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Lionel, LLC
Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerate General Mills and subsequent purchase in 1986 by businessman Richard P. Kughn forming Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1986. The Martin Davis Investment Group (Wellspring) bought Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1995 and renamed it Lionel, LLC. According to its reorganization papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on May 21, 2007, about 95% of the company's sales come from O gauge trains. The plan estimated that about US$70 million worth of O gauge trains are sold each year, and that Lionel accounts for about 60% of that market, making it the largest manufacturer of O gauge trains. Lionel Eras Early History MPC/General Mills era (1970–1986) Lionel Corporation sold the tooling for its then-current product line and licensed the Lionel name to Gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trainmaster Command Control
Trainmaster Command (TMCC) is Lionel's electronic control system for O scale 3-rail model trains and toy trains that mainly ran from 1994 to 2006. Conceptually it is similar to Digital Command Control (DCC), the industry's open standard used by HO scale and other 2-rail DC trains. It has one advantage over DCC, in that TMCC-equipped locomotives can run simultaneously with non-TMCC locomotives and Lionel Legacy engines as well as LionChief and LionChief Plus equipped locomotives. The latter require a dedicated remote controller. MTH Corporation's DCS controller can be configured to control TMCC locomotives, and all four systems (TMCC, Legacy, LionChief/LionChief+ and DCS) can be operated on the same track simultaneously. Each simply requires a constant track voltage (18 volts). TMCC/Legacy "broadcasts" its signal to the antenna on the locomotives which listen for signals that first identify the particular locomotive by number and then it issues given commands as to speed, directio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 1951 and its predecessor, ''Marvel Mystery Comics'', the ''Marvel Comics'' title/name/brand was first used in June 1961. Marvel was started in 1939 by Martin Goodman (publisher), Martin Goodman as Timely Comics, and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics (1950s), Atlas Comics. The Marvel era began in June 1961 with the launch of ''The Fantastic Four'' and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. The Marvel brand, which had been used over the years and decades, was solidified as the company's primary brand. Marvel counts among List of Marvel Comics characters, its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor, Doc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others. The trademark owner can be an individual, business organization, or any legal entity. A trademark may be located on a package, a label, a voucher, or on the product itself. Trademarks used to identify services are sometimes called service marks. The first legislative act concerning trademarks was passed in 1266 under the reign of Henry III of England, requiring all bakers to use a distinctive mark for the bread they sold. The first modern trademark laws emerged in the late 19th century. In France, the first comprehensive trademark system in the world was passed into law in 1857. The Trade Marks Act 1938 of the United Kingdom changed the system, permitting registration based on "intent-to-use", creating an examination based process, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athearn
Athearn is a United States manufacturer of model railroad equipment, produced and distributed by American hobby manufacturer Horizon Hobby, Inc. of Champaign, Illinois. History In 1938 Irvin Athearn built a detailed O scale model railroad layout in his mother's house, which gained an overwhelming response when he placed an advertisement to sell it. Deciding to make his career selling model railroad supplies, he became a full-time retailer in 1946. Athearn opened a separate facility in Hawthorne, California, in 1948, and that same year he branched into HO scale models for the first time. Athearn acquired the Globe Models product line in 1951 and improved upon it, introducing a comprehensive array of locomotive, passenger, and freight car models. Improvements included all-wheel drive and electrical contact. One innovation was the "Hi-F" drive mechanism, employing small rubber bands to transfer motion from the motor spindle to the axles. Another was the double-ended ring magnet motor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and Southern United States. Founded in 1862, the original Union Pacific Rail Road was part of the first transcontinental railroad project, later known as the Overland Route. Over the next century, UP absorbed the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, the Western Pacific Railroad, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. In 1996, the Union Pacific merged with Southern Pacific Transportation Company, itself a giant system that was absorbed by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trade Secret
Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that includes formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily ascertainable by others, and which the owner takes reasonable measures to keep secret. Intellectual property law gives the owner of a trade secret the right to restrict others from disclosing it. In some jurisdictions, such secrets are referred to as confidential information. Definition The precise language by which a trade secret is defined varies by jurisdiction, as do the particular types of information that are subject to trade secret protection. Three factors are common to all such definitions: A trade secret is information that * is not generally known to the public; * confers economic benefit on its holder the information is not publicly known; and * where the holder makes reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. In internation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MTH Electric Trains
MTH Electric Trains is an American toy train and model railroad designer, importer, and manufacturer. A privately held company based in Columbia, Maryland, MTH was formerly known as Mike's Train House. Early career MTH's founder, Mike Wolf, started assembling and selling trains at the age of 12 in 1973 for Williams Electric Trains, which had begun producing reproductions of vintage trains manufactured by Lionel Corporation, in the early 1970s. By 1980, Wolf was operating a mail order business selling Williams trains and parts out of his bedroom in his parents' home. When Williams decided to end its line of Lionel Standard gauge and O gauge reproductions, Wolf bought the tooling and continued building the replicas. Although many published reports have stated that Williams had acquired original Lionel tooling, both Wolf and Jerry Williams deny this claim. From 1983 to 1987, MTH marketed the reproduction trains on its own. In 1987, Lionel approached Samhongsa, MTH's subcontractor in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S Scale
S scale (or S gauge) is a model railroad scale modeled at 1:64 scale, S scale track gauge (space between the rails) is 22,48 (22,5) mm, 0.885 in. S gauge trains are manufactured in both DC and AC powered varieties. S gauge is not to be confused with '' toy train standard gauge'', a large-scale standard for toy trains in the early part of the 20th century. History S scale is one of the oldest model railroading scales. The earliest known 1:64 scale train was constructed from card stock in 1896. The first working models appeared in England in the early 20th century. Modeling in S scale increased in the 1930s and 1940s when CD Models marketed 3/16" model trains. American Flyer was a manufacturer of standard gauge and O gauge "tinplate" trains, based in Chicago, Illinois. It never produced S scale trains as an independent company. Chicago Flyer was purchased by A.C. Gilbert Co. in the late 1930s. Gilbert began manufacturing S scale trains around 1939 that ran on three rail "O" gauge tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
K-Line
K-Line Electric Trains is a brand name of O gauge and S gauge model railway locomotives, rolling stock, and buildings. Formerly the brand name under which Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based MDK Inc. sold its products, K-Line was then acquired by Sanda Kan, a Chinese toy manufacturer that formerly acted as K-Line's subcontractor. Sanda Kan had licensed the use of the K-Line brand and intellectual property to Lionel. More recently, the Lionel license expired, and Sanda Kan sold the dies to several other companies, with some going to each of Atlas, Bachmann, and RMT. Establishment MDK was founded in 1975 by Maury D. Klein. Like competitor MTH Electric Trains, MDK was a large Lionel dealer, and its mail-order ads appeared in magazines such as Model Railroader in the late 1970s. MDK first used the K-Line name on a line of aftermarket Lionel-compatible tubular track as well as a copy of the A.C. Gilbert American Flyer line of two-rail S-Gauge track which Maury Klein acquired at Gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viacom (2005–present)
Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Paramount Global and TV18 in India ** Viacom18 Studios, the film subsidiary of Viacom18 See also * CBS (other) * Paramount (other) * Paramount Global Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ..., an American media conglomerate known as ViacomCBS until 2022 {{Disambiguation Paramount Global ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf+Western
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an American conglomerate. Originally, the company focused on manufacturing and resource extraction. Beginning in 1966, and continuing throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the company purchased a number of entertainment companies, most notably Paramount Pictures in 1966, Desilu Productions in 1967, and a number of record companies, including Dot Records (a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures at the time of purchase) and Stax Records. These became the nuclei of Paramount Television and Paramount Records respectively. The company sold its non-publishing and entertainment assets through the course of the 1980s, with the company re-branding itself as Paramount Communications in 1989. A controlling interest of Paramount Communications was purchased by Viacom in 1994, and the entertainment assets of Gulf and Western are today part of the media conglomerate Paramount Global (also used the Paramount name as the holding compan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
