Lights, Camera, Lionel Trains! A Photo History of an American Icon presents 100 stunning photo essays that reveal how Lionel electric trains became an American cultural and social icon of the 20th century.

Those innovative and exciting toys defined what it meant to be a happy and fulfilled child while enabling celebrities in sports, show business, and politics to stay in touch with the innocence of their past. Full-color and black-and-white photographs from archives and private collections tell the story of how one dynamic toy maker arose to influence life in the United States.

You're sure to be entertained and informed by what Lionel historian Roger Carp writes about the dozens of rare and delightful pictures. And those images will nurture memories of the electric trains you may have played with or seen in action on television and in motion pictures.

About the Author

Roger Carp has been fascinated by Lionel trains and the people who created them since he received a small steam engine and some freight cars as a youngster in 1956. His interest directed him, after earning a Ph.D. in American history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to Classic Toy Trains magazine, where he has served for 20 years as senior editor.

Roger has written or edited more than 20 books and special-interest publications about Lionel—its trains and accessories, its leaders and workers, its showrooms and displays, and its legacy. Among them are The World’s Greatest Toy Train Maker (1998), Classic Lionel Display Layouts You Can Build (2000), The Art of Lionel Trains (2003), Authoritative Guide to Lionel’s Postwar Operating Cars (2005), Authoritative Guide to Lionel’s Promotional Outfits 1960–1969 (2007), Inside the Lionel Train’s Fun Factory (2008), Collectible Lionel Classics (2017), Lionel Trains of the 1950s (2019), and Lionel Trains of the 1940s (2022). He also oversees production of the annual edition of Greenberg’s Pocket Price Guide to Lionel Trains.

A native of Los Angeles, Roger lives near Milwaukee with his wife and Lionel trains.

Hard Cover, 224 Pages, 8.5" x 11", Full Color, 220+ Photos & Images.