DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION:
As the turbulent decade of the 1960s was ending, the future
of the Lionel Corporation was uncertain. Toy train sales had diminished and
Lionel, a name that surveys showed to be as recognizable as Sears, as
quality-evoking as Cadillac, was in danger of going out of business.
Lionel decided to diversify into fields unconnected with
trains and General Mills, the cereal people, leased the rights to make Lionel
trains. As the decade of the 1970s began, therefore, so did a fascinating
chapter of American business: Lionel, the great name in trains, was making
parts for rockets, and General Mills, the breakfast food champion, was making
Lionel trains.
The outline of that story is known to all Lionel collectors,
of course, but in this book Tom McComas and James Tuohy develop the outline
into a full historical work. Questions Lionel collectors have had for years are
answered through hundreds of hours of interviews with Lionel executives and
employees involved in the corporate manueverings before and after the takeover
by General Mills.
The authors were the first outsiders allowed into the
historically-rich Lionel archives, where they photographed more than 200
prototype models of items produced or only contemplated. Several tours around
the Lionel plant and offices at Mount Clemens, Michigan, produced an insightful
section in the book on the factory. And all the products made by Lionel under
General Mills during the 1970s are shown in more than 200 color photographs.
The finished product is filled with so much information
never before made public that this book is an important event in toy train
publishing. Volume IV in this distinguished series is a necessary addition to
the library of anyone interested in toy trains, beginner or expert.
