" only. Do not see any "Second Editions"
I seem to recall K-Line disappeared for a while until the Lionel buyout after the legal issues.
2007 K-Line/Lionel Ringling Bros Circus train flyer
2007, 2008 K-Line/Lionel Vols 1 & 2
2009 K-Line/Lionel Vol 1 - I do not find any separate K-Line catalogs after that year. The Lionel 2010 Vol 1 has the "K-Line by Lionel" section starting on page 132.
Not sure what else I have as it is deeply buried!
Of the stuff you mentioned, the only thing I don't have is the 2007 K-Line by Lionel Ringling Bros Circus train flyer. Everything else is already on the web-site.
Tony, I could send the RB flyer to you to scan if you are interested. I could also try to scan it and send you the files. I did look at the existing postings and as I noted they look really good.
It would be great if you could send me .jpg or .bmp scans of the front and back. Just make sure the images of the covers are at least 800x1010 (not counting any surrounding background that may have been captured by the camera).
Let me give it a try. I'll get back on this tomorrow.
Great!
Flyers for both Lionel and K-Line are what I'm finding hardest to find at good prices.
If anyone who has a lot of those and/or catalogs NOT already on the web-site, and he/she is willing to sell them, please let me know what you have along with your asking price. The more I find, the better the site can serve as a good reference for all.
I'd originally decided to start with 1960, but I bought a lot that included a 1959 catalog, so I decided to expand it by another year. Maybe after I get a fairly complete collection post-1958, I may consider adding earlier stuff.
Hi Tony! Sent you a PM.
Thanks! I received your pics, and I posted them on the web-site.
Progress has been going well. I'm happy to report I've got at least one Lionel catalogue for each year from 1959-2017. There's also a decent streak on the K-Line catalogue side from 1986-2005.
Does anyone know if any catalogs and/or flyers were issued by K-Line in 2006? I haven't been able to find any pics at all. Was that year skipped due to K-Line's troubles that resulted in Lionel buying them out?
As always, if you have anything that is NOT already on the web-site (and does NOT appear in the "Coming Soon!" section) please let me know. I'd prefer to purchase the item(s), but I'd be happy to accept donations of scanned items front and back at least 1000 pixels wide after cropping extraneous material. You don't have to crop it if you don't want, but make sure the item in the picture is at least 1000 pixels wide.
As I mentioned before, I get the biggest kick from seeing the wraparound pictures on many of the catalogs and flyers. There are a lot of covers I've liked quite a bit, and it's been a lot of fun finding out many of them continued to wraparound to the back. They were very familiar to me, yet I'd forgotten the front covers didn't always show the complete artwork. It's almost like finding out the Mona Lisa was actually a full-length portrait from head to toe.
PS I'm thinking of possibly adding more categories once I'm done adding all of the catalogs & flyers. LRRC ("Keep On Trackin'"/Inside Track), KCC/"The K-Line Connection", Lionel Kid's Club ("Kid's Station"), and Visitor's Center material comes to mind.
I may even add a section for MTH catalogs, flyers, and MTHRRC "Crossing Gate" issues. I'd need plenty of help with the "Crossing Gate" after the first two years. I was a member then, but I didn't re-new after the second year.
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