Lionel Electric Train No. 6 *SOLD*

Lionel Electric No. 6 Train for sale circa 1914

Prewar Lionel Standard Gauge No.6 Engine,Tender “NYC &HRRR” C.1914 .  Our toy comes in nearly new condition with box and tissue paper wrappings.  This particular toy is the finest we’ve ever seen or heard of, as it even has its original hang tag inspection sticker.

The steam engine uses a great combination of materials– the boiler is a blued metal, similar to early guns, smokestacks and boiler tops are of wood, the body is a painted tin or similar metal.  The running gear uses brass and machined steel parts, possibly with brass.  Then many of the parts get a stainless steel or similar metal treatment to sparkle 104 years later!

Our tender has some light chipping where it would normally, at the forward edge near the engine’s roof.  Otherwise it is in excellent condition with some age spots and minor chips.

Lionel Train History.

Engineering entrepreneur Joshua Lionel Cowen designed his first electric train as a store window attraction around 1900. When customers asked to purchase the train instead of the product it advertised, Cowen founded the Lionel Manufacturing Company to meet demand. Lionel built its reputation on train sets noted for their authentic detail, smooth-operating three-rail tracks, and transformers that allowed kids to vary the speed of their trains. This control, along with rolling stock of coal cars, refrigerated cars, and box cars, gave boys an appealing real-world sense of commerce and success.

Shrewd marketing made every boy think of Lionel trains each time Christmas came around. “Everybody is happy when it’s a Lionel Train Christmas,” proclaimed one advertisement. Other ads highlighted father-son bonding. Lionel Trains, they proclaimed, “made a Boy feel like a Man and a Man feel like a Boy.”