I recently noted that there had been a forum discussion wondering what year American OO was featured in Classic Toy Trains. Lionel OO gauge was the cover story of their September, 1993 issue, seen here.

It is a great introductory article with great photos in particular of most everything Lionel made. To cut right to the chase, if you are interested in Lionel OO you need this article and back issues of CTT are not particularly hard to purchase. There are probably little things that could be revised, but on the whole again the text is pretty solid (author John A. Grams makes reference to the two part TCA Quarterly series which I wrote with the late Ed Morlok that was published in their October, 1986 and April, 1987 issues, so he did his homework) and it put out the topic of American OO to a broader audience. And did I mention the great photos? It is a must have article for photos of great examples of Lionel OO. 

It would be wonderful to see American OO featured as a cover story again! As to this specific article, regular readers of American OO Today might note one flaw, the idea that it was “too little, too early.” Nason had American OO in production by 1934 and Scale Craft was offering American OO gauge train sets in 1937, so in respects Lionel was not too early, they were playing catch up. They clearly wanted in on the scale  model market and thought OO the better bet than HO.

Not so many people are getting into OO these days and a part of it for sure is limited contact with the scale. I would encourage readers out there to spread the word! Of course I am biased; I got bit by the OO bug years ago and think it is great stuff.