![]() This train set is the only catalog appearance that year for an all-new Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP30 diesel locomotive model. If you page through the catalog, you’ll quickly realize this BN GP30 is not a production Lionel example instead, a custom-painted brass import pinch-hits in its place. It’s this same brass model that co-stars with Johnny Cash in a 1976 television commercial. The commercial largely promotes Lionel’s O gauge line but does show the brass BN GP30 with Cash stating, “Lionel also makes HO gauge trains for older kids like this Burlington 181.”Īt the time of this GP30’s introduction, Lionel’s HO line was coming from a number of subcontractors in addition to Lionel’s own manufacturing facilities. The HO diesel roster included an Alco FA-1 (employing a variant of the 1950s John English/Hobbyline shell), an EMD GP9 that was a near clone of Athearn’s tooling introduced in 1957 (and different from the GP9 tooling of its own manufacture sold by Lionel during the early to mid-1960s), and an all-new General Electric U18B (with shell molded in Canada and assembly by Lionel’s Mt. ![]() The only steam locomotive in Lionel’s HO collection was the impressive looking Southern Pacific GS-4 Northern 4-8-4. ![]() This steam locomotive was Lionel’s first motive power collaboration with Kader in Hong Kong. ![]() Lionel contracted select HO production with Kader, the parent company of Bachmann Trains, and in addition to its GS-4 Northern came an EMD GP30 diesel locomotive model. Kader would also produce several rolling stock releases for Lionel’s HO line during the 1970s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |