A car that drew short-term interest

Developing the no. 6050 Lionel Savings Bank

Developing the no. 6050 Lionel Savings Bank.

Every model Lionel added to its lineup during the postwar era has a story behind its development. If asked, engineers and sales executives could have explained how a new locomotive was created and why a familiar piece was decorated with a novel road name or had a feature modified after that item had been introduced.

Too bad so few of those stories were preserved. To learn about the majority of items, especially the most plentiful and mundane, only documents survive: engineering drawings, machine and tool records, and paint and stamping instructions. Mock-ups, paint samples, and models retained in the corporate archives can also shed light on what was done.

The no. 6050 Lionel Savings Bank car exemplifies those circumstances. We have only documents, including illustrations in Lionel’s advance catalog, to understand the development of the 6050, part of the cataloged line for 1961. Lionel put it in one O-27 outfit (the no. 1643 “Sky Scout” fourcar freight set) and offered it for separate sale at $4.95 ($42.85 in today’s dollars).

Long history

The advance catalog for 1961 erroneously specified the 6050 as being 11" long. Why a copywriter made this mistake remained a mystery, as does why no one associated with Lionel caught the error and then corrected it when the consumer catalog was done later that year.

The Lionel Savings Bank car really measures 8½" long. That fact indicates it was another of the short boxcars made using tooling created back in 1948 for the

first of the so-called Scout sets occupying the low end of the line.

The models lacked the most basic feature a boxcar could have to give kids something to play with: doors that slide open and closed so they can pretend to load and unload cargo. Instead, the Scout boxcars had non-opening double doors.

The no. X1004 launched the series in 1948. Its unpainted plastic shell came heat-stamped with markings for Baby Ruth candy on the right side. The keystone herald used by the Pennsylvania RR was on the left with technical data. Over the ensuing eight years, the short boxcar went on filling low-end sets, although its number changed to reflect modifications made to its trucks and couplers.

New role

In 1956, the men at the helm realized the simple boxcar could do more. Its blank sides might serve as canvasses on which businesses could promote their brands and products in exchange for buying a quantity of the new models negotiated with Lionel.

Using low-end cars manufactured cheaply to bring in additional cash was a brilliant maneuver devised by Vice President Alan Ginsburg and his assistant, Ronald Saypol. They started with a boxcar advertising Chun King Chinese Foods in an uncataloged set. In 1957, Lionel hammered out deals with Nabisco for a cataloged boxcar with Shredded Wheat graphics and RCA Whirlpool electrical appliances for a model packed in an uncataloged set.

The idea of using short boxcars to attract corporate sponsors continued for the next few years. However, Lionel didn’t abandon the 81⁄ 2"- long model as a member of its line. In 1957, Lionel announced a new 6014 car lettered for the St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. (known as the Frisco) and produced orange, red, and white versions.

Play value

By 1960 and ’61, marketing personnel had concluded that youngsters wanted to do more with their trains. Models whose sole selling point was that they replicated what kids saw on full-size railroads were losing appeal. Children demanded to be amused.

Designers at Lionel responded with imaginative and whimsical items with special effects and eye-catching animations. But what could they do with an item as simple as the short boxcar with permanently closed double doors?

A clever individual – sadly, unnamed in the company’s records – figured out the model could be transformed into a savings bank by altering the mold to cut a slot into the roof. Then thrifty children would be encouraged to drop spare nickels and dimes inside the boxcar, presumably then saving them to buy another train.

Potential graphics

While the tooling was modified to enable production crews at Lionel’s plant to create large quantities of the revised body shell, engineers considered appropriate graphics to be stamped on each side. Illustrations augmented by a few words struck them as essential, along with the model’s assigned product number.

Preliminary artwork suggested company designers aimed to put the stately facade of a typical bank on the panels to the left of the doors. Its impressive appearance ought to mimic ancient Greek architecture, with four elegant columns supporting the pediment. The center would show the two doors allowing entry.

The panels to the right of the doors would reveal the interior. Initially, the design presented by J. Mondino in February of 1961 consisted of a single teller’s booth around which were signs related to buying savings bonds and accumulating

interest on deposits. Planned as well was an illustration of a child’s piggy bank.

Virtually all those proposals ended up being rejected in favor of artwork depicting three booths. Above the black outlines were stamped in red Savings, Teller, and Xmas Club, exactly as people might see when walking into their bank.

Advance catalog

Lionel released its advance catalog less than a month after J. Mondino signed off on his proposed artwork. Two depictions of the 6050 appeared, one as a component of set 1643 and the other way in the back among separate-sale items.

Both examples came close to showing the final graphics of a bank facade on the left and three interior booths on the right with text above them. The product name and number were plainly evident, with not a trace of additional data shown.

When manufactured, however, the Lionel Savings Bank had “Built By / Lionel” heat-stamped in red at the bottom of the panel immediately to the right of the doors. That decorative element stood out in the full-color consumer catalog, as did the smiling boy in a red-and-white shirt shown dropping a coin into the car.

Changes and gone

Before too many examples had been decorated, the stamp was changed to read “Blt By / Lionel.” The tooling for the body shell Lionel had been using for its short boxcars since 1948 then underwent minor alterations. The flat walkway on the roof was filled in, and the number of rivets on two panels on the right side was reduced. The latter modification was likely made to facilitate stamping graphics.

Unfortunately for Lionel, the novelty of a piggy bank on rails failed to win many youngsters. Sales of the 6050 must have been mediocre, because Lionel chose not to bring it back for a second year. Instead, languishing inventory was put into a variety of promotional outfits assembled for retailers in 1962 and 1963. Oddly, a production sample in the Lionel Archives was dated 9-21-65. Was someone considering returning the 6050 to the cataloged line?

Even if the Lionel Savings Bank played at best a cameo role in the firm’s turbulent history in the 1960s, documents related to its design and decoration can tell us more about how new items were developed. They reinforce the point that Lionel’s engineering and sales personnel never lost their creativity and drive.

The authors thank Paul Ambrose and Ed Prendeville for their help and insights.

Algozzini; William Zuback photo Set courtesy Joe The no. 6050 Lionel Savings Bank car, a whimsical addition for 1961, appeared in only one O-27 outfit: the no. 1643 “Sky Scout.” The story behind the model’s development sheds light on how Lionel created new items. Engineers took the 81⁄ 2” long boxcar introduced in 1948 and adapted it for a saving bank car by cutting a slot for coins in its roof and adding graphics suggestive of a big city bank.

Several different designs for the graphics on the 6050 Lionel Savings Bank were suggested and eventually rejected. They included a piggy bank as well as various features on the facade and windows of the bank.

The consumer catalog Lionel released in the late summer of 1961 accurately depicted the decoration of the 6050 car. However, the black ladder on the end was never added to the body shell.

The later and more common version of the 6050, on which the lettering had been altered to “Blt By Lionel,” served as a production sample oddly set aside in September 1965.

A mock-up of the Lionel Savings Bank car showed the final version of the graphics, along with decaled lettering. This one-of-a-kind preliminary model did have “Built By Lionel.”