The INNOVATIVE Lionel Electronics Set: the 1946-48 Set That Used COMMAND CONTROL

A Special Collector Set from 1946--the FIRST set in 1946!

When reopening after being closed for World War 2, Lionel came back with a BANG with the ELECTRONIC SET, set# 4109WS. This set used vacuum tube technology to allow remote control ANYWHERE on the layout via ECUs--Electronic Control Units (receivers). It sent unique frequencies through the rails to initiate specific actions anywhere you wanted. Buttons on the ECU-1 transmitter/controller were color coded to the stickers on the engine and cars, and there were even EXTRA buttons so you could program MORE CARS!

What could you control?

Uncoupling of cars, operating the dump car, controlling the engine's direction, and blowing the whistle in the tender.

The 1946 set, set #4109WS, featured the smoke bulb version of the 671R steam turbine 6-8-6. The engine can be run conventionally or with the Electronic Set--you just unplugged the tender plug and moved the plug from the locomotive into the other receptacle in the back. 

The cars were a Baby Ruth boxcar, Pennsylvania gondola, automatic dump car, and a metal Pennsylvania caboose.

They tried again in 1948 with set #4110WS and used the updated 671 as well as the more common SP style caboose. 

All cars had special catalog numbers: 4424W, 4452, 4454, 5459, 4457, etc. 

Why didn't it last?

For one, it was very expensive. At $150 in the mid 1940's, you were looking at about $2500 today's money!

Second, it was (and is) finicky. The track better be kept real clean, the receivers were finicky, and the tube in the controller needed replacing at times.

But it remains one of "those" sets that collectors want to have to represent the depth of Lionel's early innovation and technology and the FIRST set with COMMAND CONTROL.

Check it out in our listings here: Lionel Electronic Set

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