The Royce Files

  Home Alone was a big hit in 1990. Actually it was a massive success. For nearly 2 decades it was the highest grossing live action comedy film. And success usually begets a sequel. Culkin and much of his movie family returned for more in 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Lionel Large Scale also returned in a big way in the film and this time in its natural setting- a full layout at a toy store. There are 3 noticable toy train varieties in the Home Alone 2 scene in Duncan's Toy Chest- a Brio wooden train set, a large ride on/in train (which you almost miss), and Lionel Large Scale. The Brio gets a bulk of air time due to its placement on the set but the cameras does not dwell on it for long. That large ride on one may very well be a small amusement ride. It blends into the background and gets a few seconds. I have seen one in the guise of Thomas the Tank engine in a train show video someplace. However, for approximately 11 seconds, the Lionel trains are in the foreground ...

  Lionel's foray in the G-Scale realm between late 80s to early 90s, produced a few buildings. In fact 4 buildings were produced and they were near duplicates of kits that were produced for the O scale line. These are really fine looking models and the difference between them and their O scale counterparts is they are wood kits and include a bit more details including some brass on the doors of the engine house and shingles and window glazing, . The watchmen's shanty in O did include a figure and a dog  but all the O scale kits were plastic. I would enjoy assembling one of these kits. Like their O scale little brothers, these are sadly out of production and have been so for a long time. They occasional show up on Ebay and I suspect you may find them in some old stock at a hobby shop that has not sold off its old Lionel dead stock. Scale Model Supply in St. Paul, MN comes to mind but I am sure there are others disbursed across America. I actually have 3 of the O-scale versions....

My Lionel Large Scale Gold Rush Special on display  I found very little about Lionel's Large Scale products online so I decided to post something. In the late 1980s Lionel decided to produce a very small selection of 'G' scale trains. Lionel marketed them as Lionel Large Scale. From what I can tell from online sources, this Lionel scale was more akin to the size of the Lionel's standard gauge trains from the pre-war era and a bit smaller than the typical G trains from makers like LGB, Bachmann, or Piko. G is a sort of a catch all for those big trains you typically see in outdoor layouts- the scale can range anywhere between 1:13 up to 1:32.  The 1:32 scale is where standard gauge falls. They seem to also have been rereleasing standard gauge trains under the Lionel Classics moniker in the early Kughn era. MTH had produced standard scale trains under the Lionel brand between 2009 and 2019 and  G scale under the Rail King 1 Gauge  From reports I have seen online, L...