The long-sought combination of the “Hill Lines” became reality at the beginning of March 1970. This year marks a half-century since Burlington Northern became official. Do you know what diesel locomotive I’m describing? The mid-1970s model is incredibly common (and the shell’s tooling remains available today in revised form), but equally important to the hobby. It certainly wasn’t the first Burlington Northern diesel offered in HO, but it is the only HO diesel that I’m aware of promoted by famed singer Johnny Cash. The profit making issues of Rivarossi are being sold on with Lima on the bottom.Collector Consist: Lionel’s Burlington Northern GP30 in HO Scale Lima is now getting rid of the non-profit parts of their empire. Fleischmann, Roco, Maerklin, Trix and Lima are the big ones, Trix has been swallowed by Maerklin and is financially strong now. Arnold was ruled over by Roco, Fleischmann and minitrix, now Lima has to make their own future more stable by getting another compititor (though from their own house) away from the market. It is more like a re-orginasation Lima is getting focussed on the things which make a profit. Rivarossi is not a big trainfactory anymore and has only some models in their program. Lima now has a hard time because the market in h0 trains is overcrowded in Europe. Nope, Lima bought rivarossi some years ago when it was facing bankrupcy also. John, it sounds like even European labor is getting too expensive.Įverything is too expensive when it comes to making money Those Rivarossi dies are going to China after a BRIEF stopover in Jolly old England. You mentioned 1996 as a landmark date in your memory as the earliest possibility.
All of the material that I could find pointed to a 1994 final, but I could swear that they went on even longer. I have always called them that to distingui***hem from the maker of trains post 1969. Thanks for the back up on the Lionel Coropration of New York. It would be unfortunate, because it sounded like the HO guys liked the products. This may be another excuse for another exit. History has shown Lionel moving in and out of HO almost every 20 years. I would have to think that that part of the business would have a greater chance to fall victim in the event of a reorganization. Nightcrawler was asking specificly about HO products from Lionel. Your perspective as an industry "insider" carries much more weight than the opinions of hobbyists. Yes Bob, I think that the members here are pretty much in agreement that in spite of a possible bankruptcy filing, Lionel will continue to make trains, both short and long term. The corporation is still subject to the judgement. The LLC thing prevents MTH from having it's judgement attached to any of the owners personal assets. Sorry, live and learn.Īll this talk has made me curious as to the specific details of the Lionel Corporation of New York. I was alive and playing with those trains then, and eventually working in a hobby store in Denver in 1980. By the way, the P in MPC stands for Products, not plastics. You need to brush up on your history young man. Bankruptcies followed as different parts of the coropration crumbled. Think about it, they still had a lot of assets, and got a lot of money from General Mills when the train business was sold. Lionel was involved in a lot of obscure businesses well beyond 1970. I believe they actually carried the MPC trains. One of their ventures that did not pan out was called Lionel Leisure World, a kind of Toys R Us concept. The Lionel Corporation of New York continued on long after 1970 when they spun the train business off to General Mills. It's set up this way so that, in the event of something like the Lionel-MTH lawsuit, MTH could aquire all of Lionel's assets, but he there would be no way that he could aquire the thing that he's really after, the Lionel name. The one that makes the trains licenses the name to put on their trains. One makes the trains, and the other just owns the name. Someone, either here or on OGR, also explained that Wellsprings probably actually has Lionel set up as two different corporations. When Wellsprings bought it out from Richard Kughn in 1996, they forum Lionel Limited Liability Corporation(LLC). When Richard Kughn bought the Lionel name from General Mills(Fundimensions) in 1986, he formed Lionel Trains Incorporated, or LTI. It official closed about the time General Mills(Model Plastics Corporation, or MPC) started production of Lionel. Yep, the Lionel coporation doesn't even exist anymore.
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