Lionel was one of the largest manufacturers of toy trains in the 1950s. Most of their products were “O” Gauge. They released catalogs every year in time for the holidays and children poured through them dreaming of the trains they might get as presents.
In their 1957 catalog Lionel published an artist’s concept of a dream toy train layout for their latest products. They included a list of the tracks and accessories necessary to recreate the layout and proclaimed that a model railroad “never stops growing!” Tracks covered nearly the entire layout with loops to run two trains at the same time as well as sidings to load and unload items from trains using the Lionel activated accessories. You can be sure many children dreams of building this layout!
And we have done just that! Museum member M Spelt has build this layout reflecting that catalogue image (requiring considerable creativity) and populated it with period trains and accessories provided by generous donors including the Joseph Errigo family.
We would like to thank them for the additional donation of many of the figures, animals and Plasticville buildings that we used to bring this layout to life for “The Circus Moves by Rail” weekend!