I was on vacation in NH last week and had a chance to visit the NH Boat Museum in Wolfeboro.
They had a special display of toy boats this summer and I was floored when I came across a display of boats that Lionel had originally made in the 30's/40's and then re-issued in 1991.
I guess it's true, we learn something new every day.
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Are you sure they are not the Lionel Corporation Boats issued by MTH under the license agreement? MTH release quite of few of these over the years.
Hi Marty,
The box says "Lionel Electric Trains - Lionel Corporation Tinplate".
According to the display, these were made in two versions from '33 to '41 by Lionel Craft, which was a division of Lionel Train Company and they made tinplate toy boats. The originals are in the rear of the picture and the re-pops in the foreground.
The newer ones were re-issued in 1991 by Lionel Trains, but I suppose they could have been subbed out to MTH. The originals were the #43 runabout and the #44 race boat.
The display states that the boats are powered by a clockwork wind-up motor that runs for 4 minutes. You can adjust the rudder to run in circles or let it go straight and it will run 100' and then turn around automatically and head back to shore. (Not sure how comfortable I'd be with that !!)
Ives made boats too.
Didn't see any Ives boats, but then again I wasn't really looking for anything train related when I came across the separate Lionel Trains display.
The show flyer was a little misleading when it said that there were over 250 toy boats on display in that maybe 150 were just tiny plastic unmarked shells - like a 2"-4" Walmart toy - and about 100 "real/operating" toy boats and motors. The display of model engines on stands was outstanding, though.
From the picture at least one of those boats looks like a MTH/Lionel corp boat judging from the box in the back. My guess would be the white one on the right. The one on the left is probably the remake from the 90's. I'm pretty sure the #44 hasn't been made under the MTH/Lionel agreement in 2009. The 2 in the back I think is safe to say are originals back when Lionel was making there own tinplate.
I have a re-issue. It is identical to the #44 boat except that it is numbered l-44.
Norm
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