& hobby importing licensing predecessor lionel trains inc. lionel corporation founded chesterfield township michigan united states 1995 1995 headquarters concord north carolina 1 united states key people howard hitchcock president products model trains revenue us 62 million 2006 owner guggenheim partners 80 % neil young 20 % website lionel.com lionel llc is an american designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is based in concord north carolina . its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the lionel product line from the lionel corporation by cereal conglomerate general mills and subsequent purchase in 1986 by businessman richard p. kughn forming lionel trains inc. in 1986 . the martin davis investment group wellspring bought lionel trains inc. in 1995 and renamed it lionel llc . although lionel llc now owns all of the trademarks and most of the product rights associated with lionel corporation the original producer of lionel trains founded in 1900 there is no direct connection between the two companies . according to its reorganization papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on may 21 2007 about 95 % of the company s sales come from o gauge trains . the plan estimated that about us 70 million worth of o gauge trains are sold each year and that lionel accounts for about 60 % of that market making it the largest manufacturer of o gauge trains . contents 1 list of lionel corporation presidents ceo s 1900 1995 2 list of modern era lionel presidents ceo s 1970 present 3 lionel eras 4 the mpc general mills era 1970 1986 5 lionel collectors club of america 6 joshua lionel cowen jlc series 7 lionel trains inc richard kughn era 1986 1995 8 tmcc era 1994 2006 and legacy 2006 present 9 the wellspring era 1995 current 10 bankruptcy 11 collector value 12 lionel gauges scales history 13 notes 14 external links list of lionel corporation presidents ceo s 1900 1995 edit 1 joshua lionel cowen 1900 1945 2 lawrence cowen 1945 1959 3 roy cohn chairman 1959 1963 4 john medaris 2 1959 1967 5 ronald saypol 1968 1995 list of modern era lionel presidents ceo s 1970 present edit 1 general mills 1968 1986 2 richard p. kughn ceo 1986 1995 3 art peisner president 1986 1995 4 martin davis investment group 1995 2000 5 gary moreau 1995 1999 6 richard maddox 1999 2001 7 bill bracy 2001 2004 8 jerry calabrese 2004 2014 9 howard hitchcock 2014 present lionel eras edit 1 pre war era 1900 1941 2 world war 2 era 1941 1945 only train produced was the lionel wartime freight train made from cardstock also known as the paper train . 3 post war era 1945 1969 4 modern era 1969 2006 5 future era 2006 present the mpc general mills era 1970 1986 edit lionel corporation sold the tooling for its then current product line and licensed the lionel name to general mills in 1969 who then operated lionel as a division of its subsidiary model products corporation or mpc beginning in 1970 . general mills did not buy the company however . the lionel corporation became a holding company and invested in a number of ventures including what would eventually become an east coast chain of toy stores known as lionel leisure world . according to lionel a collector s guide and history volume iv 1970 1980 lionel struck a deal with general mills to lease the lionel name for ten years starting in 1970 . this deal included the purchase of a portion of the lionel tooling and as part of the agreement production & sale of the 1969 train product line would be handled by the lionel corporation . the balance of the tooling was purchased on december 31 1969 . the lease was renegotiated in 1974 . due to general mills cost cutting measures production of lionel branded toy and model trains returned to profitability but sometimes at the expense of quality . detail was often sacrificed and most of the remaining metal parts were replaced with molded plastic . a number of mpc s changes to the product line endure to the present day the most noticeable being the use of needlepoint axles and trucks made of delrin two changes made to reduce friction and allow longer trains . also starting in 1973 mpc experimented with a line of cars it called standard o which were scaled to 1 48 most postwar lionel and mpc production was undersize for o scale . the experiment s failure is generally blamed on mpc s lack of a 1 48 locomotive and caboose to go with the cars ; when it was repeated again in the 1980s with locomotives of appropriate size it proved more successful . an internal reorganization after 1973 caused lionel to become part of general mills fundimensions group . although lionel s tenure with mpc was relatively short mpc is the most commonly used term for the 1970 1985 era . in 1979 general mills resurrected the american flyer brand and product line which lionel corporation had originally purchased in 1967 from its bankrupt competitor the a. c. gilbert company of new haven connecticut . american flyer products by gilbert made after world war ii are scaled roughly to a 1 64 proportion and are known as s gauge ; their most distinctive feature however is that they operate on two rail track as opposed to lionel s three rail trackage system . after a period of time of absence in the market gilbert american flyer s gauge trains were no longer considered a direct competitor to lionel s 1 48 proportion o gauge trains . to this day lionel markets american flyer s gauge in limited quantities for the operator & collector markets . the year 1982 brought general mills ill fated move of train production from the united states to mexico . some lionel fans were angry simply because the trains had been made in the united states for more than 80 years while others criticized the quality of the mexican produced trains . lionel production returned to the united states by 1984 . during this time corporate offices were retained at the company s mount clemens later chesterfield michigan location . when general mills spun off its kenner parker division in 1985 lionel became part of kenner parker . the lionel product line was sold again in 1986 this time to toy train collector real estate developer richard p. kughn of detroit michigan who formed lionel trains inc. lti . lionel collectors club of america edit in 1974 the lcca was created in des moines iowa and 83 other charter members . the club mainly focuses on having members show an interest of lionel trains with train meets swap meets and also annual conventions . in 2012 the lcca and also the lionel railroaders club lrrc merged but the name still resides lcca . before the merger it used to be one membership for publications by lcca and another separate membership for the annual conventions in the summer . after the merger they changed the decision so that junior membership and regular membership can get the publications and the invitation to the annual conventions with just one membership instead of two . joshua lionel cowen jlc series edit in early 2002 lionel decided to put out fantastic models in black boxes that read joshua lionel cowen series . the jlc series ran from 2002 2012 as a 10 year anniversary for lionel s first ceo and president joshua lionel cowen . some trains included in the jlc series are the n & w y6b the c & o allegheny 2 6 6 6 the up big boy the sp cab forward the b & o em 1 the always famous lionel hudson and many more . it became a hit with the collectors clubs and also many operators and fans as well . lionel trains inc richard kughn era 1986 1995 edit in 1986 detroit based real estate developer and railroad enthusiast richard kughn bought the brand and established lionel trains inc. in 1989 lionel rolled out railsounds heralding an era of high tech audio realism . in 1991 the most popular toy train the santa fe f3 was reintroduced with railsounds . in 1992 richard kughn and musician neil young an avid model railroader created liontech chartered to develop exclusive new model train control and sound systems . liontech s railsounds ii debuted in 1994 . also debuting in 1994 was the brainchild of neil young lionel s trainmaster command control a technology similar to digital command control which permits among other things the operation of lionel trains by remote control . richard kughn sold lionel in 1995 to the martin davis investment group which owned lionel llc from 1995 to 2000 before giving the ceo rights to richard maddox . tmcc era 1994 2006 and legacy 2006 present edit in 1994 tmcc trainmaster command control was introduced . this allowed the collectors to walk around the layout without staying at the control panel . it allowed new features like whistle bell chugging diesel roar electro couplers ability to turn railsounds on or off and many more . in 1996 lionel introduced the century club line which featured postwar items such as the 736 berkshire and gg1 with tmcc command equipped railsounds . in 1998 lionel introduced the postwar celebration series . this featured trains coaches freight cars accessories and transformers from the postwar era . the postwar celebration series lasted from 1998 to 2009 . in 1998 and 1999 the big momma articulateds came out . they were the n & w 1218 the c & o 1601 and the up big boy . in 1999 the texas special was re fitted with its brand new tmcc control board and became a hit among the collectors . in 2003 lionel made railsounds sets for the first time under nyc and santa fe railroads respectively . in 2006 tmcc was phased out when lionel unveiled their new legacy system . in 2013 lionel railsounds sets were discontinued when lionel unveiled the lionchief system . in 2014 lionel revealed lionchief plus as a new standard for railsounds sets . in late 2014 lionel s new sensortrack was unveiled . the wellspring era 1995 current edit lionel changed hands again in 1995 when kughn sold controlling interest in the company to an investment group that included neil young a longtime fan of model trains and of this brand and the holding company wellspring capital management which was headed by former paramount communications formerly gulf western chairman martin davis he had left the board of viacom which bought paramount the previous year . the new company became known as lionel llc . the company continued marketing reproductions of its vintage equipment and the trend towards producing new equipment that was ever more detailed continued . neil young now had a 20 % stake in the company . 3 in order to proliferate trainmaster command control as a standard lionel licensed it to several of its competitors including k line . lionel llc continued to manufacture and market trains and accessories in o scale under the lionel brand and s gauge under the american flyer brand . while most of the american flyer products are re issues using old gilbert tooling from the 1950s the o scale equipment is a combination of new designs and reissues . lionel also ventured into ho scale at times during its history with limited success . in 1989 lionel llc made the switch from mpc to railsounds featuring the tmcc trainmaster command control during that year . some of those famous engines were mostly hudsons like the 1990 lionel 5340 hudson the 1995 lionel 490 c & o hudson and the 1996 lionel commodore vanderbilt . others soon followed like the articulated engines in 1999 and 2000