Transformers & Control

If you’re interested in Lionel toy trains or consider yourself a Lionel train collector, then you’ve found good company here at All About Toy Trains. This collection contains our transformers and controls for Lionel toy trains, and we hope they improve your train collection. But first, a bit of history:

Lionel toy trains got their start back in the early 1900s with the youthful inventor Joshua Lionel Cowen. He was an engineer and salesman who revolutionized the toy train industry just as much as trains revolutionized the modern world. His first train — the Electric Express — was made as a display for toy stores, and the rest was history! In fact, by as early as 1906, the Lionel we know and love today was already in full swing and in 1909 Lionel electric trains were said to be the “Standard of the World.”

Between 1910 and 1919, sales increased 15-fold. This economic boom for the company was due to increased electric power, WWI defense production, the end of toy imports from Germany, and a bustling economy. Indeed, the company became a corporation during this decade and Cowen’s son Lawrence even was used in photography for advertising and packaging. Sales of Lionel toy trains went full steam ahead again in the roaring ‘20s, despite a brief recession at first.

Though sales slumped at times, Lionel toy trains were at their peak in the early 1950s. Though sales decreased for good afterward (largely due to social and technological changes), Lionel toy trains are an enviable part of collector train sets and model train cars today. Here, you can shop for transformers and controls that will help your Lionel toy trains truly come to life. Shop with your train hobby shop — All About Toy Trains — today for model railroad supplies, including Lionel transformers and controls.