1919 Lionel Advertisement for Contract work

[Terry]

Here's  a Lionel ad offering contract work. From the Jan. 30th 1919 Automotive Industries magazine. This would have been at the end of the peak train season and might have been Lionel's way to keep the factory working.

I wonder if they actually did make anything? If so, what was it?

 

Same thing but full page showing other similar ads:

 

This is from an eBya auction listing

[early0electric]

Hi Terry, I bought this ad. I get notices from eBay on various searches and hadn't gotten to them yet when I saw your post. I would have bought it anyway when I reviewed my search. Thanks for jogging my mind. This fits right in with my paper collection. I have 250 or so Lionel ads from 1914 to 1927. I checked with Joe Mania and he's never seen any evidence (till now) that Lionel ever solicited anything but Government work. Who else did they do work for? I have no idea but apparently they were out beating the bushes.

[Terry]

Great. I find this stuff fascinating, but don't feel the need to own it.

What I like is it opens up new areas to think about.

As for other work they did, I don't know, but you might find similar ads in other trade oriented magzines. I'd look in Jan - March issues. With the ad clippers on eBay maybe this is a one time attempt?

Also this ad says modern factory. When was the factory built? Maybe they built the factory oversized so they could grow into it, and  were trying to cover the excess capacity?

Neat stuff.

[early0electric]

The guy put another one up! Must have a stash of those magazines.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/UNUSUAL-ORIGINAL-LIONEL-FACTORY-PRODUCTION-ADVERTISEMENT-FROM-1919-NO-RESERVE/303809826894?hash=item46bc7a104e:g:tN8AAOSwRYZf1rGy

[early0electric]

I took another look, it's a different seller!

[Terry]

Looks like there are/were THREE OF THEM. Same ad in three issues.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=lionel+ADVERTISEMENT+1919&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=+FACTORY+PRODUCTION+ADVERTISEMENT+1919&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1

We call that ebay arbitrage.

Automotive Industries Magazine

Jan. 30th 1919  shown in post above.

Feb 20th:
 

Feb 27th.
 

Looks like a weekly magazine so there should be ones for 2-13 and 2-6.