Lionel, LLC

Lionel, LLC, was an American company that was in the business of designing and importing toy trains and model railroads headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lied 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 Marvin Davis Investment Group (Wellspring) bought Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1995 and renamed it Lionel, LLC. In 2026, Lionel, LLC merged with Round 2, LLC forming the company Lionel Brands Group. According to its reorganization papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on May 21, 2007, about 95% of the company's sales came from O scale trains. The plan estimated that about US$70 million worth of O scale trains were sold each year, and that Lionel, LLC accounted for about 60% of that market, making it the largest manufacturer of O scale trains.