MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

Just as smartphones reflect the most advanced technology of our time, tinplate trains brought the technological wonders of the early 20th century right onto the living room floor. By the middle of the Roaring Twenties, the steam engine was a century old but electric power was still new and magical. Widespread electrification of households had gathered speed only after World War I, and Americans had just begun to buy plug-connected appliances. In the world of railroading, as in American society at large, many envisioned a world transformed by electricity. It was only natural, then, that Lionel’s® product line in the 1920s would be dominated by models of electric locomotives. In fact, for half of the decade, not a single standard gauge steam engine was cataloged, and the first O gauge steamer was not introduced until 1930.