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Lionel Trains, reminding us railroads are vital to national defense, offers solution to spy balloons [1]

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Date: 2023-04-01  

Screen shot of post on Facebook April 1, 2023

In case everyone has forgotten, it was only a few weeks ago that there was much excitement/consternation over the news that a Chinese spy balloon was operating over the United States. It was ultimately shot down when it was safe to do so, but defense agencies have been scrambling amid political posturing to adopt countermeasures against further incursions.

Lionel Trains has offered up a solution to deal with the problem with a mobile defense system that makes use of America’s rail networks. (The date of the announcement on social media is probably a coincidence...)

Lionel has a tradition of stepping up when America needs its expertise — the company used its engineering and manufacturing skill to produce vital equipment for the Navy during World War Two. It has also offered a number of weapons systems in its product line over the years.

The two cars featured above are based on postwar designs. The original version of the #3470 weather balloon target car was offered from 1962 to 1964. The #6650 IRBM missile launching car was offered from 1959 to 1963. Lionel has offered several models based on these designs over the years. Add a #3540 Operating Radar Car to the above combo, and the end result would be a very mobile air defense system.

It should be noted that Lionel is not the only model railroad company offering military items. They’ve always been a staple of the toy-train industry. Desert Storm inspired a lot of toy rail products — and there are also locomotives based on real locomotives railroads have painted to show support for the military. And then there are some that take things to the next level, like this 2011 offering from Lionel.

If this kind of effort proposed by Lionel seems unlikely, in the 1980s the Air Force was actually developing a “Peacekeeper” missile launch system that would have put nuclear-armed intercontinental missiles in special rail car sets that would have allowed them to be readily moved around so that a Russian first strike couldn’t be sure of taking them out. A number of U.S. missile bases were slated to host such systems. The program was eventually canceled, but the prototype box car survived and is now at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

If the Lionel set shown above may be intended as something in keeping with today’s date, well who knows? The idea is cute enough that they may be forced by popular demand to go ahead with production. And what would be the ultimate irony, a lot of their production comes out of China, although that may be shifting.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/1/2161479/-Lionel-Trains-reminding-us-railroads-are-vital-to-national-defense-offers-solution-to-spy-balloons

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